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Turkish Response to the Christian Call for Dialogue

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TURKISH RESPONSE TO THE CHRISTIAN CALL FOR DIALOGUE A dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Kenan Cetinkaya December 2014 Examining Committee Members: Prof. Leonard J. Swidler, Advisory Chair, Department of Religion Prof. Khalid Blankinship, Department of Religion Prof. Umeyye Isra Yazicioglu, St. Joseph's University, Theology & Religious Studies Prof. Peter Gran, External Member, Department of History ABSTRACT After the Second Vatican Council, which took place in 1962-1965, the Catholic Church reached out to both co-religionists and non-Christians. As the second largest religion in the world (after Christianity), the Muslim world began to react to this call for dialogue. Without a worldwide religious authority, Muslim scholars and communities have tried to understand and respond to this call for dialogue in their own way. Turkey, as one of the most influential and modern Muslim majority states, joined the discussion about interreligious dialogue, especially with Christians. Very diverse in culture, religion, and thought, Turkish scholars’ discussions and critiques of the dialogue requested by the Christian world have clearly contributed to interreligious dialogue on a global scale in the last decades. This dissertation examines the development of interreligious dialogue in Turkey and the works of prominent and widely recognized Turkish theologians as a response to the Christian call for dialogue. It explores the problems, challenges, and future of the perception of interreligious dialogue in the Turkish context, in particular, the views of three influential Turkish scholars: Abdurrahman Küçük, Mahmut Aydın, and Davut Aydüz. The conclusion proposes the Turkish Model for interreligious dialogue. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe my gratitude to many people who have made this dissertation possible. My deepest gratitude is for my advisor, Dr. Leonard J. Swidler. I have been fortunate to have an advisor whose guidance and patience have been much more than I might possibly present in my thanks for him. I am also thankful to Dr. Ümeyye İsra Yazıcıoğlu for her corrections, recommendations, and encouragement. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Khalid Blankinship and Dr. Peter Gran for cordially agreeing to be members of my committee and for their time and support. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my dear parents, Ms. Sultan Çetinkaya and Mr. Mustafa Çetinkaya, who always supported me with their patience, prayers, and good wishes. I know this achievement would not be happening without their support. I am also thankful to my brother, sisters, nephews, and nieces in Turkey, who have always been waiting to hear my accomplishments with their prayers, concern, and patience. I give special thanks to my wife, who always encouraged and helped me to overcome the difficulties, at every step of the doctoral program. Finally, the names of my dear friends cannot be dismissed from my appreciation. Michael Beck, Inga Hunter, and Dr. Alison Anderson helped with editing and proofreading; Muhammed Hatipoğlu, Osman Işık, İsa Yıldırım, Selman Dalgın, Jonathan Pennington, Henry Galipp, Fr. Zachary Webb, Linda Joy Goldner, and Joey Urdanivia provided moral support. I greatly value their friendship and appreciate their belief in me. I also must acknowledge Ms. Linda C. Jenkins, at the Department of Religion, for her consistent encouragement. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ iii ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................ iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: DIALOGUE IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES SINCE 1965 .................................................................................... 20 The term Interreligious Dialogue ............................................................................................... 20 Definition and Implication of Interreligious Dialogue ........................................................... 20 Historical Development of Dialogue in Christian Context .................................................... 24 On the modern discourse of Dialogue in the Roman Catholic Church ...................................... 28 Pre-Second Vatican Council .................................................................................................. 29 The Second Vatican Council and Developments after the Council ....................................... 31 Roman Catholic Church’s stance on Interreligious Dialogue ................................................ 39 On the Modern Discourse of Dialogue in the World Council of Churches ............................... 41 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 3: DIALOGUE IN TURKEY SINCE 1965 ................................................................ 49 Historical Background ............................................................................................................... 49 Seljuk Era ............................................................................................................................... 52 Ottoman Era ........................................................................................................................... 55 Republic of Turkey ................................................................................................................ 58 On the terms related to dialogue in Turkish ............................................................................... 60 Diyalog ................................................................................................................................... 60 Hoşgörü, Müsamaha, Tolerans .............................................................................................. 61 Ta’aruf, Aman and Tawalli .................................................................................................... 62 Tablig and Irshad ................................................................................................................... 63 “Dinlerarası Diyalog” or “Din Mensupları arası Diyalog”? .................................................. 63 Islam-Christian or Muslim-Christian Dialogue? .................................................................... 66 Abrahamic Religions? ............................................................................................................ 67 Dialogue in the History and Documents of the Presidency of Religious Affairs....................... 68 Interreligious dialogue meeting in Libya (1976) ................................................................... 70 i Dialogue in the Documents of PRA ....................................................................................... 72 Interreligious Dialogue Branch Directory .............................................................................. 78 The Goals of PRA in the Framework of Interreligious Dialogue .......................................... 80 Interreligious Dialogue Activities of PRA ............................................................................. 81 Dialogue in PRA’s Encyclopedia of Islam ............................................................................ 84 Interreligious Dialogue in PRA’s Monthly Magazine Diyanet Aylık Dergi.......................... 86 Attitude of the Religious Officers of the PRA about Dialogue .............................................. 86 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 88 Dialogue in the History and the Documents of Other Institutions ............................................. 88 Interreligious Dialogue Events in Governmental Organizations ........................................... 89 Interreligious Dialogue Events in Nongovernmental Organizations ..................................... 97 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 109 Dialogue in the Textbooks of Public Education ...................................................................... 110 In the Textbooks for Public Elementary and High Schools ................................................. 112 In the Textbook for Imam Hatip High Schools .................................................................... 116 In the Textbook for Distance University Education............................................................. 118 Dialogue in the Thoughts of Scholars ...................................................................................... 121 Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) ................................................................................. 125 M. Fethullah Gülen .............................................................................................................. 133 M. Sadettin Evrin ................................................................................................................
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