On the different Levels of the Relationship between Religious Education and Politics. Observations following the Introduction of the Concept of 'interreligious Competence' into the Curricula of the University Colleges of Education in Austria

The article presents a secondary analysis of data collected in 2016/17 for a project dealing with the introduction of the concept of 'interreligious competence' into the curricula of University Colleges of Education in Austria. On the basis of Pierre Bourdieus' field theory, the authors start with references to the specific place of Religious Education in connection to the social fields of religion, academia and politics. On this basis, they underline that the concrete debates on the concept of 'interreligious competence' - within the context of it's integration into the curricula - can not be adequately understood without references to politics. Actually these debates are characterized by a two-level conflict between (a) secular and religious positions and (b) confessional and interreligious positions.