The fall of the Berlin Wall three decades ago: Repercussions for Christian education in Hungary and South Africa

Abstract

The study reported in this article centred on the question of whether one could speak of a rebirth of Christian education in South Africa and Hungary respectively after the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Although the two countries are geographically far removed from each other, on two different continents and with different backgrounds, histories and social contexts, developments regarding Christian education in both were deeply affected by the Fall of the Wall in 1989, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. While one could conditionally speak of a rebirth of Christian education in Hungary, the same cannot be said of the situation in South Africa where religion and religious education were relegated away from the public school to the private sphere of the parental home and religious institutions. This might have contributed to the current deplorable state of morality in the country.

Keywords

• Hungary
• South Africa
• Christian education
• Religion
• Religious education
• Berlin Wall
• Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
• Morality