The discipline of Religious Education refers to the teaching of the history of religious education, its current situation, as well as its prospective future development. In the Western university system, the history of the discipline may be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In Turkey, Beyza Bilgin is the pioneering figure who laid the ground for Religious Education in academia. Her PhD dissertation, Love as the Basis of Education in Islam (1971), is considered the earliest work in the field. The department offers courses on various aspects of religious education, including the scientific nature of religious education, the bases and goals of religious education and training, the central concepts in religious education, the history of religious education, contemporary issues in religious education, and religious education for adults and families. In its research, Religious Education cooperates with other scholarly fields: Educational Sciences, Philosophy of Education, Psychology, Sociology, Islamic History, Qur’anic Exegesis, Hadith, and the like.