Synopsis "The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Turkey"
Since its foundation in 1923, the Republic of Turkey has had a complex and often misunderstood relationship with religion. The constitutional laïcité implemented by its founders is unique in a Muslim context, and although the majority of the population identifies as Muslim, the state recognizes no official religion. Despite this secular stance, Islam has been resurgent in Turkey in the 21st century. Moreover, the relative openness of Turkish society has cultivated vibrant religious (and non-religious) minority communities, placing it at the forefront of global demographic changes in religion. As a result, Turkey has fostered a perennial dynamism among expressions of religious practice, belief, and identity. The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Turkey offers a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which religion is understood, experienced, and contested in contemporary Turkey. The Handbook is arranged into thematic sections dealing with religion and the origin of the state, theological trends in the early republic, Islam in rural and urban settings, religious minorities, religion and culture, religion and politics, and modern intellectual and religious trends. Though this is a seemingly narrow topic, the subject of religion in Turkey attracts considerable interest both within and outside of the academy. Paradoxically, the study of modern Turkish theology is still in its infancy in the Western academy, not only because of the inaccessibility of the sources to non-Turkish speakers, but also because of an over-emphasis on the study of Turkish secularism, to the detriment of the study of religion itself. The Handbook thus represents an important intervention by presenting themes from modern Turkish theology, while opening the field of religious and Islamic studies to include more voices from Turkey. With co-editors in chief specializing in religious studies, theology, and anthropology, the Handbook provides the definitive reference work in this growing field.
