Inclusions and the Role of the Individual

This chapter continues the discussion of the work of Recep Alpyağıl. While the previous chapter discussed the question of what constitutes and authentically Turkish Muslim canon of philosophical theology and why it is integral to the Turkish context, this chapter investigates Alpyağıl’s views as to what this canon might look like in practice, how it relates to religious hermeneutics, and the role of the individual Muslim in navigating and drawing meaning from such a canon. For Alpyağıl, the individual stands in “hypoleptic” continuity with her past, best represented as a spiral that reaches back to the past but also moves forward into the future. This chapter portrays Alpyağıl’s vision of the believing individual in continuity with past and with future as a prime example of how Turkish theology can dialectically make use of multiple intellectual traditions to resist being reduced to simplified binaries.