Between Thought and Action

An Intellectual Biography of Fethullah Gülen

Ori Z Soltes

• Publisher: Blue Dome
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781682065365
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

This volume has two goals. One is to explore the life and the thought of Fethullah Gülen and the important educational and peace-inducing activities in which he and those inspired by him have been engaged for several decades. The outcome of those efforts—of creating schools and providing diverse social and cultural services that bring people together people from diverse backgrounds—has been to provide the face of civic and civil Islam as an antidote to the uglier side of political Islam. The second goal has been to make clear how the accusations against Mr. Gülen by the minions of Recep Tayyip Erdo?an could hardly be more false: that what Gülen and the hizmet (service) movement that he has inspired are ultimately about is improving the world and saving it form its uglier inclinations. A brief discussion of his life and thought has been supplemented by the voices of more than 70 interviews conducted over several years, with individuals intimate and more distant but all inspired to be part of the process of serving humanity.

Table of contents

• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The World of Gülen’s Birth
• Chapter One: A Brief Biography: Piety Within a Familial Context
• Chapter Two: A Brief Biography of Gülen’s Thought: From His Sources to His Expression
• Chapter Three: From Words to Actions: Dialogue, the Hizmet Movement, and Altruistic Activities
• Chapter Four: In Their Own Words: The Followers and Sympathizers of Gülen and Hizmet Speak
• Chapter Five: Conclusions: Gülen, Hizmet, Social, Civil and Political Islam—and Sports
• Chapter Six: Two Epilogues
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• General Index