Seite - 23 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 03/02

Using Media to Teach Religious Studies | 23www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/2, 17–35 of the correlations between individual facts should reconstruct their complex meanings and the relevant culturally specific horizons and thus lead to un- derstanding.10 But as education scholars have long been aware, as instructors we can neither funnel knowledge nor create understanding. further limits on teaching religious studies coincide, on the one hand, with the usual limits of university-level teaching and are, on the other hand, specific to the situation of teaching religious studies: first, despite all the measures that can be taken, we cannot reach all stu- dents. Personal circumstances, learning dispositions and the above-mentioned risks of communication make a perfect mediation impossible. But by consider- ing concentration spans, the concomitant changing of social forms and shifting media support (chalkboard, moderation cards, flip charts, PowerPoint, etc.), temporary personal circumstances can be cushioned and learning dispositions addressed. furthermore, short evaluation methods at the end of the lesson (such as “one-minute papers”) can be used to identify and resolve acute points of misunderstanding. secondly, owing to factors inherent to the university context (space, time, equipment, etc.) and the complex and culturally specific character of the topic as such, it is impossible to discuss religious facts in all their complexity. that said, a didactic reduction can at least address the most relevant aspects of our object, while the use of examples or case studies can demonstrate more or less general rules, patterns and structures. Thirdly, the teaching object of religious studies is often a non-European or pre-modern phenomenon, whose “spaces of perception” are usually quite dif- ferent from our own. We thus often look at foreign cultural or religious phenom- ena in non-temporal and/or non-european contexts of meaning whose material aspects, media coding and performative contexts elicit different meanings for respective actors with different effects and triggering different emotions. Here, a form of understanding the other is required that – in light of the source mate- rial, the scientific observer perspective and epistemological hurdles – cannot be fully achieved but only be approximated. that said, since in any case the afore mentioned culture, religion, milieu and role-specific plurality even within a single religious tradition cannot be generalised, one’s own (methodically vali- dated) observations and sensory experiences can form at least a point of (medi- ally reflected and critically systematised) departure. if we consider these limits and in responding to them apply the appropriate methods and means available to us, we can create basic conditions that will ensure better acquisition of knowledge, catalyse an understanding process and promote development of the competence to analyse religious facts and apply 10 Cf. Tetens 2013, 19–23; Rudolph 1992, 76.