Researching religious education journals: methodology and selected results from a German study

This article is based on a research project concerning the development of religious education as an academic discipline in Germany during the twentieth century. Applying a methodology that has been of growing interest in a number of fields, the project proceeded by analysing major religious education journals published between 1900 and 1975. The present report focuses on the procedures developed and used in this research project in order to make it available to others in other countries. This is why the procedures are described in detail while the material results of the study are presented only selectively, to the degree that they indicate the results that can be reached by the methodology applied, and give readers an impression of how general theories of modernization, professionalization, scientification, etc. can be used for interpreting the development of religious education as an academic discipline. The authors suggest that research of this kind may eventually create a better basis for international comparative research in religious education.