Reading Mordecai M. Kaplan Through Emile Durkheim: Religion Concept and Collective Consciousness

Öz

This study investigates the ways in which Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-1983), a Jewish thinker, sociologist and philosopher, who was the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism Movement having emerged in USA in the XXth century and who considered Judaism as the religious civilization of the Jewish society, was influenced by French sociologist Emeile Durkheim (1858-1917). Like many other scientists and thinkers, Kaplan also particularly benefited from Durkheim’s religious studies who contributed to the process in which sociology became a scientific branch.

Kaplan especially inspired from Durkheim’s opinions such as religion concepti, God-idea, sacred and collective onsciousness. For Kaplan, religion is primarily a social phenomenon. To grasp its reality, to observe its workings and to further its growth we must study its functioning in some social group. According to him, religion is product of community. Kaplan points out two concepts as the social manifestation of religion. One of them is The God-idea, the other is sacred. He places God in the center of religious experience. For him, faith is based on God-idea. Kaplan, like Durkheim, argues that the essence of every religion depends on the sacred emotion. The sacred means to supreme value. People and all community may tend to give the supreme value to particular objects, assets, persons and opinions in the time. One of the most important aspects of Kaplan's inspiration from Durkheim is collective counsciousness which is considered as social power in Durkheim’s thought system. According to Kaplan, religion is living energy style which exists in all community. For him, this social energy called collective consciousness is the way of life of Jewish society.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• E.Durkheim,Mordecai M. Kaplan,Religion,God,Sacred,Collective Consciousness

EMILE DURKHEIM ÜZERİNDEN MORDECAI M. KAPLAN’I OKUMAK: DİN KAVRAMI VE KOLEKTİF BİLİNÇ

Öz

Bu makale, XX. Yüzyılda Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde ortaya çıkan Yahudilikte Yeniden Yapılanma Hareketi’nin kurucusu olan ve Yahudiliği, Yahudi toplumunun dini medeniyeti olarak gören Yahudi düşünür, sosyolog, filozof Mordecai M. Kaplan’ın (1881-1983) Fransız sosyolog Emile Durkhem’den (1858-1917) etkilendiği yönleri inceler. Kaplan da birçok bilim ve fikir adamı gibi, sosyolojinin bir bilim haline gelmesinde önemli katkılar sağlayan Durkheim’ın özellikle din alanında yaptığı çalışmalardan yararlanmıştır.

Kaplan, Durkhem’in özellikle din kavramı, Tanrı, kutsal ve kolektif bilinç fikirlerinden etkilenmiştir. Kaplan’a göre, din esasen sosyal bir fenomendir. Dinin hakikatini kavramak, çalışma tarzını gözlemlemek ve gelişimini takip etmek için bazı sosyal gruplar içinde işleyişini incelemek gerekir. Dini toplumun bir ürünü olarak kabul eden Kaplan, dininin toplumsal tezahürü olarak iki kavrama işaret etmektedir. Bu kavramlardan birincisi Tanrı, diğeri de kutsaldır.O, Tanrı’yı dini tecrübenin merkezine yerleştirmektedir. İnancın temeli onun “God-idea” dediği “Tanrı-fikri”ne dayanır. Kaplan, Durkheim gibi her dinin özünde kutsal duygusunun yer aldığını savunur. Kutsalın karşılığı “yüce değerdir.” Kaplan’a göre, zaman içinde insanlar ve tüm toplumlar belli nesnelere, varlıklara, kişilere ve fikirlere bir dokunmazlık statüsü  verme eğiliminde olabilir. Kaplan’ın Durkheim’den ilham aldığı en önemli hususlardan biri de Durkheim düşünce sisteminde yer alan  ve bir toplumsal güç olarak kabul edilen kolektif bilinç kavramıdır. Kaplan’a göre din bütün sosyal gruplarda var olan canlı bir enerji biçimidir. Kaplan için, kolektif bilinç denilen bu toplumsal enerji Yahudi toplumunun yaşam şeklidir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• E. Durkheim,Mordecai M. Kaplan,Din,Tanrı,Kutsal,Kolektif Bilinç

Kaynakça

1. AYDIN, Fuat, “Çevirmenin Önsözü” Emile Durkheim Dini Hayatın İlkel Biçimleri, Ataç Yayınları, İstanbul 2005.
2. DINER, Hasia R., The Jews of The United States (1654 To 2000), Unıvesıty of Calıfornıa Press, Berkeley 2004.
3. DURKHEIM, Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, translated and with an Introductinon by Karen E. Fields, The Free Pess, New York 1995.
4. ------------, The Rules of Sociolocal Method, trans. W. D. Halls, The Free Press, New York, 1982.
5. FIEALS, Karen E., “Religion As Eminently Social Thing,”, Translator’s Introduction, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, New York 1995.
6. GOLDSMITH, Emanuel S., “Mordecai M. Kaplan: His Interpretatio of Judaism”, Dynamıc Judaısm The Essential Writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Edit by Emanuel S. Goldsmith and Mel Scult, The Reconstructıonist Press, New York 1991.
7. GREENBERG, Gershon, Modern Jewish Thinkers, Academic Studies Press, Brighton 2011.
8. HARMAN, Ömer Faruk “Dağ” Mad., DİA, 1993, c. 8.

9. KAPLAN, Mordecai Menahem, Judaism As A Civilization Toward A Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life, Thomas Yoseloff Press, New York1934.
10. -----------, Judaism in Transition, Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 1936.
11. -----------, Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Vol. I 1913-1934, edited by Mel Scult, the Reconstructionist Press, Detroit 2001.
12. -----------, Quetions Jews Ask, Reconstructionist Press, New York 1956.
13. -----------, The Future of The American Jew, Reconstructionist Press, New York 1981.
14. -----------, The Meaning of God In Modern Jewısh Relıgıon, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1994.
15. -----------, Judaism Without Supernaturalism, The Reconstructıonıst Press, New York 1967
16. -----------, “ What Is Judaism?”, The Menorah Journal, Volume I Number 5, December New York1915.
17. -----------,“The Evolution of the Idea of God in Jewish Religion”, The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 57, The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Volume of the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1967.
18. KUTSAL KİTAP, Yeni Yaşam Yayınları, İstanbul 2001.
19. LIBOWİTZ, Richard, Mordecai M. Kaplan and The Development of Reconstructionism, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York 1983.
20. MILLER, W.Watts, “Durkheım, Kant, The Immortal Soul And God”, On Durkheım’s Elementary Forms Of Relıgıous Lıfe, Edited by N.J.Allen, W.S.F.Pickering and W.Watts Millers., Routledge, New York1998.
21. MIRABLE English Dictionary, Mira Publishing Universty College London, İstanbul 2008.
22. PICKERING, W.S.F., Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories, Cambridge 2009.
23. RAPHAEL, Marc Lee, Judaism in America, Columbia University Press, New York 2003.
24. SCULT, Mel, Judaism Faces The Twentieth Century: A Biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Wayne University Press, Detroit 1994.
25. ------------, “Kaplan and Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Theology of the Individual”, Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 12 No. 2, Mordecai Kaplan’s “Judaism as a Civilization”: Legacy of an American İdea Winter, 2006.
26. ------------, “Kaplan and His God: An Ambıvalent Relatıonshop”, The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Indıana Unıversıty Press, 2013
27. SELTZER, Rober M., “Kaplan and Jewish Modernity”, The American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Edited by Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Mel Scult, and Robert Seltzer,(New York 1990.
28. STEDMAN, Jones Sue, “The Concept Of Belıef In The Elementary Forms”, On Durkheım’s Elementary Forms Of Relıgıous Lıfe, Edited by N.J.Allen, W.S.F.Pickering and W.Watts Millers., Routledge, New York1998.