Özet:

In this study, the issue of religious authority in Turkey and the individualization of religious knowledge that provides legitimacy to religious authority due to modernization are mentioned. In connection with the concept of authority, religious authority is defined as "the authority to make a decisive judgment on the believers in terms of the basic principles of religion". In Islam, this authority belongs to Allah and His representative (messenger) Mohammed. Apart from that, there are religious authority representatives who see themselves as the "heirs of the Prophet" and who have the way of producing religious knowledge with the methods of "ijma" and "qiyas" based on revelation and sunnah. The meaning that modernization gives to knowledge and the individual makes it possible to criticize the representatives of religious authority who cannot overcome traditionalism. This situation is clearly seen in the attitudes of individualized religious in Turkey. The fact that information has become easily accessible in the modern period ensures that the "traditional" interpretations of religious authority representatives are abandoned and individualized religious obtain religious knowledge with the opportunities provided by modernization.

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