Education: A Forgotten Dimension of Church Identity?

In English In general churches talk a lot about the importance of education. At the same time their educational praxis is often fragmentized. The most crucial factor for this is a weak connection between the Church's identity and its activity. When this link is diffuse, different activities have a tendency to live their own lives. This article examines some basic official Church documents from half a dozen churches to find out how they express their identity and perform their educational task. From my Swedish landscape I have chosen five churches as well as two church families from the European neighborhood. The documents show divergent picturesfrom clear descriptions of education as a reflection of church identity, to a more or less independent activity. This is also demonstrated in the way the churches answer questions about teaching authorities, its nature and purpose, as well as who the learners are and the learning process.