How to Read the Quran in Religious Islamic Education: What Educators Can Learn from the Work of Mohammed Arkoun

Abstract

The study of the Quran is central to Religious Islamic Education (RIE). Exposed to different political and social pressures, teachers in RIE still struggle between traditional approaches concerning the divine nature of the Qur’an and more secular approaches emphasizing the historicity and critical analysis of the religious text. Mohammed Arkoun (d. 2010), an Algerian-born Sorbonne professor, offered a hermeneutical methodology for reading the Quran that was Western, scientific, and critical, and at the same time related to the Living Islamic Tradition, faith, and thought. The article analyzes Arkoun’s methodology for reading the Quran and its possible implications on RIE in a way that creates a space for creativity, criticism, and dialogue between worldviews and opens new possibilities for the faithful to teach and learn the Qur’an.