Call for papers: new special issue 'Religious Congregations as Places of Religious Education'

2026-02-24

Religious Congregations as Places of Religious Education

Religious education comes in many forms and religious congregations play a special role in this field. You can find it in various locations, such as mosques, spiritual centres, synagogues, community centres and religious institutions, and it takes many different forms, including worship/liturgy, charity and community activities.

This special issue aims to examine the structures and processes of religious education within religious congregations as places of learning, focusing on various religious traditions such as Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and Catholic. The special issue will provide an overview of theoretical references, conceptual programmes and empirical findings regarding congregational education.

Individual contributions should start from a specific topic and situate it within their own discipline, based on one of the following thematic areas:

  • Working with different target groups and from an intergenerational perspective (children, young people, families, singles and seniors).
  • Examination of multi-professional teams and cooperation between different employees (e.g. volunteers and full-time staff) in congregational education programmes.
  • Congregations as actors in civil society and in social space, political education and social education programmes.
  • Programmes in the areas of sustainability, diversity or social justice, and religious peace education.
  • Religious education in the context of migration, foreignness, and integration in everyday congregational life.
  • Ecumenical learning and interreligious cooperation.
  • Gender-related practices in communities and their significance for religious education processes.
  • Negotiation practices of religious authority and their influence on congregational religious education.
  • Forms and programmes of professionalisation for congregational education.
  • Congregational education in the context of minority positions, dynamics of belonging and identity work.

The publication of the special issue follows a two-step process:

  • If you are interested in publishing an article, please send us an announcement of your contribution, including the title and a short description of no more than 200 words, by 1 April 2026 to felicitas.held@uni-bamberg.de. Acceptance of the abstract will be followed by an invitation to submit the contribution for peer review.
  • The submitted contribution will then undergo a double-blind peer review process. If the review is successful, the article will be published free of charge and made available via open access in a special issue of Religionspädagogische Beiträge.

Please follow the submission criteria of Religionspädagogische Beiträge: https://rpb-journal.de/index.php/rpb/about/submissions.

Schedule:

  • By 1 April 2026: Submission of abstract (max. 200 words) to held@uni-bamberg.de
  • By 1 May 2026: Feedback on abstracts
  • By 1 November 2026: Submission of manuscripts via the Religionspädagogische Beiträge online platform (https://rpb-journal.de/index.php/rpb/about/submissions).
  • By 1 February 2027: Feedback after review
  • By 1 May 2027: Submission of revised articles
  • Fall 2027: Publication of the special issue

Responsibility for the content of this special issue:

Dr Felicitas Held and Prof Stefanie Lorenzen (both University of Bamberg), Prof Ulrich Riegel (University of Siegen) and Prof Fahimah Ulfat (University of Münster).