Empowering young people to bridge the gap between knowledge and action is the programme of the UN initiative ‘Education for Sustainable Development’, which should become an important aspect of spirituality in schools. Representatives will be discussing this from September 30th to October 2nd, 2024 at the Nuremberg Forum 2024.

Erlangen-Nuremberg, September 26th, 2024 Rapid media growth is enabling people to better understand and comprehend cause and effect relationships. The UN initiative „Education for Sustainable Development“ was launched in 2020. The focus is on empowering people to understand the impact of their own actions on the world. To make responsible, sustainable decisions on this basis. This knowledge is to be imparted to children and young people in schools and educational institutions.

However, Prof Dr Manfred Pirner, religious education teacher at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), is currently working on what young people need to know to achieve this and how curricula should be designed. Together with representatives of different religions and spiritual communities, they are working on recommendations for such curricula.

When asked why spirituality should play a role in education for sustainable development, Prof Pirner says: „We are faced with the problem of a knowledge-action gap: we all know that we actually need a different way of life, a different kind of economy and politics in order to really overcome the ecological crisis – but we are not acting accordingly. And this is also because we are not getting to the deeper questions, which can be described as spiritual questions: What is really important in life? What constitutes a successful life? How does our relationship with nature shape our lives? What is the meaning of economy? What should be its goal? Happiness research shows, for example, that more and more, faster and faster, richer and richer does not necessarily make us happier. Spiritual traditions convey the experience that a simple, slowed-down life that is mindful and close to nature can provide more fulfilment. Tapping into such experiences and insights is more promising than the incessant moral demands: You should actually consume less, produce less rubbish, drive less and so on.“

A dialogue with various representatives is to take place at the Nuremberg Forum in the near future. „We want to bring together representatives from different religions and secular world views, but also from different cultures, for example from indigenous peoples and communities, in a scientifically based dialogue. Spirituality is not simply something irrational. There are numerous empirical-scientific studies that show that the sustainable way of life practised in harmony with nature by the Aborigines in Australia as well as by tribal peoples in Africa or America is based on their spiritual faith traditions. However, ecologically relevant views can also be found in the major world religions, such as the belief that God created the world to be good and valuable and that humans are responsible for it. The global organisation Religions for Peace, with which we are organising the conference, rightly emphasises that religions have also been custodians of nature for thousands of years. We can use these perspectives today more than ever. Spirituality makes sense,“ says Prof Priner.

Programm Nuremberg Forum:
https://www.evrel.phil.fau.de/nuernberger-forum/nuremberg-forum-2024/

Furher Information

https://www.evrel.phil.fau.de/nuernberger-forum/nuremberg-forum-2024

ImmageSource
Prawny Pixabay