The understanding of the religious form of speech in the religious education of the children of higher school age.

The thesis deals with the understanding of metaphors and symbols by children of older school age, i.e. the period of adolescence. Subsequently it turns to the conception of metaphors and symbols in individual areas of human life and thinking. It is concerned with the area of aesthetics, in particular with art, drama, music and literature. Further, it studies the conception of metaphors and symbols in philosophy, sociology, psychology (especially social and depth psychology), religion and bible studies. The practical part sums up the findings introduced in the theoretical part and infers from them the consequences for the religious pedagogy and didactics of symbol focused on the older school age. In the final part, several exemplary teaching lessons are outlined, which correspond to the introduced theoretical and practical pedagogical findings and which aim at helping the adolescents to disclose the world of metaphors and symbols not only in religious sphere