Author
Arslan, Berna Zengin
Publication Date
2019-10
Publication Place
-
Taylor & Francis
Subject
Islam and science, Islam in Turkey, Science and religion, Secularism in Turkey, Gulen
Type
Periodical
Language
English
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Özyeğin University
Library Asset ID
0269-1728
Record ID
2021857f-bb4c-4f8c-ad24-570dee6a6cd0
Library Location
Humanities and Social Sciences
Date
2019-10
Sample Text
The article examines how the epistemologies of Islam and modern science are reconciled in the writings of the contemporary Turkish Sunni Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen (b. 1938), one of the once most influential yet vastly controversial religious leaders in contemporary Turkey. Through a close reading of his texts on science, the article analyzes how Gulen defines the scientific practice as an ethical act of reading the universe with heart and mind, and as a path in which one can fully grasp the magnificence of God. Framing with references to Sufism, Gulen also explains science as a domain where Islamic ethics can be practiced. The article shows that Gulen's project of Islamization of science is not limited to the domain of knowledge, but rather comprises a comprehensive cultural transformation led by a new epistemic approach to contest the secular hegemony in the country. Therefore, Gulen's politics of Islam at large should be understood as a project of transforming the episteme, or the hegemonic regime of knowledge, in society, from secular to Islamic. However, the article also notes, somehow paradoxically, in his harmonization of the Sufi notions with secular science, Gulen cannot escape from being captured by the very epistemology of the modern science.
DOI
10.1080/02691728.2019.1672824
Cilt
34
