Need the Concept of ‘Personal Worldview’ be Replaced or Just Elaborated?

Abstract

Abstract The concept of ‘worldview’ is widely used today in education and religious education, including the sub-concepts of ‘personal worldview’ and ‘organized worldview’. This leaves the door open for both further reception and elaboration and, of course, also for theoretical and empirically based criticism. In her Keynote Address at the 2022 Nordic Conference on Religious Education in Riga, in June, Caroline Klintborg articulated the claim that instead of using the notion of ‘worldview’ – and its sub-concepts – there are good reasons for using the concept of ‘existential configurations’ instead. In this response I weigh the power of her argumentation, and conclude from what I coin as a form of conceptual sustainability that her conceptualization should be interpreted as an elaboration of the concept of ‘worldview’ instead of as a replacement.