Religious education and the problem of alienation in the modernisation process of Turkey

Alienation is a widely used concept in the social sciences which can serve as an indicator of various dimensions and consequences of social change, especially during periods of rapid social changes. Alienation is the result of attributing sacred, final and unchangeable qualities to given historical and sociological reality by individuals. To ignore the contribution of human activity to formation of this reality with its institutions, symbols and rituals, gives continuity to alienation in individual consciousness and social life. Alienating trends might be developed in religious traditions and legitimated by it. Religious traditions might lead to alienation by giving rise to cultural incompatibility, norm conflict, marginalization and radical and fundamentalist attitudes. Religions may also contribute to legitimization of socio-cultural alienation through the institutional process in which the traditions have been concreted. The concept of alienation provides a functional perspective for a critical evaluation of relationship between religion and social change. Similar critical evaluations can be applied to the religious traditions and the social functions of religion and some forms of institutionalization. Taking into account the institutional representations of traditional religious thought and the policies of religion and education in modernization process in the context of the theory of alienation will be able to raise different approaches and proposals.Some aspects of traditional religious thought and practices of religious education which have led to socio-cultural alienation can be determined in terms of the essence of religious knowledge, and of cognitive content of religious education, as well as faith and doctrine. Similar results can be put forth in terms of sociological process such as religious groups, religious forms of discourse, political socialization, secularization and pluralism. In this study, the relation of traditional religious thought and religious education with the various manifestations of alienation is discussed in a perspective which takes into account the historical and sociological continuity and within the framework of Turkey?s modernization experience. Keywords: Religion, Religious Tradition, Modernization, Alienation, Religious Alienation, Religious Education, Socio-cultural Alienation