The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey

The topic of religiosity in Turkey is often restricted to studies of secularization or fundamentalism. However, new religious phenomena, especially deism, are now drawing much attention in Turkey, yet most studies are focusing on small samples. Our study widens this view by presenting questionnaire...

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Main Authors: Sarah Demmrich, Hasan Kaplan, Abdulkerim Şenel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-Orient 2023-10-01
Series:European Journal of Turkish Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/8168
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author Sarah Demmrich
Hasan Kaplan
Abdulkerim Şenel
author_facet Sarah Demmrich
Hasan Kaplan
Abdulkerim Şenel
author_sort Sarah Demmrich
collection DOAJ
description The topic of religiosity in Turkey is often restricted to studies of secularization or fundamentalism. However, new religious phenomena, especially deism, are now drawing much attention in Turkey, yet most studies are focusing on small samples. Our study widens this view by presenting questionnaire data on a variety of religious self-assessment categories derived from a representative quota sample in relationship to sociodemographic and other religiosity variables. Only one-third define themselves as orthodox religious while 62 % identify as ‘believers’. The categories deism, non-belief/atheism, and religiously indecisiveness cover 7.2 % in total. Orthodox religious individuals differ in their sociodemographic profile from the rest (are older, more rural, less educated, higher rate of unemployment) and a sharp drop of all religiosity scores was observed from the orthodox religious to the rest. Deists, non-believers/atheists, and religiously indecisive individuals can, together with some ‘believers’, be grouped into a highly secularized cluster. Our findings suggest that there is a huge variety of religiosities in contemporary Turkey, despite the over-religionization imposed by the current government. Religious educators and clergy should welcome such changes by promoting development towards religious maturity independent of political agendas.
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spelling doaj-art-0d3b1751c4cc4f5da1472c8b437d99dd2024-12-09T13:10:00ZengAssociation pour la Recherche sur le Moyen-OrientEuropean Journal of Turkish Studies1773-05462023-10-0110.4000/ejts.8168The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary TurkeySarah DemmrichHasan KaplanAbdulkerim ŞenelThe topic of religiosity in Turkey is often restricted to studies of secularization or fundamentalism. However, new religious phenomena, especially deism, are now drawing much attention in Turkey, yet most studies are focusing on small samples. Our study widens this view by presenting questionnaire data on a variety of religious self-assessment categories derived from a representative quota sample in relationship to sociodemographic and other religiosity variables. Only one-third define themselves as orthodox religious while 62 % identify as ‘believers’. The categories deism, non-belief/atheism, and religiously indecisiveness cover 7.2 % in total. Orthodox religious individuals differ in their sociodemographic profile from the rest (are older, more rural, less educated, higher rate of unemployment) and a sharp drop of all religiosity scores was observed from the orthodox religious to the rest. Deists, non-believers/atheists, and religiously indecisive individuals can, together with some ‘believers’, be grouped into a highly secularized cluster. Our findings suggest that there is a huge variety of religiosities in contemporary Turkey, despite the over-religionization imposed by the current government. Religious educators and clergy should welcome such changes by promoting development towards religious maturity independent of political agendas.https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/8168Turkeyatheismorthodoxybelievingdeismreligious indecisiveness
spellingShingle Sarah Demmrich
Hasan Kaplan
Abdulkerim Şenel
The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
European Journal of Turkish Studies
Turkey
atheism
orthodoxy
believing
deism
religious indecisiveness
title The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
title_full The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
title_fullStr The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
title_full_unstemmed The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
title_short The Variety of Religiosities in Contemporary Turkey
title_sort variety of religiosities in contemporary turkey
topic Turkey
atheism
orthodoxy
believing
deism
religious indecisiveness
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/8168
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