The Importance of Dialogue in Turkey

Abstract

Introduction As social beings, people need each other at every moment of their lives. In twenty-first century, mass media and technology have turned world into a global village. Globalization underlines and stresses global consciousness and dialogue. In this era, humanity needs to learn importance of coexistence and dignity entailed in being human. For this purpose, a significant attempt has been made by Christians to rebuild their relationships with different Christian groups and members of other religions. Even though dialogue among people of different religious traditions has continued throughout history in form of individual relationships such as friendships, neighborly relations, or business connections, formal and planned interfaith/interreligious dialogue started and became a worldwide movement in second half of twentieth century. The role of Catholic Church and World Council of Churches cannot be denied in this movement, along with help of technology and modernity. Christian scholars' positive effects on Christian call for dialogue should not be missed. Remaining freer from institutional barriers, these scholars could take significant steps for theology of religions and dialogue. Among them my doctoral program advisor, Dr. Leonard Swidler, holds a remarkable position. He understands dialogue not only as a theological, philosophical, or practical concept but also as an ontological concept. By stating a dance of universe, Swidler is convinced that everything in universe is naturally in dialogue. In this respect, he stated that the very essence of our humanity is dialogical, and a fulfilled human life is highest expression of cosmic dance of dialogued. (1) His numerous works and tireless efforts to create an atmosphere of peace at grassroots and academic levels are significant. The growing global role of Dialogue Institute at Temple University and Journal of Ecumenical Studies are among fruits of his efforts. In many of our conversations I was able to observe how Swidler is able to witness historical survey of dialogue, especially Muslim-Christian dialogue. He was among scholars who attended first institutional and organized Muslim-Christian dialogue event in Libya in 1976. Since then, he has been working to teach his Muslim students to have more accurate information regarding members of other religions. I should also note that Swidler's special stress on growing role of Turkish Muslims in interreligious dialogue encouraged me to explore Turkish response to Christian call for dialogue. The question of dialogue within Turkish context is an important question. Without a worldwide religious authority, every Muslim scholar and community has tried to understand and respond to Christian call for dialogue in their own way. Turkey, as one of most influential and modern Muslim-majority states, has joined discussion about interreligious dialogue, especially with Christians, since 1980's. Being very diverse in culture, religion, and thought, Turkish scholars' discussions and critiques of interreligious dialogue requested by Christian world have clearly contributed to such dialogue on a global scale in recent decades. In this respect, it will be helpful to show how issue of interreligious dialogue is significant in Turkish context. Given that Christian population of Turkey is only about 170,000, (2) in a total population of 76,000,000, one might think issue of interreligious dialogue is not significant for academic research. However, considering following points and ongoing discussions/studies in Turkey, importance of study is apparent. The Importance of Dialogue in Turkish Context First of all, cultural and intellectual heritage of Turkey provides a very broad sense of issue of dialogue. …