Fundamentalism as a Challenge for Religious Education

Empirical research on fundamentalist biographies—presented are three case studies and a summary of research results—demonstrate the complex biographical-motivational factors for fundamentalist turns, but also a transformational potential. Explaining fundamentalist conversion and deconversion within a theoretical framework of fundamentalism as “modern anti-modernism” and as “dislocation of religious styles” opens up a new perspective on the goals of religious education: to transcend the teaching of pure factual knowledge, to open up an atmosphere of “care of souls,” to aim at overcoming literal understanding, and to engage in a creative laboratory for thought experiments in order to accompany fundamentalist young people into processes of transformation.