Social Engagement of Religious Education teachers in the Archdiocese of Split-Makarska

Sažetak

Immersion of the Church in a particular cultural context and social life is a specific way of spreading the Kingdom of God on earth. If it was not recognized in the concrete social life and did not seek to gain social relevance, the Christian faith would turn into self-sufficiency and an emphasized subjectivism. Taking into consideration the needed social incarnation of Christian faith as one of its essential elements, this paper aims to explore, present and analyse the engagement of Religious Education (RE) teachers in the Archdiocese of Split-Makarska in order to evaluate their role in modern society. Divided into three parts, this paper deals with the social sensitivity, awareness and involvement of RE teachers into various fields of social life. In the first part of the paper, the authors describe of the lay faithful’s position and role throughout history and their mission in the Church and in society on the basis of the Conciliar documents. The second part focuses on the role of RE teacher as an outstanding layperson in modern society. The third part provides the survey findings referring to a concrete engagement of RE teachers in extracurricular activities at their schools i.e. in different areas of life such as culture, social work, political life and the media, according to personal preferences. The authors applied theological-pastoral approach and the Web-based survey.