Preferences for Religious Education and Inter-Group Attitudes among Indonesian Students

Abstract

This article analyses Indonesian students’ preferences for different types of religious education, with the help of their personal characteristics and inter-group attitudes. We investigate a comparative understanding of Muslim, Christian and Hindu students of different types of religious education. The comparative measurement of different models of religious education shows that the mono-religious model consists of all aspects of religious education. A remarkable result is that in all models, the attitudinal aspect (sometimes together with the affective) is the most dominant aspect. The cognitive aspect is absent in the inter-religious model. On average, all Muslim, Christian and Hindu students prefer the mono-religious over the inter-religious model. For the mono-religious model, the negative evaluation of religious plurality is the strongest predictor; and indeed, is the only aspect to contribute to the preference for the mono-religious model among Muslims. The attitude towards pluralism is the most important predictor of the preference for a mono-religious model among Christians. This result is in contrast with our hypothesis. As for Hindu respondents, the centrality of own religion has the most positive correlation with the mono-religious model. Pluralism is the most influential factor for the inter-religious model among all groups.