Protestant Religious Education

The Prostestant Religious Education teaching degree program prepares students to become teachers of Protestant religion at grammar and comprehensive schools. The bachelor’s degree program places greater emphasis on theological subjects (Protestant theology as an academic reflection on Protestant Christianity), while the master’s degree program focuses more on the teaching side (didactics of religion as an academic reflection on religious instruction).

Protestant theology is the reflective and scientifically responsible discourse on God from a Protestant perspective. In dialogue with other sciences and adopting their methods, theology explores the meaning of the Christian faith, for example, as part of a society’s culture (theology as the study of culture), as a possibility to understand oneself and the world (theology as a hermeneutic), or as a criterion for the practice of a religious community (theology as a reflection on religious practice).

In their study of Protestant theology students acquire academic and profession-related knowledge of Christianity as a way to find meaning in life, as a guide for how to lead their lives and find values, and as an influential factor in western culture and society. They also explore the interrelationship between the underlying conditions for and effects of acts of leading in church and social institutions.

Through the study of religious didactics, students acquire academic and profession-related knowledge about the nature and goal of education and instruction from the Protestant perspective and about the general conditions, goals, methods, and subjects in Protestant religious education.

In teaching degree programs for grammar and comprehensive schools, students choose two school subjects. Thus, in addition to Prostestant Religious Education, students are enrolled for a second subject as well as educational sciences.

Possible lines of work:

Teaching at grammar and comprehensive schools. To teach at a German public school, candidates must follow up their bachelor’s degree with a Master of Education degree program as well as practical teacher training.

Administrative specialist/coordinating function (adult education centers, church academies, museums, etc.), editing/clerical functions (publishers, libraries), archives, journalism, academia (teaching/research at universities, research institutions, etc.)