Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
The International Congress on Higher Religious Education, İstanbul, Türkiye, 17 - 19 Kasım 2017, ss.159-173
This paper will begin by briefly examining the historical development and the structure of the Ilahiyat Faculty in the Turkish Republic. The aim of the paper is to offer an analysis of the current situation of
the pedagogy (i.e. the structure, method and practice of offering educational theoretical concepts) of the
Ilahiyat faculties at the undergraduate level in Turkish Higher Education Institutions. Therefore, the paper
will attempt to explore the Ilahiyat disciplines offered and the relations of these disciplines to an overall
pedagogy. This will lead to an attempt to find some underpinning relations between the subjects of Islamic
Studies (Basic or Fundamental Islamic Sciences), Religious Studies, and the Social Sciences.
Even though the study of Religion in Higher Education Institutions in Turkey today is carried out in Theology Faculties, they largely lay emphasis on the study of Islam. Since 1992 the main departments of Ilahiyat
faculties across the country have been standardised into three main departments: Basic Islamic Sciences,
Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Islamic History and Arts. The Bachelor of Art degree for the undergraduate students is standardised throughout the whole country as a four-year course, and all students are
obliged to take modules from each department.
This paper will critically evaluate the role of the Faculty of Ilahiyat in developing the academic and the
practical studies of Islam and the social sciences of religion at the undergraduate level. At times the paper
will compare this structure with the pedagogy of Islamic studies and Religious studies within the Western
academic arena. For example, it could be argued that the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
in Turkey are very similar to a Religious Studies departments in the United Kingdom, where modules such as
philosophy of religion, psychology of religion, sociology of religion, epistemology of religion, and history of
philosophy are taught. Furthermore, the department of Basic Islamic Sciences is very similar to the Islamic
Studies department in the United Kingdom. However, there are also distinct differences with regards to the
subjects taught and the overall aim of the curriculum. Thus, this paper represents a contemporary attempt
of mapping the study of Islam and the related study of religion subjects at the Ilahiyat Faculties in Turkey.