PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS - Università degli Studi di Messina

Orthodox Romans must be studied without prejudices and with the most careful analysis of all
the evidences, also to find other economic and social reasons about this conflict.
Wanda Alberts, University of Bergen, Norway
The Notion of Religion in Norwegian Syllabuses and Textbooks for RE
42
Wed 16 th , 9.00, Classroom 6
In Norway, the subject Religion, livssyn og etikk (RLE) is compulsory in the grunnskole, which
comprises the first 10 school years. The new name and syllabus for the subject (which was
called KRL, Kristendoms- religions- og livssynskunnskap until summer 2008) are the result of
a decade of negotiations about integrative religious education in Norway, which was
introduced in 1997. The subject Religion og etikk in the videregående skole, the upper
secondary school, has raised less public interest than RLE. In this paper, I am going to analyse
the notion of religion in the syllabuses for both subjects, RLE and Religion og etikk.
Furthermore, I will analyse the notion of religion in textbooks for these subjects, as it is
presented in the general introductions and as it serves as a basis for the representation of
individual religions.
Tue 15 th , 9.00, Classroom 4
A brief Report on the recent Debate about the Obligatory Subject "Ethics" in Berlin
On April 26, 2009 the inhabitants of Berlin decided in a referendum to keep the subject Ethik
(ethics), which was introduced in 2006, obligatory in the years 7-10 in Berlin schools. This
outcome was a defeat for the pressure group "pro Reli", which had initiated the referendum and
hoped to establish confessional RE as an elective that children may choose instead of Ethik. In
my brief report on the preceding events, I would like to highlight the interesting role that Berlin
(as an own federal state) has had with respect to education about religions in reunified
Germany.
Roberto Alciati, University of Torino, Italy
Teologia e Storia delle Religioni in Salvatore Minocchi
Tue 15 th , 15.00, Classroom 4
The role of Salvatore Minocchi in the Italian debate on the study of religion is well described
in the biography written by Attilio Agnoletto (Morcelliana 1964), but quite a few contributions
have been published after that research. Then, the private archive of Minocchi at the National
Library in Florence is still undervalued. The aim of this paper is to offer an analytical reading
of a specific moment in Minocchi’s biography: the Italian echo to the Réville-Harnack dispute
about the opportunity of the theological faculties (1901-1902). Thirty years after the
suppression of the theological faculties in Italy (1873), Minocchi is convinced that this
important decision do still determine the role of the research and the teaching of historicalreligious
subjects in Italy.
Wed 16 th , 11.20, Classroom 9