Dialogue

Moral Theology of Hizmet – Positive action, service, piety, sincerity and interreligious dialogue

Moral Theology of Hizmet – Positive action, service, piety, sincerity and interreligious dialogue

Hizmet institutions in contemporary Turkey achieve creative commensuration of liberal and Islamic discourses and practices. This commensuration is evident on two levels: moral-theological and institutional-sociological. Ethical concepts such as “positive action” (müspet hareket), “service” (hizmet) and “piety” (taqwa), and institutional forms such as the charitable foundation/pious endowment (vakıf) each constitute moments of synthesis between liberal and Islamic discursive traditions. …

Fethullah Gulen’s understanding of dialogue

Fethullah Gulen’s understanding of dialogue

Gulen argues that the main purpose of religions is to bridge, to unify humanity on the path to virtue, not to divide it. However, he realizes that each faith system has its own traditions, and interfaith dialogue should not aim to reduce this diversity into a single belief system.…

“The Cry of the Nightingale” Fethullah Gulen – A Modern-Day Rumi?

“The Cry of the Nightingale” Fethullah Gulen – A Modern-Day Rumi?

Fethullah Gulen is the perfect modern-day messenger, a voice for peace awakening a sleeping humanity to Rumi’s message of compassion and love through understanding and dialogue. Undoubtedly Rumi’s and Gulen’s legacy will live on in the voices and actions of the inspired followers of Hocaefendi, “a humble servant and friend to all.” It seems that the cry of Gulen’s nightingale is being heard and answered.…

Fethullah Gulen: A Bridge Between Islam and the West

Fethullah Gulen: A Bridge Between Islam and the West

Fethullah Gülen thinks of globalization in more than economic and ideological terms. For him globalization is a more encompassing term. It refers to connectivity and interdependence in all areas of life, cultural, ecological, economic, political, religious, social, and technological. Gülen would be comfortable in saying that globalization is the process by which the experience of everyday living is becoming standardized around the world.…

Rumi and Gülen’s Main Message and Acceptance of the Other

Rumi and Gülen’s Main Message and Acceptance of the Other

Although Rumi lived about 800 years before Gülen, they both lived in cosmopolitan environments and thus both made intercultural dialogue their main tool of social innovation and conflict resolution for social inclusion, coherence and peaceful coexistence. They inspired the lives and practices of their students, sympathizers, followers, scholars, and the larger community to contribute to solutions that better the world. …

Diversity in our society

Diversity in our society

Diversity is a natural dimension of our society and geography. It would be a great mistake to claim that Anatolia is racially pure Turkish. Accepting and pronouncing this truth would be an important step toward a final solution showing that in the future diversity is not going to constitute a problem for us.…