The Expansion of Prophetic Experience

The Expansion of Prophetic Experience
Author: Abdulkarim Soroush
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2008-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047424360

Abdulkarim Soroush is known primarily for his epistemological/hermeneutical theory, the “Contraction and Expansion of Religious Knowledge,” and its application to Islamic political theory and religious pluralism. While his Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam applies that theory to plurality and the historicity of understanding and interpretation of religion, this book captures some of his original theories about religion itself. The Expansion of Prophetic Experience treats the historicity of the Prophet Muhammad’s revelatory experience, including human and contextual influences on the genesis of the sacred Text. It presents substantial aspects of Soroush’s Neo-Rationalist hermeneutical project for an Islamic reformed theology and ethics, systematically leading Islamic reformation beyond conventional projects of piecemeal adjustments to the Shariʿah or selective re-interpretations of the Qurʾān.

The Expansion of Prophetic Experience

The Expansion of Prophetic Experience
Author: ʻAbd al-Karīm Surūsh
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2009-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004171053

Abdulkarim Soroush is known primarily for his epistemological/hermeneutical theory, the a oeContraction and Expansion of Religious Knowledge, a and its application to Islamic political theory and religious pluralism. While his "Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam "applies that theory to plurality and the historicity of understanding and interpretation of religion, this book captures some of his original theories about religion itself. "The Expansion of Prophetic Experience" treats the historicity of the Prophet Muhammada (TM)s revelatory experience, including human and contextual influences on the genesis of the sacred Text. It presents substantial aspects of Sorousha (TM)s Neo-Rationalist hermeneutical project for an Islamic reformed theology and ethics, systematically leading Islamic reformation beyond conventional projects of piecemeal adjustments to the ShariEah or selective re-interpretations of the QurE3/4An.

Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam

Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam
Author: Abdolkarim Soroush
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2000-04-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0195351916

Abdolkarim Soroush has emerged as one of the leading moderate revisionist thinkers of the Muslim world. He and his contemporaries in other Muslim countries are shaping what may become Islam's equivalent of the Christian Reformation: a period of questioning traditional practices and beliefs and, ultimately, of upheaval. Presenting eleven of his essays, this volume makes Soroush's thought readily available in English for the first time. The essays set forth his views on such matters as the freedom of Muslims to interpret the Qur'an, the inevitability of change in religion, the necessity of freedom of belief, and the compatibility of Islam and democracy. Throughout, Soroush emphasizes the rights of individuals in their relationship with both government and God, explaining that the ideal Islamic state can only be defined by the beliefs and will of the majority.

The Philosophy of Religion in Post-Revolutionary Iran

The Philosophy of Religion in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Author: Heydar Shadi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2018-11-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 135161102X

This book explores the intellectual discourse in post-revolutionary Iran. It focuses on Abdolkarim Soroush, a leading Muslim liberal thinker, whose theory of religion is regarded as highly relevant to the current theological and intellectual dynamics in the Islamic world. The Philosophy of Religion in Post-Revolutionary Iran discusses why and how Soroush's thought has developed from an Islamic apologetic modernist theology in the 1970s to a liberal theory about religion in post-revolutionary Iran. Through a close and detailed analysis of Soroush's main theories, the book argues that Soroush's thought evolved, through reception of post-positivist epistemology and interaction with Islamism in practice, into a historicist and pluralist theory of religion, a theory that regards religion, including Islam, as being a contextual and historical dialogue between man and the Absolute. The book also highlights some shortcomings of Soroush’s reform project. Specifically, it notes that Soroush, consciously or unconsciously, has not yet admitted many extensive consequences of his theories, such as those relating to historicity of religious rituals (‘ibadat) or recognition of the post-Mohammadan revelations and religions. In addition, some other features and implications of Soroush’s thought, such as a historical-critical approach to the Koran, post-secular and post-Islamist theologies, and his dialogical approach that goes beyond the Orientalism–Occidentalism dichotomy, are discussed. Providing a detailed overview on this leading Muslim thinker, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Islamic Philosophy, Middle East Studies, and Philosophy of Religion.

Baxter's Explore the Book

Baxter's Explore the Book
Author: J. Sidlow Baxter
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 1846
Release: 2010-09-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310871395

Explore the Book is not a commentary with verse-by-verse annotations. Neither is it just a series of analyses and outlines. Rather, it is a complete Bible survey course. No one can finish this series of studies and remain unchanged. The reader will receive lifelong benefit and be enriched by these practical and understandable studies. Exposition, commentary, and practical application of the meaning and message of the Bible will be found throughout this giant volume. Bible students without any background in Bible study will find this book of immense help as will those who have spent much time studying the Scriptures, including pastors and teachers. Explore the Book is the result and culmination of a lifetime of dedicated Bible study and exposition on the part of Dr. Baxter. It shows throughout a deep awareness and appreciation of the grand themes of the gospel, as found from the opening book of the Bible through Revelation.

The Imperatives of Progressive Islam

The Imperatives of Progressive Islam
Author: Adis Duderija
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2017-02-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1315438828

With the proliferation of transnational Muslim networks over the last two decades, the religious authority of traditionally educated Muslim scholars, the uluma, has come under increasing scrutiny and disruption. These networks have provided a public space for multiple perspectives on Islam to be voiced, allowing "progressive" Islamic worldviews to flourish alongside more (neo)traditional outlooks. This book brings together the scholarship of leading progressive Muslim scholars, incorporating issues pertaining to politics, jurisprudence, ethics, theology, epistemology, gender and hermeneutics in the Islamic tradition. It provides a comprehensive discussion of the normative imperatives behind a progressive Muslim thought, as well as outlining its various values and aims. Presenting this emerging and distinctive school of Islamic thought in an engaging and scholarly manner, this is essential reading for any academic interested in contemporary religious thought and the development of modern Islam.

Contemporary Perspectives on Revelation and Qu'ranic Hermeneutics

Contemporary Perspectives on Revelation and Qu'ranic Hermeneutics
Author: Ali Akbar
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre: Qurʼan
ISBN: 1474456189

A number of innovative hermeneutical approaches emerged in Muslim exegetical discourse in the second half of the 20th century. Among these developments is a trend of systematic reform theology that emphasises a humanistic approach, whereby revelation is understood to be dependent not only upon its initiator, God, but also upon its recipient, Prophet Muhammad, who takes an active role in the process.Ali Akbar examines the works of four noted scholars of Islam: Fazlur Rahman (Pakistan), Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari (Iran) and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (Egypt). His study shows that the consequences of taking a humanistic approach to understanding revelation are not confined to the realm of speculation about God-human relations, but also to interpreting Qur'A nic socio-political precepts. And the four scholars emerge as a distinctive group of Muslim thinkers who open up a new horizon in contemporary Islamic discourse.

Equality

Equality
Author: Robert E. Tully
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2019-12-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0761871179

The essays in this volume on the subject of equality are the work of scholars at Bard College and West Point. Their research falls within the areas of history, religion, legal theory, social science, ethics and philosophy. The regions covered include the Middle and Far East, Europe, and America; the time periods studied are both contemporary and historical. Each essay is a well-detailed exploration which assumes the reader has no prior acquaintance with the topic. Together, the studies reveal both conflicting standards of equality as well as patterns of pernicious inequality. In an ideal world, equality and inequality among humans would vary in acceptable proportion, increase of the one ensuring decrease of the other. Unfortunately, as the studies illustrate, any such expectation of progress in the real world is almost routinely thwarted. Despite the wide variety of topics, a common thread binds these essays. Human nature seems to harbor a moral deficiency lying deeper than any written laws and those traditional customs which promote inequality and breed injustice. The fault is prominent in those who champion unjust laws or who willingly enforce discrimination but it is no less active in the silent many who condone the practice. The essays reveal the same persistent and unappealing trait which social groups from the remote past to the present manifest in various ways: blind determination to perpetuate whatever advantages one group believes it enjoys over another, convinced that its own members are more equal than theirs. Being made unequal, the others too easily become targets who are considered less worthy, sometimes even less human.

Between Heaven and Hell

Between Heaven and Hell
Author: Mohammad Hassan Khalil
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2013-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199945411

Introduction: grappling with the salvation question / Mohammad Hassan Khalil -- Failures of practice or failures of faith: are non-Muslims subject to the sharia? / A. Kevin Reinhart -- "No salvation outside Islam": Muslim modernists, democratic politics, and Islamic theological exclusivism / Mohammad Fadel -- The ambiguity of the Qur'anic command / William C. Chittick -- Beyond polemics and pluralism: the universal message of the Qur'an / Reza Shah-Kazemi -- The path of Allah or the paths of Allah? Revisiting classical and medieval Sunni approaches to the salvation of others / Yasir Qadhi -- Realism and the real: Islamic theology and the problem of alternative expressions of God / Tim Winter -- Non-reductive pluralism and religious dialogue / Muhammad Legenhausen -- Oneself as the saved other? the ethics and soteriology of difference in two Muslim thinkers / Sajjad Rizvi -- The portrayal of Jews and the possibilities for their salvation in the Qur'an / Farid Esack -- Embracing relationality and theological tensions: Muslima theology, religious diversity, and fate / Jerusha Lamptey -- The food of the damned / David M. Freidenreich -- Acts of salvation: agency, others, and prayer beyond the grave in Islam / Marcia Hermansen -- Citizen Ahmad among the believers: salvation contextualized in Indonesia and Egypt / Bruce B. Lawrence

Contemporary Approaches to the Qurʾan and its Interpretation in Iran

Contemporary Approaches to the Qurʾan and its Interpretation in Iran
Author: Ali Akbar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000709795

This book sets out how contemporary Iranian scholars have approached the Qurʾān during recent decades. It particularly aims to explore the contributions of scholars that have emerged in the post 1979-revolution era, outlining their primary interpretive methods and foundational theories regarding the reading of the Qurʾān. Examining issues such as the status of women, democracy, freedom of religion and human rights, this book analyses the theoretical contributions of several Iranian scholars, some of which are new to the English-speaking academy. The hermeneutical approaches of figures such Abdolkarim Soroush, Muhammad Mojtahed Shabestari, Mohsen Kadivar, Hasan Yousefi-Eshkevari, Abolqasem Fanaie and Mostafa Malekian are presented and then analysed to demonstrate how a contextualist approach to the Qu’ran has been formed in response to the influence of Western Orientalism. The effect of this approach to the Qu’ran is then shown to have wide-ranging effects on Iranian society. This study reveals Qu’ranic thought that has been largely overlooked by the West. It will, therefore. Be of great use to academics in Religious, Islamic and Qurʾānic studies as well as those studying the culture of Iran and the Middle East more generally.