​1. Chapter 1/Introduction.- 2. Chapter 2 Origins: Sunni Orthodoxy.- 3. Chapter 3 The Islamic Idea of Nature.- 4. Chapter 4 The Contested Boundaries of Turkish Islam.- 5. Chapter 5 Mapping the Cases: Official Islam and Islamic Movements.- 6. Chapter 6 The Islamic Idea of Nature in Contemporary Turkey.- 7. Conclusion/Chapter 3 Conclusion. 

This book explores how traditional Sunni Muslim conceptions have informed or shaped Islamization strategies in contemporary Turkey. In particular, the author proposes to examine the teaching curriculum of the Ministry of Education, which oversees Turkish public religious education; the activities and teachings of Diyanet, the constitutional organ responsible for managing all religious affairs; and the ideas and activities of three Muslim religious groups currently operating in Turkey. The monograph explains how the interpretation and practice of Islam affects various situations in the Muslim world and analyzes the concept of nature in Islam, which has been an indivisible component of Islamic tradition since the beginning. 

​Gokhan Bacik is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Politics and European Studies at Palacky University, Czech Republic.

“This path-breaking book provides a philosophically deep explanation of Turkey’s failure to show the compatibility of Islam with scientific progress and liberal democracy.  Bacik reveals that major Islamic communities and tariqats in Turkey still preserve medieval notions of causality, nature, and science. He traces the genealogy of these views in the historical formation of orthodox Islamic theology around the tenth and eleventh centuries. By criticizing the orthodoxy, Bacık demonstrates possibilities of reform in Islamic thought.” (Ahmet T. Kuru, author of Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison, and Professor, San Diego State University, USA)“This book delves deep in the idea of nature as an alternative perhaps more instructive analytical approach to critical questions around free will, causality and critical knowledge in Islamic hermeneutics. It is a significant contribution to the study of contemporary Islam and Muslim societies and will open up exciting spaces for important if at times uneasy discussions around contemporary Muslim politics”. (Fethi Mansouri, Professor and UNESCO Chair, Deakin University, Australia)

Provides insights into the Turkish society’s complex encounter with religion and modernity Examines how the Islamic idea of nature affects the interplay of Muslims and religion in Turkey Analyzes specifically Diyanet and compulsory religious courses that students have during eight consecutive years

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