Fethullah Gulen Tolerance, Dialogue and Peace
About the paper:
This paper will aim to give an analysis of the different dimensions of Fethullah Gulen’s analysis of peace as horizon for the different activities of the faith-based service movement inspired by him. First of all, the author sketches why, according to Fethullah Gulen’s analysis, a Muslim cannot but strive for peace, since that is implied in the very name “muslim” which means – according to a well-known hadith – “someone from whose tongues and hands others are save”. Consequently, in his interpretation of the Qur’an, Fethullah Gulen interprets the situation of peace between the “people of the book” (adherents of the one true God) as the normal situation, and a situation of warfare as an exceptional case. In the second place, he will argue that according to Gulen peace is not only political peace but in the first place a situation of inner tranquility and rest, which is one of the goals of the Sufi path, will be argued. Finally, he discusses how Fethullah Gulen in his writings sketches peace as a universal horizon toward which the different initiatives of the faith-based service movement (hizmet) inspired by Gulen hope to contribute.
About the author:
Pim (W.G.B.M.) Valkenberg: Studied theology at the Utrecht State University and the Catholic Theological University of Utrecht in Netherlands. After the public defence of his dissertation on Thomas Aquinas and the use of Scripture in his theology, he worked as assistant and associate professor of dogmatic theology and the theology of religions at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1987-2007), where he studied Arabic and Islam as well. He was a visiting fellow or professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), St. Augustine’s College in Johannesburg (South Africa), the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana) and Loyola College in Maryland (Baltimore). Since September 2007, he works as a theologian with special interest in Christian-Muslim dialogue at Loyola University Maryland. His recent research concentrates on Christian-Muslim dialogue in the context of Abrahamic partnership, both in the present and in the past. His publications include a dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas (Words of the Living God, Leuven 2000), on Abrahamic dialogue in the Middle Ages (The Three Rings, Leuven 2005) and on interreligious dialogue (The Polemical Dialogue, Saarbrücken 1997). His most recent publication is: Sharing Lights on the Way to God: Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Theology in the Context of Abrahamic Partnership (Amsterdam / New York: Editions Rodopi, 2006), containing reflections on Muslim-Christian dialogue in the Netherlands and readings of texts by al-Ghazali, Said Nursi and Fethullah Gulen from the perspective of a comparative Muslim-Christian theology. Together with G. Celik, he published “Gulen’s Approach to Dialogue and Peace. Its theoretical Background and Some Practical Perspectives”in International Journal of Diversity 7 (2007)/1:29-37. Recently, Dr. Valkenberg served at the editorial board of the conference Peaceful Coexistence: Fethullah Gulen’s Initiatives in the Contemporary World (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Nov. 22-23, 2007). He is in the process of writing several books on Fethullah Gulen and the network of faith-based service communities inspired by him in Dutch, Turkish and English.