Swedish Religious Education (RE) is sometimes at risk of reinforcing prejudice through a tacit Lutheran-secular lens and the world religions paradigm, leaving pupils to view religion as distant and irrelevant (Flensner, 2024; Kittelmann Flensner, 2015). This post-doctoral project has designed and classroom-tested a didactic model that starts from pupils’ own ritualised everyday practices and prepares them for informed participation in a multireligious democracy.

The model integrates insights from research on lived religion, religious literacy and aesthetic education (Enstedt & Plank, 2018b; Hilger et al., 2010; Jahnke, 2023; McGuire, 2008; Moore, 2007). Comparative ethnography in India (Niemi, 2020) both highlights the Lutheran bias shaping Swedish RE and contributes strategies that expose learners to embodied ritual diversity, allowing them to practise conscious engagement.

Research circles with teachers at two upper-secondary schools have refined the model through iterative classroom trials, yielding preliminary data. The resulting framework offers practical tools for worldview literacy, critical reflexivity and civic responsibility.

This paper presents the model, its theoretical foundations and initial empirical insights.