The religious education – a serious matter that has to be solved

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleРелигиозното образование – един сериозен въпрос за решаване
3. Language term Bulgarian
4. lemma author Nachev, Ivaylo
5. lemma category Education, Science and Orthodoxy
6. Publication date 13-4-2017
7. lemma work Попмаринов, Димитър [Author]. The religious education – a serious matter that has to be solved
8. lemma manifestations pravoslavie.bg
9. Keywords religious education - Bulgarian educational system
10. Url Click Here
11. Lemma body

    1. The author approached the subject with the idea that religious education is not only a subject concerning the educational system but also one that is of paramount importance for the development of Bulgarian society.

       In the first part is made an overview of the current state of key relevant civil and religious institutions and “the religious literacy” within society. The issue with the religious education remains neglected partly because of the unresolved consequences of the atheistic Communist regime. Moreover, religious matters after 1989 were left to the separated communities (so knowledge was always seen through the prism of the respective community) and thus a common vision was lacking. According to Popmarinov, only the state educational system can offer a common paradigm and a vision which is not dependent on the separate religious institutions.

       The author distinguished three groups in Bulgarian society in respect with “religious literacy”: 1) religiously educated – people related with religious institutions and having some kind of theological training; 2) non systematic religious education, religion is mostly a cultural identification, the biggest group and a very heterogeneous one; 3) atheists and agnostics. In spite of converging dynamics within the groups, religious education should be offered to the second and the third group which will help each individual to orientate within the moral values of different religious teachings. Such knowledge will contribute to the creation of an adequate to the time civil society.

       In regard to the religious institutions, the author analyzed the continuous efforts for overcoming the negative consequences of the Communist rule. The author noted some developments like the split in the Church leadership which led to institutional degradation. The negate trend made the task for defending the Orthodox position on the current problems in society and on the religious education in particular.

       The religious knowledge should be one of the fundaments of functioning civil society but due to inherited models the secular education in Bulgaria is still perceived as atheistic. The author suggested a number of points of departure for future development of religious education, including that it is among the fundamental civil and human rights and religious literacy and one of the main elements of civic literacy of our time. In addition, he briefly discussed the positive and negative sides of confessional and non-confessional teaching.