Edwin Cox and His Views of Religious Education

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CEYLAN Y.

CUMHURIYET ILAHIYAT DERGISI-CUMHURIYET THEOLOGY JOURNAL, vol.21, no.2, pp.1161-1180, 2017 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 21 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2017
  • Doi Number: 10.18505/cuid.349135
  • Journal Name: CUMHURIYET ILAHIYAT DERGISI-CUMHURIYET THEOLOGY JOURNAL
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Page Numbers: pp.1161-1180
  • Keywords: Edwin Cox, Religious Education, Nonconfessional Approach, Secularization, Aims of Religious Education
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The present study addresses Edwin Cox's views about religious education. After introducing his life and studies, the article examines how he approached religious education on educational base and what his similar and different views with other religious educationists are. It is remarkable that Cox supports the religious educational understanding not based on belief by highlighting the secularization process and determines specific pedagogical criteria by redefining the aims of religious education on an educational base in the framework of his understanding. By referring the search results, he argues that traditional religious education embraces teaching of doctrines and rituals of Christianity is ineffective for students in learning major religious concepts. In addition, he reasseses fundamental hypothesis and aims shaping the traditional religious education. In order to save religious education's position in the program, he states that religious education needs to be developed with an educational approach and its aims should be reformed.