The Understanding of Religious Education in a Country where there is Separation of Religion and State: the Example of Turkey

Abstract

After a discussion of the meaning of a number of key terms in the Turkish context, this article traces developments in Turkish religious education from the period before the First World War, through the reforms of Atatürk and into the changes which followed the Second World War. Religious education was made compulsory in 1982 and the article concludes with a discussion of the present‐day ethos of the subject.