Does Religious Education Have a Future in 21th Century? An Anthropologist on the Continued Relevance of Islamic Education

Abstract

This article argues the Islamic education of the past to have a future in contemporary times. The faith-based resources the educational tradition provides have the potential to reconnect the moral and professional sides of education for various productive roles in modern society. In the contemporary scenario where moral conduct and professional-occupational performance are disunited both conceptually and institutionally, Islamic education faces a challenge to its own relevance. The paper attempts to correct the stereotyping of Islamic education by drawing examples from varied contexts of the transmission of sacred knowledge through different institutional forms. The analysis seeks to recover what the discourse on the reform of Islamic education has ignored. The challenge before Islamic education is how to provide its bearers the conceptual means to make sense of the environing world while remaining steadfast in harboring moral virtue as a skill in the making of modern civilization. One response is to attend to the tools of social science not only for making sense of the modern world but also for engaging in a conversation with scholarly traditions outside the religious sphere. This should help develop the mutual sharing of discursive resources for common purposes between religion and the modern public sphere.