Fethullah Gulen is a contemporary Turkish social and political philosopher. His preaching, teaching and writing over the years has sought to articulate the essence of Islam in its broadest self-definition. Fethullah Gulen views Islam as an ideal platform from which Muslims can and should engage a diverse world inhabitated by diverse peoples and diverse forms of faith. He envisions a world in which different peoples and different religious traditions interact with mutual respect and mutual affection.

Gulen's sense that the realm of science and technology and the realm of spirituality are complementary realms, and that humanity fares best when we work to join faith to modernity (rather than fleeing faith in pursuit of modernity) recalls Einstein's writing on science and religion. The pre-eminent physicist of the last century and one of the pre-eminent philosophers of this century share a conviction that a marriage between the description of what is in the world and the prescription of what should be in the world of human beings--all human beings, of whatever faith or color or ethnicity or gender--offers the means to guide all of us to a richer future.