Lekcje historii a katecheza biblijna w gimnazjum

Abstract

The present publication deals with the problem of interdisciplinar correlation between the biblical catecheses and the history lessons at school. Catechetical documents point to the necessity of corelating biblical catecheses with other subject taught at school. This results from an assumption that religion teaching should not be placed “outside” other school subjects as something additional, but it should constitute a part of the necessary interdisciplinar dialogue. Although many various correlations are possible, the most desired one is the correlation between biblical catecheses and the history lessons. Both subjects have many common references. According to the bases of general education, programs concerning history teaching assign relatively much time for the ancient history. Books contain many materials useful for presenting the Ancient East civilizations, including biblical countries as Palestine, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Persia, Assyria, Egypt, as well as ancient Greece and Rome. Books contain also illustrations and historical maps, lacking in the corresponding books for religion teaching. The paper focuses on the three functions of correlation: the integrating, the completing, and the polemic ones. The significance of correlation in the biblical education of pupils has been discussed. Examples of applying the integrating, the completing, and the polemic correlation have been presented. School history books can be used and should be used in the course of biblical catechesis. A catechist should be familiar with their contents and, as the need arise, should apply the integrating, the completing, and sometimes also the polemic correlation. It is however difficult to point out to a particular school history book which would fully satisfy the demands o f the biblical catechesis. This paper is focused on the two school history books intended for secondary schools and describes problems of ancient civilizations presented by these books.