| An Attempt at Understanding the Gülen Movement’s Vision of Itself: The Key Concepts of the Movement | |
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This study aims to understand the Gülen movement ‘from within’ by examining the key concepts of the movement such as: communicating the word of God (i'lay-i kelimetullah), connection with God (Allah’la irtibat), and consciousness of responsibility (sorumluluk şuuru), the spirit of devotion (adanmislik ruhu), humility (tevazu) and modesty (mahviyet). The Muslim-participants of the movement tend to express their experience in the movement with these concepts. In this regard, the key concepts provide the most self-conscious expressions on the nature of the Gülen movement. It is hoped that understanding these concepts will facilitate a better analysis of the Gülen movement. I will pursue a twofold strategy in studying the key concepts of the movement: first, to examine the spiritual-metaphysical context, in other words the Muslim-Sufi worldview, in which the key concepts are constructed and transmitted; second, to analyze Gülen’s discourse which generates and attempts to renovate these concepts within the Muslim-Sufi worldview. Özgür Koca was born in 1977 in Çanakkale, Turkey. He has an undergraduate degree in Physics from Marmara University. Ozgur spent ten years of his life teaching physics, mathematics and astronomy at the Gülen Movement affiliated schools in different countries. After years of quantitative study he decided to journey to a new perspective and enrolled in Philosophy Ph.D program at Claremont Graduate School. His studies focus on Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy and History of Science, and Environmental Ethics and Sufism. Ozgur joined numerous Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue groups on their visit to Turkey and assisted them as organizer, translator, and tour guide. |