The Importance of Religion for the Evaluation of Everyday Ecological Decisions by German Adolescents

Abstract

Although previous research has addressed the relationship between religion and ecology in a variety of ways, little is known concerning how religious orientation affects concrete everyday ecological decisions, although these are centrally important for environmental education. Being interested in elucidating the preconditions of ecological learning in Biology and Religious Education in schools, the authors have developed an approach based on maximum concretion with regard to the ecological decision in which the influence of religion should be evaluated. With this goal in mind, they conducted an empirical study among secondary school students in central Western Germany (N = 815), who were confronted with an everyday ecological dilemma and asked about their reasons for evaluating this situation. The results provide insight into the potential role of German young people’s religious orientations in ecological matters and call for a decisive profiling of how cross-disciplinary education can contribute to this key question for future.

Religious education for ecological sustainability: an initial reality check using the example of everyday decision-making

“…For example, it can support religiously oriented students to develop an attitude of religious stewardship, but non-religious students are also amenable to this orientation. This and other studies have shown that questions of sustainable development and climate change are increasingly perceived as religious or spiritual issues-even beyond explicit religious orientations (Altmeyer and Dreesmann 2020b;Jenkins et al 2018;Berry 2013;Sponsel 2012;Gottlieb 2006). Because of this, religious education could raise the question "how our ecological and moral imaginations might be stimulated through an encounter with these alternative [i.e.…”

Religiöse Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung

“…Das gilt zum einen für die von ihr thematisierten Glaubensinhalte. Die ökologische Situation führt zu neuen Fragen der Kinder und Jugendlichen nach Sinn, Ordnung und Hoffnung, die religiös offen sind (Altmeyer & Dreesmann, 2020). Die überkommenen religiösen Antworten auf diese Fragen können von der Krise nicht unberührt bleiben: Was bedeutet es für Gottebenbildlichkeit als Freiheit, wenn die Sünde ins Unermessliche wächst, da die drohende Apokalypse selbst zu verantworten ist?…”