Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
DINBILIMLERI AKADEMIK ARASTIRMA DERGISI-JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN RELIGIOUS SCIENCES, cilt.21, sa.1, ss.9-38, 2021 (ESCI)
Aims of the Turkish higher religious education have been profoundly changed by the dynamics of political and intellectual transformations during the Republican period, particularly in the early multi-party period. This paper aims to present a cross-section of this change by analyzing Turk Dusuncesi [Turkish Thought] Journal, which meticulously addressed the ongoing discussion topics during its publication period between 1953 and 1960 under the editorship of Peyami Safa. The Journal provides the researchers with a stimulating resource that offers a different viewpoint focused on community development in a period that witnessed the revival of religious education. The thematic analysis conducted in the Journal discloses that the three following interrelated themes were given particular importance by the authors in order to define the aims of the higher religious education: production of sound religious knowledge, enlightenment of the community, and translation of the Quran. These themes, which were particularly suggested by one of the Journal's authors, Baltacioglu, prove that the aims of higher religious education institutions were re-defined in order to achieve the Turkish community development. In this regard, the faculty of theology undertakes a principal role in the realization of religious advancement, consequently the community development by assuring the sound translation of the sacred text.