Original scientific paper
The Religion Teacher and the Values of Croatian society
Špiro Marasović
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet, Sveučilište u Splitu
Abstract
In this article the author researches the integration of faith in contemporary Croatian society from the view point of school religion teachers. In answering this question, the author first highlights the typical misunderstandings between the Church and democratic society, or between the Church and liberal values, through which society functions. The author first looks to the Second Vatican Council for an answer to the problem, followed by an analysis of the real and formal values of Croatian society. In the third part the author engages these values with the character and apostolate of the school religion teacher. The conclusion which comes to light as a result of the methodology in this article is that the integration of faith in Croatian societal culture is not only lacking, but even more so, no effort has been made in this area. There are several reasons for this: a weak sense of democratic consciousness and democratic participation in society; a very clerical Church, and as a direct consequence ecclesial associations, which are an integral part of civil society, are not socially effective; an overly high authoritarian consciousness amongst students of theology and catechesis, and thus amoungst religion teachers; a lack of concrete parish support and witness in the formation of the religion teacher for social competance, which is in turn a result of a lack of interest on the part of the clerical level of the Church in Croatia for this problem. Thus, both religion students and religion teachers are afflicted by "cognitive stress", a chronical illness mentioned in the first part of the article.
Keywords
Democracy; liberalism; human rights; values; religion teacher; parish community; witnessing
Hrčak ID:
113150
URI
Publication date:
24.9.2008.
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