Abstract

After the terrorist attacks of September 11^th 2001, social debate on the topic of religion boiled up anew. This was provoked by the terrorists themselves, who justified their actions giving religious reasons. On this backdrop, the author of the articles considers how to distinguish fundamental from fundamentalist approaches. As an educational theorist, he emphasises that people are „doomed” to Divine revelation in the same way that God could reveal Himself only to humanity – teachable beings. Thus, in his opinion religion is a specific form of human activity (praxis) in which and through which the person gives expression to his own serendipitous existence by developing a „religious musicality” within himself. This phrase means that each individual is given a feeling of „absolute dependence” (F. Schleiermacher) on God. On this basis, the individual as a thinking being, active and reflective, should do „everything accompanied by religion, and nothing because of religion” (F. Schleiermacher). According to the author it is precisely this criterion which allows the distinction between fundamental and fundamentalist attitudes.