Problem context

In the context of religious education, the study of sacred buildings of different religions is fundamental. In particular, the real encounter with a testimony of authentic, lived religiosity, as reflected in these buildings, is considered to have great potential for interreligious encounters and religious learning. At many university locations, however, this is only possible in time-consuming and cost-intensive excursions. Digital representations of these sacred buildings could provide a remedy here. However, existing representations of synagogues, mosques and temples are at best geared towards tourist interests. As a result, although the few sacred spaces that can be visited digitally are virtually accessible, they are not didactically prepared in such a way that learning beyond mere observation is possible. There is therefore a need for digital representations of sacred buildings that satisfy the principles of sacred space education.

This balance proves to be ambivalent. On the one hand, given the technical possibilities available today, it is comparatively easy to digitize sacred spaces and design them with learning tools. Which tools are chosen and how they are used in the virtual tours can be derived from existing didactic concepts of sacred space pedagogy. On the other hand, the question arises as to whether and how the principles and tasks that have proven their worth in encounters in real space also have an effect in virtual space. In particular, the auratic dimension of such encounters could prove challenging in virtual space.

Project objective

This project addresses these challenges on a didactic level. It offers prospective religious education teachers the technical and conceptual prerequisites for digitizing a sacred space and transforming it into a virtual learning environment based on sacred space pedagogical principles. In the sense of research-based learning, the students meet the special challenges of digital sacred space pedagogy by transferring, testing and, if necessary, adapting proven methods and tasks of real sacred space pedagogy into the virtual space. The proposed project thus aims to achieve the following primary objectives:

• Provision of hardware and software for the digitization of sacred spaces
• Development of a seminar concept for the professionalization of prospective religious education teachers in the context of digital sacred space pedagogy

Both objectives define the sustainability of the project, as they make it possible to offer the developed seminar in the future. At the same time, they lead to the realization of the following secondary goals of the project:

• Development of principles and learning paths of a digital sacred space pedagogy
• Building up a basic stock of digital representations of sacred spaces from different religious traditions

Method

In producing the digital representations, the project draws on the two university didactic concepts of a) communities of practice (CoP) and b) design research.

Contemporary interreligious education takes place in the encounter with the testimonies and people of other religions, because only in exchange with authentic expressions of foreign religious positions and experiences can the perspective of the other religion be grasped in its own sense. Then, however, the production and selection of relevant didactic material and the arrangement of appropriate learning opportunities must already take place in the confrontation with such authentic statements. CoPs create such experiential spaces because they bring together the relevant people from a specific field of practice and enable joint reflection on this field. The project therefore brings together students studying to become teachers of religion, experts in church pedagogy and representatives of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism to discuss together how a digital representation of the respective sacred spaces can both make authentic perspectives of the associated spirituality accessible and satisfy sacred space pedagogical principles.

Design research allows the production of didactic material under constant evaluation according to rigorous, scientifically recognized standards. Through the production of digital representations of sacred spaces in the project, students therefore not only become familiar with the principles of sacred space pedagogy, but also reflect on the production processes themselves and are thus enabled to gain a meta-perspective on the possibilities and limits of religious learning using digital artifacts. The latter is a central competence of teacher professionalization.

Significance of the project

By producing digital representations of sacred spaces of other religions, the project aims to enable future religious education teachers to arrange encounters with the sacred spaces of these religions in the context of digital educational programs in religious education that are in line with sacred space pedagogical principles.

The project's approach is scalable in many respects. Firstly, it can be used in all religious education courses. Secondly, it can be made permanent in teaching, as the platform for the representations can be supplemented as required. Thirdly, the project allows cooperation with other subject didactics, as long as these include (sacred) spaces as an object of learning (e.g. art, geography, etc.). Fourthly, the project can be expanded internationally. In addition, the digital sacred spaces are also available to schools that also deal with sacred spaces as part of ethics and religious education and like to visit them (digitally).

Products

• Database of existing digital representations of sacred spaces (under construction, see below)
• Siegen learning environments in digital sacred spaces:
  • Synagogue in Mannheim
  • Mosque in Frankfurt
  • Orthodox church in Bonn
  • Reformed church in Siegen