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The ontic and epistemic, even ethical and aesthetic existence of human beings acquires meaning with identity. Identity is a paradoxical structure that expresses involvement and integrity as well as marginalizing and revealing differences. Common language, values, attitudes, opinions and beliefs are the causes and effects of identification. The individual or micro is surrounded by the society or macro, and macro has introduced to the micro. The macro world constructs the psychological and cognitive structure of the micro world. But at the same time, the background of this macro world is determined by the identities that it shares with the micro world. The identities that make up the collective identities may differ according to the conjuncture. Thus, identity has been built with understanding that changes according to time and society. Religious hegemony was dominant in most parts of the world during the Middle Age. Thus, religion which essentially means transforming chaos into cosmos, was used as the most important tool to maintain order by the states. It retained its dominant position over political and other decisions by the authority for many years. This situation brought a society based on religious identity. This structure had created an organic bond between the state and society. This link was the only representative of identity. The organic bond between the state and society was likewise built on religion in the Ottoman Empire. It was placed as the unique element that shaped the perception of individual or collective identity. Religious differences in Ottoman Empire constitutes the epistemological essence of identity. Placing religion merely in the semantic domain of the concept of identity was making it decisive of identity. The fact that social identity corresponds only to religious partnership, independent of cultural and linguistic partnership, has caused individual reality to deviate from social reality, in the population known as Karamanlides in the current literature that will be used in this paper as the Turkophone Anatolian Orthodoxes. This deviation would be particularly felt in the following centuries, when religious affiliation would be replaced by tribal belonging. This paper takes issue with cultural identities of two communities that were separated by religion. It seeks to reveal cultural identicalness of two communities when religious identity has not been replaced by tribal one. It is based on the work Ανατολ Τουρκιουλερι that was published in 1896 and was the first folk magazine in the Ottoman Empire, points out the commonality, in other words, integration in the individual existence of social identities separated by the religion. A particular focus is on one of the folk songs in the booklet Ανατολ Τουρκιουλερι, which contains folk songs collected through field research among Orthodox people: “A Girl Being Bride”. The Turkish poet in question has a pseudonym with the other image of his poet: The poet has a marginalised alias named: “Kul Shadi”. In the axis of Kul Shadi and his Turkish folk song with Greek Letters known as Karamanli Turkish in the current literature and named in this article as Turkish with Greek Letters, this article aims to determine language and cultural identities between two communities in the Ottoman Empire that had been separated by religious identities, however, essentially they could not be separated. Consequently, it is proper to say that a single subject as the bearer of social idendity is inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satan (or Devil, Evil) is as an across-cultural myth in World religions and beliefs from ancient times to present. Satan, as the most prominent element among the features represented by Satan, which appears in common in all myths throughout the World. With this very characteristic, He occupies an important role as a mythical motif to present evil in both oral and written cultural texts. Satan though devil is not an archetype himself, he is the representation of the shadow archetype in the supernatural realm. Standing in opposition to the almighty in monotheistic religions, Satan looms around in polytheistic religions as character personifying evil in different names and bodies, as well. In this paper, the roles and qualities attributed to Satan [tr. Erlik] by Altai Turks based on epics of Altaies has been discussed. Identifying these properties of Satan [Erlik], we have also aimed to reveal cultural borrowings adapted from divine religions that had been active in the area. The source of these barrowings should be sought especially in activities of missionaries who represent the Judeo-Christian tradition in Altay region. Missioners must have adapted shamanistic themes and motifs into Judeo- Christian narratives while narrating divine narratives to Altai Turks. The missionaries must have adapted the Judaic-Christian themes and motifs of their celestial narrative traditions to Shamanism and told them on the field. That is why it is almost impossible to find local and authentic motifs in Altai Turks' Epics, except their main actors, God [Tengri] and Satan [Erlik]. Although Erlik is personified with his all elements including his appearance and his character in detail, God [Tengri] has been envisioned the almighty and not personified in Altai Turks' epics as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific activities have always existed during the history of Islam in places dominated by Muslims. After being conquered by Muslims, a vitality has taken place in Sirnak and the surrounding areas and many scholars have been brought up. One of them is Seyyid Feyzullah Erzen (d. 2002). The life of Seyyid Feyzullah Erzen has been through his science. He has studied many important scholars and has had many students. In his work named Levâmi'ul-Cevâhir, which has become one of the important figures of his era with his works and students, besides the religious sciences such as tafsir, hadith, kalam, as well as medicine, geography, nahiv, khat, consumables and literature, geology, philology and anthropology, it is seen that some information related to different areas has been transmitted. In this paper, we will endeavor to examine his views on circumcision and hadith subject within the framework of his work named Levâmiü'l-cevâhir bi isnâ aşere fennen yücâhir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being and position of woman both in the private and social life have caused some problems since the first human was created. With the inclination of solutions for these problems, lots of spiritual movements have been developed. These developed movements have concerned with subjects such as how patriarchal society developed, which fields were effected and the sexual, religious, political and economical pressure upon women. During historical development of human, religion has been the uttermost effected area among all of these. In this study, Mary Daly who is one of the most important pioneers of radical feminism which developed as one of the last feminist movements, in general, criticized patriachy and especially Christianity in a critical way, which has been considered as a blocking factor for the development of human being. According to her, religions are nothing else from the sects under the patriarchal umbrella. Feminist teology of Mary Daly saying for women in desire of wanderlusting, the only way of participating to God as an active verb is to dismiss the patriarchal evils in women inside, is an enlightening work for women defined by women. In this paper, her concept of Christian God will be focused on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From Islamic perspective, the marriage contracts with worldly and otherworldly dimensions produce legitimate offspring and have a valuable place in public opinion, and therefore despite being non-mandatory, those who had command of religious and legal provisions were authorized for solemnization as usual. In Islamic history, the marital agreements had been documented since four caliphate period. And also, in Ottomans marriage has been made under the state supervision and written document was stipulated by the judges (kadi) or with their approval. Within the historic process, this practice had been mainstreamed and maintained, and the marital registration was mandated by the Family Law Decree of the Ottoman State. Later, in 1926 the municipal record was conditioned for getting married following the adaptation of Swiss Civic Code, and hence the official authority of imam marriage was terminated. After this prohibitional law, apart from the civil marriage, Muslims might have committed an additional ceremony, that's, imam marriage. Naturally, this may cause a dilemma. From now on, the law enacted will equip the muftis with the solemnization authority and eradicate this chaos. This warrant is a pertinent and fair decision. Besides, the muftis will solemnize the civil marriage in compliance with the civil law in force. For contracting marriage, there may occur some contradictory issues between the current civil code and the İslamic jurisprudence. In this context, a marriage contract solemnized by muftis or the ones authorized by them cannot be religiously deficient, but unfortunately in Islamic law, namely it is potential to face some illicit situations according to Islamic practices because the contract will be duly compliant with the current legal marital provisions. In this paper, we will discuss some issues and potential solutions in practice regarding the legislation to designate muftis with the authority to solemnize civil marriage, in accordance with Islamic Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational structure, operational mechanism, and employment conditions of Theology faculties have always been hotly debated topics in Turkish academic circles. Many employment-related issues, such as procedures for student acceptance, program outcomes, and broadening students' future job opportunities for graduates, are still significant today. These endless discussions have most negative effects on the motivation of every person in Theology faculties involved in the teaching and learning processes. Theology Faculties, which were established as the only higher religious education institutions in the Turkish Republic, have throughout their history been continually scrutinized by different views and ideologies exclusively for the purposes of their establishment. As a result of these considerations, the teaching content, and particularly the curriculum, has transformed and evolved concomitantly. Although Theology faculties, at the beginning of the Republican Era, were established with the specific aim of meeting the needs of the country for well-educated and equipped religious functionaries, they could survive only for nine years, between 1924 and 1933, and were closed without achieving this goal. Ideological debates on employment-related issues, such as for what purpose and in the frame of which responsibility would these university graduates to perform their future career duties, also played an important part in this turbulent process. Thus, it was not possible to actualize the first ascribed goal for their establishment. The second goal envisaged for the Theology faculties was to perform the activities related to religious education and other religious affairs based on an embracing and moderate religious discourse, with a certain reference to the Quran and Sunnah, to contribute to the unity and solidarity of the country. In this respect, one of the reasons why radical movements could not find any solid ground in Turkey and its surroundings, even during the times when religion-centred political and ideological developments intensified, is that Theology faculties introduced a reliable religious perception and adopted an embracing approach toward the different fragments of society. With their intense influence on society Theology faculties created a vacuum effect for the radicalized movements by preventing them from establishing permanent habitat in Turkish society. However, today it is clear that Theology faculties are far from attaining these goals. It is possible to claim that these faculties are much more inclined to concentrate on creating religious men rather than fulfilling their previously assigned responsibilities, training intellectuals professionalized in religious matters, which is articulated in the Unity of Education Law as "senior experts of religion". Examining the faculty curriculum over a certain period proves this alteration. Today, Theology faculties follow one single teaching program. In the academic year 1998-1999, the Department of Teacher Training for Primary Schools Religious Culture and Ethics Class, with the main purpose of graduating prospective school teachers, was established within Theology faculties' organizational structures. However, in the academic year 2014-2015 the programs ceased to accept students based on the decision of the Higher Council of Education, and in the academic year 2016-2017 it was de facto closed. Thus, the Theology program is the only program that accepts students at present. A faculty that runs one teaching program attracts an important question: how can Theology faculties train experts for the different fields required by the modern society and its changing perceptions on employment through one single program? This question constitutes the main research problem of this paper. Examining the curriculum of Theology faculties results in two main problem areas. First, there is the lack of a stable relationship between the purposes and the employment areas of the faculties. As the formal and non-formal religious institutions offer the main graduate job opportunities, the curriculum should be designed to include the courses that future employees would benefit from. However, the curriculum does not have a proportional distribution of classes in regards to their associated employment areas. The second problem is excessive numbers of classes. Although the numbers vary according to the faculty, the average number of classes is more than 70 during the four-year study period. It may be claimed that having a large number of classes is a parameter for the richness of the curriculum, yet, in practice this is under scrutiny. Benefiting from the curriculum at best cost is not possible without relating the teaching content to employment requirements and compartmentalization of the program if necessary. Also, compartmentalization will require readjustment of the curriculum for employment areas. Thus, in the process of reorganizing the teaching program and, correspondingly, its content, the most crucial matter that should be taken into consideration is to analyse the requests and expectations from the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we dealt separately with the days that Ziya Gökalp spent in Diyarbakır and Thessaloniki considering that a thought is made up in a social environment. That is because his social environment in Diyarbakır which is called Thessaloniki of Anatolia and that of Thessaloniki titled as Kaaba of freedom are quite different. Thus, his views on religion and tasawwuf changed to a large degree. In his Diyarbakır days, he was affected by Doctor Yorgi Efendi, his teacher in Junior School, his uncle Hasip Efendi, Dr. Abdullah Cevdet as well as Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi that he defined him as the biggest philosopher. Even he was stuck in their approaches. He found out in Thessaloniki the sociology of Durkheim. Then, he followed Durkheim's point of view very passionately and accepted it as his guide in many subjects and reshaped his opinions to accord with Durkheims' views. In this context, it would be suitable to make comparison between his two articles titled İcmâ-ı Siyâsi İ'tizâl-i Siyâsi that he wrote and Yeni Hayat ve Yeni Kıymetler that he wrote them in Diyarbakır and Thessaloniki respectively in order to detect the difference between both periods of him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational structure, operational mechanism, and employment conditions of Theology faculties have always been hotly debated topics in Turkish academic circles. Many employment-related issues, such as procedures for student acceptance, program outcomes, and broadening students' future job opportunities for graduates, are still significant today. These endless discussions have most negative effects on the motivation of every person in Theology faculties involved in the teaching and learning processes. Theology Faculties, which were established as the only higher religious education institutions in the Turkish Republic, have throughout their history been continually scrutinized by different views and ideologies exclusively for the purposes of their establishment. As a result of these considerations, the teaching content, and particularly the curriculum, has transformed and evolved concomitantly. Although Theology faculties, at the beginning of the Republican Era, were established with the specific aim of meeting the needs of the country for well-educated and equipped religious functionaries, they could survive only for nine years, between 1924 and 1933, and were closed without achieving this goal. Ideological debates on employment-related issues, such as for what purpose and in the frame of which responsibility would these university graduates to perform their future career duties, also played an important part in this turbulent process. Thus, it was not possible to actualize the first ascribed goal for their establishment. The second goal envisaged for the Theology faculties was to perform the activities related to religious education and other religious affairs based on an embracing and moderate religious discourse, with a certain reference to the Quran and Sunnah, to contribute to the unity and solidarity of the country. In this respect, one of the reasons why radical movements could not find any solid ground in Turkey and its surroundings, even during the times when religion-centred political and ideological developments intensified, is that Theology faculties introduced a reliable religious perception and adopted an embracing approach toward the different fragments of society. With their intense influence on society Theology faculties created a vacuum effect for the radicalized movements by preventing them from establishing permanent habitat in Turkish society. However, today it is clear that Theology faculties are far from attaining these goals. It is possible to claim that these faculties are much more inclined to concentrate on creating religious men rather than fulfilling their previously assigned responsibilities, training intellectuals professionalized in religious matters, which is articulated in the Unity of Education Law as "senior experts of religion". Examining the faculty curriculum over a certain period proves this alteration. Today, Theology faculties follow one single teaching program. In the academic year 1998-1999, the Department of Teacher Training for Primary Schools Religious Culture and Ethics Class, with the main purpose of graduating prospective school teachers, was established within Theology faculties' organizational structures. However, in the academic year 2014-2015 the programs ceased to accept students based on the decision of the Higher Council of Education, and in the academic year 2016-2017 it was de facto closed. Thus, the Theology program is the only program that accepts students at present. A faculty that runs one teaching program attracts an important question: how can Theology faculties train experts for the different fields required by the modern society and its changing perceptions on employment through one single program? This question constitutes the main research problem of this paper. Examining the curriculum of Theology faculties results in two main problem areas. First, there is the lack of a stable relationship between the purposes and the employment areas of the faculties. As the formal and non-formal religious institutions offer the main graduate job opportunities, the curriculum should be designed to include the courses that future employees would benefit from. However, the curriculum does not have a proportional distribution of classes in regards to their associated employment areas. The second problem is excessive numbers of classes. Although the numbers vary according to the faculty, the average number of classes is more than 70 during the four-year study period. It may be claimed that having a large number of classes is a parameter for the richness of the curriculum, yet, in practice this is under scrutiny. Benefiting from the curriculum at best cost is not possible without relating the teaching content to employment requirements and compartmentalization of the program if necessary. Also, compartmentalization will require readjustment of the curriculum for employment areas. Thus, in the process of reorganizing the teaching program and, correspondingly, its content, the most crucial matter that should be taken into consideration is to analyse the requests and expectations from the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erol Güngör is a prosperous social scientist who scrutinizes significant works as well as in his own field of study, on macro issues such as history, civilization, social change, modernization, language, art, ethics, ideology and religion, especially within a polarized intellectual scene, from a nationalist point of view. This paper tries to provide a brief description of the point of view and the way Güngör employs in elaborating the social issues in general and underlines his contribution to the sociology of religion in particular. In spite of the fact that Güngör was not officially a “sociologist of religion”, his significant works, İslâm'ın Bugünkü Meseleleri (The Contemporary Problems of Islam) and İslâm Tasavvufunun Meseleleri (The Problems of Islamic Mysticism/ Sufism) enable us to count Güngör among those contributing the sociology of religion. Given the social and political circumstances Güngör lived, his evaluations and considerations about religion are seen notably original and significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe and explain the relation between social conflict and religion. The relation between social conflict and religion is examined at the five main levels in this paper. In the first level we ponder upon the social function of religion as a possible source of social conflict. The other two explanation levels at which religious conflict can be most clearly observed includes opposing religious boundaries and conflicts within the same religious tradition. The forth explanation level is religious fundamentalism, the marginal face of religious conflict involving actual assault and violence. At the fifth explanation level the relation between secularization and social conflict is highlighted and finally the general results are evaluated in the last part of this paper. Religious traditions undergo complexities and are in conflict with each other as a result of varying goals and wants of both inner and outer factors. Religious conflict feeds upon differences in viewpoints and interpretations concerning doctrines and the distribution of power, resources and privileges socially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Via 1789 French Revolution, it was thought that religion which is dismissed from social life would disappear in modern society over time. However, the question of what will replace this power which has provided the integration of societies for thousand years has pursued its existence as a problematic. Sociology as a new science born in a disrupted social order after the Revolution, will try to produce the knowledge not only of how the society is possible but also of how will the social order be organized. The power that will ensure reconstruction of a social order is actually the “ substitute religion” invented by this new science. The purpose of this paper is to present how the leading theorists of the Enlightenment such as C. Montesquieu, J. J. Rousseau and Saint -Simon and the French sociology including the perspective of E. Durkheim after approximately a century when A. Comte founded sociology at the beginning of the 19th century have generated this “substitute religion”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folk medicine, embodies a number of components containing the society’s values like tradition, ritual and language and is one of the significant factors ensuring the protection and continuity of these values. Today, although, as a result of the political and social obligations imposed to them, Ulupamir Kirgizs living in Ulupamir village in Erciş-Van, where the last stop of their migration waves is, appeal to the modern health institutions in Erciş and Van to solve their health problems, they prefer to solve the problems primarily in the Village, through their traditional methods. Due to the geographic and social conditions of the places where they live, Ulupamir Kirgizs, like the other aspects of their daily lives, have carried diagnose and treatment methods into modern times through their cultural memory and they ensured the continuity of the traditional treatment methods by adapting them to their new residential areas and the problems there. A lot of treatment methods for a lot of illnesses are practiced in the Village. Generally, these treatment methods are practised by women called “bübü”, described as “open-eyed” and known as “healers” by everyone. These treatments based on the insight power of the healer, are mainly based on the practice that a negative effect is removed by the combination of supernatural world full of symbols with words/prayers. In this paper, the structures of the folk medicine practices which have some shamanic features as we observed through the data of our fieldwork among Ulupamir Kirgizs, magical practices and symbols accompanying them are evaluated in terms of phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics is not a separate topic like other theological topics such as divinity, prophethood and eschatalogy dealt with in Kalam books. Ethical issues are generally discussed in terms of acts of Allah and human in different parts of Kalam books. At this point, there are two prominent theological approaches dominated by Ash'arite and Mu'tazilî scholars. In ethics, Ash'arite scholars defend their position by relying on revelation while Mu'tazila used reasoning to defend theirs. Unfortunately, historically the lively discussions between these two denominations overshadowed Maturidi sect. In this paper, we will try to analyze and uncover Maturidi's thoughts especially regarding basic matters in ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existential psychology, especially its relationship with religion and spirituality, is frequently misunderstood in the literature. A recent article by Bartz (2009) in a journal published by the American Psychological Association is a clear illustration of how commonly existential psychology is misunderstood in its relationship to religion. The current paper begins with a brief history of the relationship of existential psychology with religion and spirituality. Next, one approach to an existential psychology of religion is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts emphasis on the religion's approach to crime in general and in particular, how religion Islam deals with crime and theoretical and social mechanisms' function on prevention of crime. Introductory information is given about nature of crime, Islam's definiton of crime, relationship between crime and social psychology. How worships function in terms of preventing crime is explained. The information about societies' social structure directed to prevent crime is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally communication which is deseribed as transfer process of ernetion and thoughts with word and symbols; consist of source, message, channel, receiver, retleetion and codifıcation elements. &ıurce is the basic element establish the fırst phase of communication process that has opinion, ernetion and thought to communicate. lts suffıciency at communication subject has an important role in communication process. &ıurce who is believed, trusted and beloved one with his or her life enhances impact of message positively. Alsa individual who is in the source position has a vital importance to keep in view target audience's characteristics; make good use of grammer and to release information gradually in the message. If source has not these characteristics. may result in nonrecoverable condusions at communication. In this paper source which is an important element at Communication in Religion is tried to explain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the phenomenology of religions. The issue is studied by utilizing Turkish translation of writings and books of religion phenomenologists' and studies of domestic researchers. This study aims to first form an original text by surveying, simplifying and clarifying existing texts on the phenomenology of religions and then aims to emphasize the importance of the phenomenology of religions toward understanding the religions. This study points that both the phenomenology of religions and mystics point the same direction and qibla. If humanity takes a step toward a common temple, a certain direction and a return to the same essence, one of the important connections will be the phenomenology of religions. From this point, it is concluded that hopes for "the kingdom of god", "universal church", "Salvation", "the peace of world", "absolute justice" can be fulfilled through the phenomenology of religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Man is a socio-cultural being. In this sense Man is a human being with his environment; that is, he acquires the status of being a real human as a result of his gains from the natural and sociocultural environment where he exists. Besides, humans are endowed with many biological, mental and spritiual abilities, they do not acquire them later. Man also has innate moral-religious abilities and one of them is "creation/fıtrah". According to a great majority of Islamic scholars, creation is the consciousness of existence and uniqueness of God that is temperamental in all human beings while Man is a believing being as well as a thinking one in the common agreement of psychologists and psychologists of Religion. This feature of believing is inherent but the framework of this ability has not been determined yet. On the other hand, cultural anthropology asserts that Man acquires moral and intellectual characteristics within the socio-cultural environment where he exists and therefore Man does not have any universal or common ethics and religious values. This paper will discuss the relationship between the Human nature and belief and dwell upon whether there is a moral-religious property being innate in Man or not, and if there is, what the characteristics of this property will be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Gagauz those member of the Orthodox Church, have exposed their culture, customs and all elements of national identity in their daily lives, they are distinguished from other Orthodox groups. The historical Budjak territory where Gagauz live is now in between two different countries: Moldova (starts with December 23, 1994 in the autonomous region \"Gagauz Yeri\") and Ukraine (part of the Odessa region). This article aims to examine the role of religion in the life of Gagauz in Budjak from the point of history. The paper is based on both the literature and official statistical data and the field researches conducted in the area of Gagauz Yeri in November - December 2006 and in February 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the relationship between religion and society in Artuqids (1101-1409) are considered at the general level. In this paper in which a general panorama of social dimensions of religion are tried to bring up, the mutual relations of religion with society are investigated. In the context of religion-society relations, this study contains the relationships of religion with state, politics, economy, science, education, language, etc., and speaks of interreligious relationships and the relations between the members of different religious sects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socrates was charged with not believe in the Greek gods, calling the people to believe in some unknown gods, and corrupting the morals of the young men through his constant questioning of everything. Actually, the real basis for this charge was his criticism on polytheist and anthropomorphic Olympian gods and his claim that he sometimes heard a divine voice (daimonion) as a kind of inspiration. Although in Socratic literature there are quite strong evidences for Socrates' monotheistic belief, one can also read in the same literature both the concept of God and gods. It seems there is a contradiction, but this paper instead claims the theses that Socrates believed in One and Supreme God who created this world and will charge the people in hereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to classify the Islamic Law Concerning religious belief freedom with respect to its special characteristics. Islamic scholars have different views when concerning the subject of freedom of religious belief Naturally, historical thinking has substantial effect in these different approaches. But more importantly, the criteria of interpretation of the applicable Islamic Law need to be considered. Two important criteria are "belief" and "person". Most of the differences among Islamic scholars can be explained by the difference in importance placed to either one of these two criteria. These differences can be observed clearly in cases involving crime and punishment, the citizenship status of non-Muslims, the argument of justification for war and the consequences of religious conversion. Therefore, the main reason why Islamic scholars reach different conclusions in these matters is not in the ambiguity of Islamic Law but the differences in its interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]