Il ruolo dell’università nella questione 'ora di religione'/'ora delle religioni': una sfida aperta

The essay reflects on the political and socio-cultural role of the university in offering an institutional subject about religions (ora delle religioni) in the secondary school, in Italy. In order to rethink and reshape the academic discipline «History of religions», the purpose of this essay is to define the epistemological status of the subject matter. This is a twofold task: ad intra, that is a sharp definition of functions and approaches, and ad extra, that is the intention to establish relations with other disciplines and to go beyond the academic boundaries towards schools and social networks. Some concrete applications are the first evidence of this step progress: the suggestion here described planes to link strongly research and teaching and to bridge the gap between university and school in Italy.