Theological and Social Perspectives on Islamıc Religious Education

Mizrap Polat Esma Sayın Fatma Asiye Şenat Mine Gölcü Aytekin Demircioğlu Abdulkadir Çekin Ali Kuzudişli Ali Çetin Rabiye Çetin Halis Adnan Arslantaş Yıldız Kızılabdullah Şahin Kızılabdullah Tecelli Karasu Hamza Aktaş Aynur Kurt

It is a well-known fact that the first verse and command of Quran is "read!". The command of "read!" is not only about reading Quran and other books but also about reading people and time because no religion can exist without human beings and a religion becomes meaningful and exists in connection with the human beings. Also, reading a human being means reading not only the environment affecting and surrounding him/her but also the events s/he experiences. The reading in this context includes grasp of globalization, information technology, mechanized life, new political and social interpretations and setting values, as well as understanding communication and interaction of all those mentioned with human's physical and spiritual lives. I think religious education is a combination of the actions taken to fulfil the comprehensive command of reading. Education is beyond giving information and points out the determination of making people wiser: that's why, it cares about human beings, and it has to care about everything related to humanity. The educational efforts regard human beings as "caliphs of Allah on earth", an expression of Quran , and respect them while trying to enable them to folfill the "entrustment" they have been charged with. What modern education actually means is the reading mentioned above when referring to the concepts, such as equipping students with competence, learner-oriented education, values education and so on.