Suchergebnisse

Historical and systematic aspects of modern secularisation -- Setting the scene -- Secularisation in Weber's sociology of religion -- Secularisation in Weber's Wirtschaft und gesellschaft (WuG) and Munich speeches -- The Protestant heritage of Weber's theory of secularisation

Argues that the theory of secularization is a Eurocentric way of thinking that has been used to exert power globally. Secularization in Turkey is explored & the accepted view that Turkey has politically & epistemologically broken from its Islamic past is challenged. It is noted that state-religion relations in Turkey "display revealing similarities & continuities with the Ottoman Empire." Religion continued to hold a central political space after the creation of the nation-state; consequently, the nationalist revolutionary regime established state institutions to regulate religious matters & Kermalist leaders attempted to replace religious truths with nationalist truths. As a result, religion remains a vital dimension of Turkish national identity while Kermalism has been called the "quasi-religion of 'modern' Turkey." Turkey is caught in a dilemma between secularization & democracy in which secularization depends on the Ottoman tradition of the state regulation of religion. Eurocentric explanations of secularization cannot account for the great diversity among secular states, therefore similarities & differences should be explained by political history, not religion. J. Lindroth