On the Need of Tolerance in the Catechist’s Service

Abstract

Social-cultural transformations in the modern world play an important role not only in education and general socialization, but also decide about the teachers’ axiological preferences and attitudes. They also have a significant effect on the quality of catechization, mainly on the range of the catechist’s didactic and educational tasks at school. The task connected with education of children and adolescents in the spirit of tolerance should be included here. However, the point is not to be adjusted to the commonly propagated slogans, in which tolerance is understood very widely, but it is the attitude that is the expression of properly understood tolerance, based on Christian axiology. Hence, the aim of the present study is to refer to the issues connected with transmission of knowledge and with shaping socially desired attitudes of tolerance among the catechized pupils. First the concept of “tolerance”, and then the features distinguishing the attitude of tolerance among catechists are described. Against this background the role of tolerance in school catechesis and the ways of forming tolerance in the catechized pupils are described.