The Role of the Religious Elite in Religious Education

Determining the scope of human agents’ role in religious education has a major role in achieving the defined objectives of religious education. The religious elite are among the most important human agents that contribute to religious education. The educational, psychological and sociological studies on the elite and the analysis of relevant religious texts about the duties of religious scholars, regardless of the fact of the results confirming each other, determine the elite's role in religious education. At the first sight, one may think that the role of the religious elite in religious education falls in the province of knowledge but it extends to the behavioral, attitudinal and epistemological provinces. Due to their social function as good examples, the elite have an influential role throughout the practical process of religious education, and because of their prominent position among the other factors of religious education they have a leading role in religious education.