II. Vatikan Konsili: Katolik Kilisesinin İslam’a Bakışı ve Müslümanlarla İlişkisi

Abstract

This paper deals with the Catholic Church’s perspective on Islam and ıts relationship with Muslims in the light of the Second Vatican Council documents. It is very important because the Second Vatican Council and ıts decisions to understand the Catholic and Muslim relations today. Although the Church discussed Catholic-Muslims relations 60 years ago, but since the Vatican II is the last general council, it based all decisions and implementations regarding Islam and relations with Muslims on this Council. Morever, ıt is the general council refering to Muslims for the first time. It is the council that officially begins Catholic-Muslim relations and determines how to will be these relations. Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the Church's relationship with non-Christian religions, is the council document most concerning to Muslims. In this document, espacially the Church's approaches to Islam and its relation with Muslims.The phrase "in our time" in the first paragraph of the document justifies the Church's attitude towards Islam and its closeness with Muslims. Today, more than half of the world's eight billion population consists of Christians (mostly Catholic) and Muslims. And nowadays, just as this document (N.A.1) states, humanity is getting closer to each other, and the bonds between different people are getting stronger due to travels, migrations, media, and technological developments. At the same time, Catholic-Muslim encounters increases rapidly on some platforms in which information and ideas are exchanged such as social media. Thusly, the Church determined the ways of how to dialogue and collobaration with Muslims in order to live together in Nostra Aetate. This paper aimed to reveal the Second Vatican Council's teaching on Islam and the Catholic-Muslim relationship. As well, the Catholic-Muslims relations analyized from Catholic Church’s perspective. It's refered to the other council documents such as Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, Ad Gentes, including Nostra Aetate. The following main sources studying is: Austin Flannery's the book in which he gathered the documents of the council, Vatican Council II: Constitutions, Decrees, Declarations; Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths Vatican II and its Impact” edited by Vladimir Latinovic; Gavin D’Costa’s Vatican II, Catholic Doctrines on Jews and Muslims; S. J. Gerald O’Collins’s The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions. Thus, this paper, provided in a historical method, replied to the question of how important the decisions of Vatican Council II is understanding contemporary Catholic-Muslim relations. And than, It presented the Church that recognizes non-Christian religions within the inclusivist paradigm, ıts positive speech and conciliation attitude towards Islam and Muslims. Finally, It illuminated to the style of dialogue based on mutual understanding and collaboration that the Church initiated with Islam and Muslims.