Permissibility of Inculcation in Religious Education

Religious pedagogy in the sense of educating an individual, who believes in a religion, makes use of various methods to teach religious concepts and tenets. Inculcation is one of those methods which have both opponents and proponents. Inculcation can be judged and evaluated from jurisprudential, philosophical, psychological and religious perspectives. The present study has chosen the jurisprudential method to assess it. When it comes to legal permissibility or prohibition of inculcation, there are at least three probabilities: 1. General and permanent inculcation is religiously forbidden and prohibited; 2. General and permanent inculcation is religiously permissible; 3. There is a middle approach which allows inculcation under certain circumstances and forbids the same under other circumstances. The present research aims to study the second hypothesis (absolute permissibility). Inculcation in this research refers to "non-discursive instruction". The present writing has presented and discussed six reasons and it has concluded that the hypothesis of "absolute permissibility of inculcation in religious education" is not defendable. Thus, depending on the situation, the trainees and educational contents should benefit from inculcational methods alongside demonstrative and discursive methods.