The integral formation of religion teachers

Abstract

A religion teacher serves as a teacher and a mentor. He should help his pupils to become friends with Christ, to learn to think and love like the Savior. A serious threat in the process of the formation of religion teachers is, on the one hand, lack of adequate anthropological and psycho-pedagogical preparation, and, on the other hand, the indiscriminate application of educational guidelines proposed by the currently popular educational systems, which scarcely rely on anthropological knowledge but rather are based on superficial vision of interpersonal relations. For this reason, professional preparation and formation of religion teachers cannot be confined to providing them with theological knowledge. Didactic and psycho-pedagogical preparation is also necessary. This paper presents the most important competencies in this respect, namely the teacher’s ability to integrally understand the pupil as well as the acquisition of basic skills related to communication in upbringing, especially empathy and assertiveness. A religion teacher who understands the pupil and his situation, and who can engage him in a dialogue, is able to fascinate the catechized students with Jesus and holiness, to which they are called.