Türk düşüncesinde modernleşme ve İslam: Rasim Özdenören

The concept of modernization emerges as a social process that penetrates the entire life of individual from economy to politics, from culture to belief systems. The concept is based on a materialist outlook, the rejection of traditional and national, and the aim of making progress by adopting concrete and rational knowledge. There is a negative relationship between the concept of religion categorized as tradition and modernization. In Turkish modernization, it was aimed to reach the level of an advanced civilization through establishing a European style social, political and economic institutions and structures in Turkish society. It can be said that the process which started in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 18th century, has gained speed with the establishment of the Republic, took on a different character and still maintains. Within this framework, developments such as declaration of the Tanzimat and Islahat Decrees, the transition to the Constitutional Monarchy regime and the establishment of the Republican administration are significant turning points in this way. Rasim Özdenören writing for more than half a century, continues to present a unique perspective on modernization and Islam, and to find solutions. In this study, Özdenören's perspective and ideas on Turkish modernization are examined. The evaluations to be made will be carried out through the books of Özdenören on the relationship between modernization and Islam which have an intensive and direct contact with the subject. Keywords: Rasim Özdenören, West, Islam, modernization, Tanzimat, Kemalism.