The purpose of this study is to investigate what kind of existential questions are presented in religion studies in the classroom and in textbooks in the subject religion in grades 4-6. The purpose is also to describe how these existential questions are presented and why. It has been shown that there is a big request of existential question from the pupils but that the teacher smay find them as a sensitive topic and seems to avoid them.

This study has the following research questions:

• What existential questions are considered important by four teachers in religion studiesclasses for grades 4-6?
• How do the four teachers reason about existential questions in the education and why?
• What kind of existential questions are presented in three selected religion studies textbooksfor grades 4-6?
• How are existential questions treated in the textbooks for religion studies in grades 4-6?

I will research this from a qualitative approach which I will interview four, grades 4-6, teachers and implement a qualitative content analysis in three religion studies textbooks. The results of this study show that the existential questions are defined differently by the four teachers and that there is no exact answer of what an existential question is except that it is aquestion about life issues. It seems to be a good way to get the pupils to reflect on eachother's experiences and existential questions in the teaching of religion in grades 4-6. Analysis of the three textbooks in this study shows that the books present different kinds ofexistential questions but rarely connects them to the religions portrayed.