Ismailaga community in a sociological context

The religious revival in Turkey, especially after the 1970s, has a very close connection with the structural change manifested by the industrialization, urbanization and modernization/secularization processes of religious groupings and orders. In Turkey, religious groups and congregations, which have been pacified from time to time according to the attitude of the political power, have been a reality of this country at all times and under all conditions. People who could not/do not want to keep up with the conditions of modernization, who could not find a place in the public sphere and were pushed out of the centre, returned to these formations and felt a sense of belonging to these groups and thus felt safe against the pressures and impositions of the nation state and formed an identity. It can be said that the void created by the removal of religion from modern life has begun to be filled by religious groups. For this reason, religious group studies are considered important in determining the position of religion in the modern period. Religious groups and communities have maintained their reactive and protest attitudes both throughout history and in the modern period. The second goal of this study, which is based on the hypothesis that the İsmailağa Community, which is defined in the literature with its closed structure and protest stance, is modernized/modernizing, is to reveal the internal organization and characteristic features of the group. The first part, which is based on the assumption that man has not lost contact with religion/sacred throughout history, includes the theoretical framework of religion's journey to the modern period. In the second part, which is based on the determination of the structural analysis and characteristic features of the İsmailağa Community, the course of the group, which is thought to go from an unconventional structure to institutionalism, has been tried to be shown. In the third part, which consists of interviews with the members of the congregation, the classical structure and teaching of the group in practice/everyday life is followed. Keywords: Religion, religious group, order, congregation, modernization.