Not defending innovation while living it: An ethnomethodological experiment on the students of the faculty of theology at Dokuz Eylul University

This study is a daily-life essay with the purpose to examine the influence of Islamic tradition versus Islamic modernism debate on the students studying at the Faculty of Theology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey. The conflict between the traditional religious worldview and the modern religious worldview brings out a lot of controversies. By revealing the reasons underlying the fact that individuals with a traditional understanding do not accept renewal in their daily actions but live it, we aim to explain the conflict between the traditional discourse and the modern action in the modern era. Therefore, it is important for our study to evaluate this main discussion through the students, and provide concrete examples. This study consists of an introduction and two parts. In the introduction part, the aim of this study, its importance, method, limitations, scope and difficulties are discussed. In the first part, the relationship between Ethnomethodology and religion is investigated; text, textual interpretations and religious worldviews have been put forward through mentality typologies such as traditionalism, modernism, and Islamic modernism. In the second part, the subject which is theoretically discussed in the first part is exemplified on the students of the Faculty of Theology at Dokuz Eylul University. With in-depth inverviews with the students, the reasons for the discourse-action conflict and how they are justified have been evaluated in the context of mentality typologies. Keywords: Sociology of Religion, Etnomethodology, Religion, Tradition(alism), Modernity, Islamic Modernism, Secularization, Legitimation.