Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies Abroad in Theology: The Case of Germany

Abstract

Germany is one of the Western countries where undergraduate and graduate education is given at the university level in the field of Islamic Theology. Germany deserves special attention because of the more than five million Muslim population it hosts and because it has a well-established tradition in orientalist studies of Islam. In addition, the Muslim population of Turkish origin due to business immigration from Turkey that started in the 1960s, the recommendation of the Science Council in 2010, and the Islamic Theology Centers opened with the financial support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, highlight the example of Germany in our paper. It is possible to talk about an Islamic theological education in Germany that is structured in three ways. The first is the Oriental Institute, which was established as a sub-discipline of the Christian teleology department at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen as early as 1477. In addition to the Orientalist departments working with an orientalist perspective, the “Islamic Sciences/Islamwissenschaft” departments exist in more than 20 universities today and the “Islamic Theology Institutes/Centers,” which started to be opened in the early 2000s, are the third structure. In our paper, we will focus on Islamic Sciences departments instead of Orientalist departments, which are shaped with an orientalist perspective, and Islamic Theology, which was established primarily to train Islamic religion teachers and religious officials. There are Bachelor’s and Master's Degrees in different universities and colleges named Islamic Sciences, Islamic Religious Education, Islamic Studies, Islamic-Religious Studies, Islamic Oriental Studies, Asian Studies, Arabic Studies, Iranian Studies, Turkish History Studies, Languages and Cultures of the Islamic World, Religious Sciences. In addition, there are master's degree programs in the names of the Modern Islamic World, the Islamic World in the Modern Era, Arab-Islamic-Semitic Studies, and the Diversity of the Islamic World. It should be accepted that these faculties will have different contributions to Islamic Theology in accordance with their founding goals, mission, and curricula and that they should have mutual relations with the Faculties of Theology / Islamic Sciences in Turkey. Our communique aims to discuss the contribution of Theological education in Germany to Theological education in Turkey, taking into account the differences between the Faculties of Islamic Sciences and Theology. Despite the Islamic Sciences Departments, where academics and students do not have to be Muslim, Islamic Theology Centers take into account the views of religious communities in Germany while forming their academic staff in accordance with the aims of training religious officials/imams. In addition, while a “denominational” education is emphasized in the departments that provide teacher education, a “supra-sectarian” education emphasis in Islamic Theology departments draws attention to their programs. Again, in Islamic Theology, different from Islamic Sciences departments, tafsir, Systematic theology (basic theology, dogmatics, ethics/ethics, Islamic ecumenism), Historical theology (sunnah, kalam, mysticism, philosophy, etc.), Islamic law and legal methodology, Practical 'theology' and Religious Education fields exist based on Science Council recommendation.