
Contemporary Islamic Conversations
M. Fethullah Guelen on Turkey, Islam, and the West
Nevval Sevindi(Author)
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi'(Editor)
State University of New York Press
Published on 20. December 2007
Book
Hardback
174 pages
978-0-7914-7353-5 (ISBN)
Description
Discusses the ideas of the most important living Muslim thinker and leader in contemporary Turkey.
Contemporary Islamic Conversations discusses the ideas of Turkey's most significant Muslim figure, M. Fethullah Guelen. Originally published in Turkish by Nevval Sevindi, one of Turkey's top journalists, this edited translation makes Guelen's work and ideas accessible to the English-speaking world for the first time. It includes interviews conducted by the author with Guelen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. The book explores his ideas regarding Islam and the West, Islam and violence, and religion and the future of the nation-state in Turkey and the Muslim world.
Guelen has worked hard to revive the religious tradition of the Turkish theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960), and while his debt to Nursi's ideas is clear, he has a passionate interest in Islamic theology and Arabic and Turkish literature, and is also deeply interested in poetry, philosophy, sociology, and the classics in general. Guelen offers a moderate perspective on Islam, is open to interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue, and defends a notion of Islam in which Muslims are able to fully engage the world without any fear or prejudice. His community of followers has opened 500 high schools around the world, including the United States, and also owns seven universities in Central Asia and Turkey.
Contemporary Islamic Conversations discusses the ideas of Turkey's most significant Muslim figure, M. Fethullah Guelen. Originally published in Turkish by Nevval Sevindi, one of Turkey's top journalists, this edited translation makes Guelen's work and ideas accessible to the English-speaking world for the first time. It includes interviews conducted by the author with Guelen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. The book explores his ideas regarding Islam and the West, Islam and violence, and religion and the future of the nation-state in Turkey and the Muslim world.
Guelen has worked hard to revive the religious tradition of the Turkish theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960), and while his debt to Nursi's ideas is clear, he has a passionate interest in Islamic theology and Arabic and Turkish literature, and is also deeply interested in poetry, philosophy, sociology, and the classics in general. Guelen offers a moderate perspective on Islam, is open to interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue, and defends a notion of Islam in which Muslims are able to fully engage the world without any fear or prejudice. His community of followers has opened 500 high schools around the world, including the United States, and also owns seven universities in Central Asia and Turkey.
Reviews / Votes
"...this book will be of use to those who are interested in diverse interpretations of Islam and their sociopolitical implications." - Middle East Journal"This compelling book provides an important analysis by a Turkish journalist with high respect for Guelen, and is edited by an excellent scholar of twentieth-century Islam who is highly regarded by disciples of Nursi and Guelen. Thus we get to hear Guelen speak for himself but with the benefit of Sevindi's contextualizing and commentary, and Abu-Rabi>'s editorial hand and judicious footnoting." - Lucinda Mosher, author of Praying: The Rituals of Faith
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
363 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-7353-5 (9780791473535)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Nevval Sevindi writes for the daily Zaman and is based in Istanbul, Turkey. At the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi' is Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, and Abdullah T. Antepli is the Coordinator of Islamic Chaplaincy and Interfaith Relations. Abu-Rabi' is the editor of several books, including Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and Islam in Modern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, both also published by SUNY Press.
Author
Editor
Introduction
Translation
Content
Editor's Introduction
Preface
1. Fethullah Guelen's Life and Thought
2. The Actual Source of Hope: The Duty of Humanity
3. The Flowering of the Individual
4. Islam, Violence, and the West
5. Turkish Identity between Islam and Nationalism
6. Turkey's Quest for Unification with Europe
7. Reform in Islam and the Turkish Renaissance
8. Iranian Islam
9. Criticism and Countercriticism of the Guelen Phenomenon in Contemporary Turkey
Appendix: Two Poems by Fethullah Guelen
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Preface
1. Fethullah Guelen's Life and Thought
2. The Actual Source of Hope: The Duty of Humanity
3. The Flowering of the Individual
4. Islam, Violence, and the West
5. Turkish Identity between Islam and Nationalism
6. Turkey's Quest for Unification with Europe
7. Reform in Islam and the Turkish Renaissance
8. Iranian Islam
9. Criticism and Countercriticism of the Guelen Phenomenon in Contemporary Turkey
Appendix: Two Poems by Fethullah Guelen
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index