Explaining Role of Religious Education in the Face of New Millennium’s Crises: Peace as a Method of Education in the Qur'an and New Testament

Abstract

Achieving peace is one of the constant human desires and one of the most important goals of religions. Contrary to this goal, many international conflicts in recent decades have had a religious aspect and have taken away peace from people around the world. In this situation, many theologians have tried to emphasize on commonalities of religions and focus their attention on a common understanding in matters such as peace and tranquility in religious sources. The present study also stems from the belief that the Abrahamic religions seek afterlife salvation and worldly peace for all humanity. The purpose of article is to explain role of religious education in the face of new millennium’s crises by emphasizing peace as a method of education in two religious books of Muslims and Christians, the Qur'an and the New Testament. The research method is historical comparative and documentary method is used to collect data. The method of data analysis is qualitative content analysis with a concise approach. The research findings show that the most important common component in theistic religions is that belief in God and religious legitimacy automatically leads to peace. Another finding is that different interpretations of the content of religious books can turn concept of peace into a tool to justify violence. The final finding is that content of Qur'an and the New Testament show that both heavenly books seek peace of man in both worlds.

Keywords

• educational method
• quran
• international crises
• peace
• religious education
• new testament