Minseok Kang

The Public Religious Education in the Closed Society: The Role of The Religious Education Magazine "The Christian Teaching" in The GDR

Personal Information:

Mineok Kang

m.kang@uni-jena.de

Research interests related to Diaspora:

Religious minorities
Church in the GDR
Religion in communist states

Provisional working title: The Public Religious Education in the Closed Society: The Role of The Religious Education Magazine "The Christian Teaching" in The GDR

In the planned dissertation project, the location and role of the journal "Die Christenlehre" in the GDR are to be examined. Specifically formulated: With critical reference to Jürgen Habermas' socio-philosophical term 'public', the aim is to investigate the extent to which the journal "Die Christenlehre" in the GDR contributed to the emergence of a public sphere in the GDR.

So far, many studies have examined the situation of Christian teaching in the GDR in relation to the concept of "Diaspora". The term diaspora (Bodenstein 1981, p.186ff.; Krusche 1974, p.208; Reiher 1978, p.65) became the guiding concept to interpret the church's marginalization process in the secular, ideology-determined society. In the planned dissertation project, Christian teaching in the GDR will be explained in connection with the term 'Diaspora'. Participation in the Christian doctrine and the Confinnands class was already taking a position in the diaspora, a way of confessing (Heron, 1998, p. 130). The conceptual development of the Christian doctrine in socialism develops in the field of tension of the double identity between a member of society and a Christian.

For this purpose, the planned study is to be carried out on the basis of historical discourse analysis and content analysis as a research method.

Based on the overview of the problem and the state of research presented above, two hypotheses can be set that are central to the planned work: 1) The church in the diaspora situation is to be understood as a public sphere within a closed society, while religious education plays with the public sphere itself is connected. 2) The magazine "Die Christenlehre" in the diaspora situation functioned as print media promoting public communication among the public and dealing with public educational issues not limited to the national sphere and traditional Christian content.

Keywords: Christian doctrine, the Magazine "Christian doctrine", The public, Ecumenical learning, Church in the GDR.

Project duration:

Funding: State Graduate Scholarship