Il metodo normale tra Prussia e Austria nel XVIII secolo

The article traces the origins of the normal method from Halle and Berlin to Sagan and then to Vienna, highlighting its Protestant matrix while also emphasizing the consistency with which Johann Ignaz Felbiger applied it, adapting it to a Catholic population, for both elementary and catechetical teaching. Felbiger’s cultural endeavor was part of the Catholic Enlightenment and the Theresian policy of religious and educational reform, which must be examined together. The adoption of a new didactic approach not only introduced innovative and effective tools for classroom control – many of which are still in use today – but also accelerated learning and facilitated the transmission of moral and religious content more effectively. The control of education, as mandated by the Theresian law of 1774, was instrumental to the jurisdictionalist project of rationalization, centralization, and strengthening of state structures, which relied on the support of religious personnel, though subordinated to state control. The emergence of modern schooling took place within both a pedagogical and religious framework, shaping both educational and political thought.