bilig-25/ Spring 2003

SOCIO-CULTURAL CHANGE, RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS
REVIVAL IN AZERBAIJAN

 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abdulvahap TAŞTAN


ABSTRACT

       Azerbaijan experienced an important modernity process from 19th century during Czarism and Soviet Union, and became an arena for secular world view on the intellectual level in the frame of atheism. During this period, religion continued its existence as a cultural phenomenon by being abstracted from its ritual orientations. Religious and national values especially merged in burying ceremonies and Newruz festivals, influenced social and cultural life as a national tradition. Islam was conceived as a symbol of the collective conscious of history and culture in Azerbaijan and other Central Asian Turkic societies, and therefore, it functioned as a cultural bond among them. The period after independency from Soviet Union can be considered as the beginning of social and cultural change. In this process, in the frame of achieved experiences, religious revival has become as an important social phenomenon.
This study examines how religion has maintained its existence in Azerbaijan during Soviet period. Besides religious revival was taken into consideration in the frame of social and cultural change.


Key Words : Secularism, Official Islam-Parallel Islam, Religious Modernity, Religious Revival

 

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