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Trusting in Science and Religion
Parallels and Contrasts
By Rope Kojonen, University of Helsinki
Science relies on trust both in its public reception and in the collaborative collection of evidence, as it is impossible for anyone to verify everything independently. Might the presence of trust in scientific practice help show that trust in religious matters is also rational? Or might scientific practices rather undermine testimony as a source of religious knowledge? Parallels and contrasts between scientific and religious knowledge are common in the literature, despite the plurality of sciences and religions that exist making such comparisons difficult. In this article, I will analyse science-based arguments for and against the reliability of religious testimony. I begin with Mary Midgley’s argument against scientism, and use it to develop a parallel between religious and scientific trust. I then consider two arguments from science against religious trust: the argument from the superiority of science, and the argument from cultural evolution. I argue that utilization of work in social epistemology is helpful for understanding the parallels between scientific and religious trust in a nuanced manner, and that relating specific scientific and religious practices might be more useful than general-level critiques of religious rationality.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v1i4.23539
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Tags: #Religion #Science #ConflictThesis
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Perceptual transformation in Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy: The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) of Prophet Muḥammad
By Ismail Lala, Gulf University for Science and Technology
The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) represent arguably the most significant and unique events in the life of Prophet Muḥammad. However, the influential Sufi thinker Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) argues that the Prophet had thirty-four night journeys of which only one was physical. This physical night journey, and the ascension that took place with it, was the one in which he was given the five daily prayers. Ibn ‘Arabī thus employs the secondary night journeys and ascensions of Prophet Muḥammad to delineate a point of emulation between the Prophet’s spiritual experience and those of his nation. Muslims can also have their own ascensions, but their journeys cannot be physical, and, analogously, cannot have autonomous legislative authority. They can, nevertheless, cause a change in their perception that allows them to see the world as it truly is: a manifestation of the divine Names.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2024.2366044
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Tags: #God #Sufism #IbnArabi #Prophet
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Enacting Mysticism in the World: Practical Sufism in the Tariqa Karkariyya and Alawiyya
By John C. Thibdeau, Independent Researcher
In this article, I will touch on the ethical and moral possibilities of mysticism. On the one hand, I discuss the kinds of ethical work required to open and cultivate experiences of the divine. On the other hand, I look at how those experiences of the divine create new opportunities for kinds of ethical relationships to oneself, to others, and to the divine. In doing so, I connect the practices of asceticism—zuhd—with the types of experience characteristic of Sufi mysticism through the concept of tarbiya. Understanding taṣawwuf as an ongoing process in which experiences of the divine are a part, not an end, helps us grasp the intransitive nature of the term taṣawwuf itself. The goal in doing so is to think through what an ‘inner-worldly’ mysticism might look like—a category noticeably absent from Weber’s analysis. Part of its absence, I would suggest, is due to the fact that it does not map onto the passive–active distinction between mysticism and asceticism he tends to draw. But rather than merely critique Weber’s model, which, of course, is grounded in ideal types, and therefore nothing ever fits solely into one of his categories, my goal is to consider what an active inner-worldly mysticism might look like. In other words, what are the modes of ethical engagement and action made possible by those experiences which are considered to be direct experiences of the divine and how are those direct experiences in turn made possible by different kinds of ethical work? In this article, I will consider each of these in relation to two Sufi orders based on my fieldwork in Morocco—the Karkariyya and the Alawiyya. These are two closely related orders that are part of the Shadhiliyya, and they share several members within their spiritual lineages, with the split dating only to the 20th century. Through an analysis and comparison of the two groups, I investigate what an active mysticism could look like in the world today and hope to create new spaces for comparative mysticism that would see mystics as deeply concerned with changing their social worlds.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020111
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Tags: #Sufism #Islam #Religion #Mysticism
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Rethinking the Unio Mystica: From McGinn to Ibn ʿArabī
By Arjun Nair, niversity of Southern California
Research into the unio mystica has revealed what seems to be an area of “real discussion” between scholars of different traditions of mysticism, particularly those of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although this research serves as a promising start to the dialogue among scholars, it has also raised many questions about a “shared moment” that is nevertheless expressed in “irreducibly diverse” and distinct ways in each tradition. What purpose, for instance, can generic cross-cultural categories serve when they mean little or nothing to scholars in each tradition? By contrast, tradition-specific vocabularies are profuse and often difficult to represent in interlinguistic contexts without significant explanation. The challenge of translating mystical texts, imagery, and ideas across cultures and linguistic traditions raises obvious concerns about the misrepresentation and distortion of traditions in an environment of post-colonial critique. Nevertheless, the continued promise of dialogue calls for specialists of these traditions—particularly non-western and non-Christian traditions—to approach, assess, re-formulate, and even challenge the categories of mysticism from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of the traditions that they research. The present study models such an approach to scholarship in mysticism. It offers a (re)formulation of the unio mystica from within the theoretical frame of the 12th/13th-century Muslim/Sufi mystic, Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) and early members of his school of thought. By unpacking the primary terms involved in such an account—“God”, the “human being/self”, and “union”—from within the conceptual and theoretical horizons of that tradition, it problematizes the prevailing understanding of the unio mystica constructed from the writings of specialists in Christian mysticism. More importantly, it illustrates the payoff in terms of dialogue (incorporating the critique of existing theories) when each tradition operates confidently from its own milieu, developing its own theoretical resources for mysticism rather than prematurely embracing existing ideas or categories.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010094
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Tags: #Islam #IbnArabi #Mysticism #Christianity
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Medieval Finitism
By Mohammad Saleh Zarepour, The University of Manchester
Discussing various versions of two medieval arguments for the impossibility of infinity, this Element sheds light on early stages of the evolution of the notion of INFINITIES OF DIFFERENT SIZES. The first argument is called 'the Equality Argument' and relies on the premise that all infinities are equal. The second argument is called 'the Mapping Argument' and relies on the assumption that if one thing is mapped/ superposed upon another thing and neither exceeds the other, the two things are equal to each other. Although these arguments were initially proposed in the context of discussions against the possibility of infinities, they have played pivotal roles in the historical evolution of the notion of INFINITIES OF DIFFERENT SIZES.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009047623
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Tags: #AnalyticalPhilosophy #God #Metaphysics
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Divine Actions and the Challenge of Present Luck
By Andre Leo Rusavuk, University of Birmingham
Traditionally, theists have understood divine actions as satisfying libertarian conditions on free will. However, theists have not explored whether God’s actions are subject to present luck, i.e., luck present at or around the moment of action. Some critics of libertarian accounts of free will argue that if an action is indeterministically caused, then it’s a matter of luck whether the agent performs the action: this is the notorious luck objection to libertarianism. In this paper, I consider an argument that some divine actions occur as a matter of luck. Since what occurs as a matter of luck is at least partly beyond the agent’s control, God’s control over his actions is diminished. I reply to several objections to this reasoning and conclude that present luck poses an enthralling challenge to divine freedom as traditionally conceived and merits further exploration.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.3.1
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Tags: #God #Theology #Metaphysics
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DIVINE FORGETTING AND PERFECT BEING THEOLOGY
By Christopher Willard-Kyle, University of Glasgow
I sympathetically explore the thesis that God literally forgets sins. I articulate some altruistic God might have for forgetting certain sins. If so, then God may have altruistic reasons to relinquish a great-making trait: omniscience. But according to traditional Anselmian perfect being theology, God is necessarily perfect and so incapable of acting on these altruistic reasons. More broadly, a God who necessarily has all the perfections is a God who is incapable of making a certain kind of sacrifice: God can never make tradeoffs that diminish God’s overall greatness. I argue that such a God’s inability to make such tradeoffs is not a trivial cost for traditional perfect-being theologians who also believe that God is in loving relationships with creatures. Along the way, I explore the prospects for a less traditional form of perfect being theology, perfect being kenoticism, and different models for divine forgetting.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.3.5
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Tags: #God #Theology #Anselm #Metaphysics
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Genre Analysis and Religious Texts: A Methodological Model of Ḥadīth Commentary
By Nurullah Ardıç, Istanbul Technical University; Mustafa Macİt Karagözoğlu, Marmara University
This article proposes a methodological model of genre analysis to apply to Muslim exegesis on the compilations of Prophetic traditions, known as ḥadīth commentary. Inspired by John Swales’s approach to genre analysis, and drawing upon 23 Sunni ḥadīth commentary texts from the tenth century to the present, the model consists of a number of analytical strategies and research questions, as well as specific generic analyses, in four steps: identifying the main generic features of these commentary texts, including the characteristics of their expository and hortatory discourses; examining their internal structures as constructed by commentators; and applying the move analysis of rhetorical structures twice—to both their introduction and the body of the text. The proposed model offers a way to make ḥadīth commentary texts more accessible and manageable, and helps explore the structural commonalities and differences within the commentary tradition across generations and throughout the Muslim world.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etae068
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Tags: #Islam #Hadith #IslamicStudies
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Evil as privation: its true meaning and import
By Pierce Alexander Marks, Southern New Hampshire University
Many contemporary philosophers have presumed that the doctrine of evil as privation simply means that there can be no evils that count as positive realities. However, this interpretation is naive, and does not cohere well with the Christian theological tradition, especially the work of Augustine, who is widely regarded as the touchstone proponent of the doctrine. The goal of this paper is to clarify the more nuanced, teleological meaning of the doctrine of “evil as privation,” as well as to establish a useful conceptual division between genuine evils of privation (“depraved privations”) and harmless privations (“mere privations”). Additionally, I discuss four challenges to evil as privation: that it entails the inherent evil of all creatures, that the normative property “evil” is itself a positive reality, that it makes no sense to speak of non-existence as a deprivation, and that any attempt to refine the doctrine renders it trivial and vacuous. Finally, I close out the paper by showing that there is still a fifth, unresolved problem facing the more nuanced, teleological version of the doctrine: that it requires us to make significant recalibrations to very tender-hearted and loving moral intuitions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09947-9
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Tags: #Evil #PoE #Privation
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Metaphysics of Causation
By Max Kistler, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
This Element presents the main attempts to account for causation as a metaphysical concept, in terms of 1) regularities and laws of nature, 2) conditional probabilities and Bayes nets, 3) necessitation between universals and causal powers, 4) counterfactual dependence, 5) interventions and causal models, and 6) processes and mechanisms. None of these accounts can provide a complete reductive analysis. However, some provide the means to distinguish several useful concepts of causation, such as total cause, contributing cause, direct and indirect cause, and actual cause. Moreover, some of these accounts can be construed so as to complement each other. The last part presents some contemporary debates: on the relation between grounding and causation, eliminativism with respect to causation in physics, the challenge against 'downward' causation from the Closure and Exclusion principles, robust and proportional causation, and degrees of causation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009260800
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Tags: #Religion #Metaphysics #Causation
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De-Mystifying Mysticism: A Critical Realist Perspective on Ambivalences in the Study of Mysticism
By Ali Qadir and Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir, Tampere University
The study of mysticism has been at an impasse for many years, wavering between naïve realism around a common core hypothesis and critical questioning of the category of mysticism and its imposition. In this article, we review key 20th century developments in the study of mysticism to understand why the term was largely abandoned and unpack the contours of this impasse. Specifically, we probe the literature to ask (i) how has mysticism been defined and (ii) who counts as a mystic? Our primary data are key pieces of scholarly literature on mysticism, including interdisciplinary studies and disciplinary literature from religious studies, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. This review draws on a metatheoretic perspective of critical realism and is not meant to be comprehensive but rather analytical, seeking to identify patterns in scholarship. We find that each question is answered by studies along an axis, wavering between two ideal–typical poles. On the first question, we find scholarship ranging along an axis of essence between extreme poles of a reified vs. relativized substance of mysticism. On the second question, we find studies on an axis of access, varying between a rarified concept of mystical elites and a laified concept of mystical knowledge open to all. Putting studies along these axes yields a definitional space of mysticism that is compatible with critical realism and allows for the general study of mysticism to continue in a more nuanced, post-critique way. We also find that the category of experience lies at the origin or intersection point of both axes, and is a source of many problems in the general study of mysticism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010010
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Tags: #Religion #Sufism #Mysticism
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The Prophet's sandals and image-relics: tracing a symbol
By James Piscatori, Australian National University
This article explores a revered relic of the Prophet Muḥammad and the ways in which its symbol was established and has evolved in the Sunni world. Four dimensions explain the symbolic power of his sandals. First, the symbol is normativised as a sign of the Prophet and his spiritual grace. Second, it is further validated through iterated though inexact histories. Third, as representations of the sandals have spread widely in the Muslim world, symbolic meanings have been shaped by differing denominational views of their devotional value. Finally, commodification has seemingly rendered the symbol less managed and more popular.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.12496
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Tags: #Islam #Muslim #Prophet #History
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Monotheism & Paradise
By Caitlin Smith Gilson, University of Holy Cross
This Element will provide an essential tracing of selected Greek views of the afterlife which engage in dynamic tension with the Christian understanding of Paradise as fulfilled in the Resurrected state. The main three sections in this Element are Ideas of the Afterlife in the Greek Tragedians; Plato: The Difficulty of Paradise; and Holiness and Violence: A Christian View of the Resurrected State. The imposition of justice and the expiation of guilt through suffering are necessary prerequisites to our approach to the relationship between Monotheism and Paradise. Additional discussions will focus on weak theology and of a God not transcendent enough to ensure the desire for Heaven. As such, the sections are organized to isolate and trace this thread.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009496216
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Tags: #Monotheism #Religion #God
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An Ancient Arabian War (ḥarb al-Basūs) as Reflected in Classical Arabic Poetry
By Ali Ahmad Hussein, University of Haifa
The war of al-Basūs is among the most renowned wars of pre-Islamic Arabia. It was said to have been fought between two sister-tribes, and to have lasted allegedly for forty years. Its story, especially since the eighteenth century CE, became rich material that nurtured epic and non-epic literary works. This article examines the influence of that war on early Arabic poetry, based on every reference in a corpus of some 27,000 poems, dating from the pre-Islamic era to the fifteenth century. The verses are identified using the Rhetorical Element Identifier database (REI), a web-based tool developed by Ali Ahmad Hussein et al. It considers how the theme of the war developed and compares the mark it made on the earlier poetry with its significant imprint on modern and pre-modern Arabic literature. The main conclusion is that the influence and/or importance of the war in the classical period differed from that of later times. It seems that in this early period it was no more than a local incident, its importance restricted to those involved, and its influence on the wider Arabian community minimal. This study emphasizes the hypothesis that a significant portion of this war is embedded in Arab folklore rather than Arab history.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etae061
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Tags: #Arabic #History #Islam
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Relational Agency and Spiritual Well-Being: An Argument for a Denisian Passibilism
By Tasia Scrutton, University of Leeds
According to one conception of God, God is completely self-sufficient: nothing can affect or influence God outside of God. According to a second conception of God, God is emotionally responsive to others. These two conceptions of God reflect different ideals about agency. For the first conception of God, it is important that God is autonomous; that is, completely self-governing and able to act, unconstrained by any external agents or influences. For the second conception of God, it is important that God has relational agency; that is, that God can be affected by God’s creatures such that God’s creatures can cause God to feel joy or sorrow. Theists face an apparent dilemma in choosing between these differing conceptions of God: either they must forfeit God’s absolute autonomy, or else they must forfeit God’ relational agency. In either case, it seems, they must deny that God has perfect agency. This paper proposes a way out of this dilemma, in the form of what I call ‘Denisian passibilism’, according to which God transcends not only positive but also negative language about God.
Link: https://publicera.kb.se/aejpr/article/view/29803
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Tags: #God #Religion #Theism #Spirituality
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Diversity, Science, and Religion
By Yiftach Fehige, University of Toronto
In this paper, I argue against the prevalent tendency in theological discourse to frame the relationship between science and religion in monist terms. I define this approach and present evidence supporting a pluralist perspective, which emerges as a serious alternative. Importantly, a pluralist framing offers a robust rebuttal to critics of religion who leverage the remarkable progress made in the natural sciences to depict theology as stagnant.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v1i4.22903
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Tags: #Religion #Science #ConflictThesis
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Leibniz and the Proof of God’s Existence from Eternal Truths
By Paul Rateau, Panthéon-Sorbonne University
The aim of this article is to show how and in what stages G. W. Leibniz came to develop his proof of God’s existence from eternal truths. It begins by tracing the main stages in the history of this proof, initially forged by Augustine of Hippo, and discusses the reasons for its renewal in the last quarter of the 17th century in the post-Cartesian context. The article then shows why, despite skepticism towards this proof in his youth, Leibniz finally produced a version of it that he presents in the Monadology even before the ontological proof. My hypothesis is that the development of the proof from eternal truths is directly linked to Leibniz’s reflection on the nature of the possible, a reflection that is itself to be placed in the context of the polemic between Nicolas Malebranche and Simon Foucher after the publication of the Search after Truth. The Leibnizian proof is original in that it rests on the consideration of the reality of possibles, insofar as God is the reason for them, and on the claimed subordination of logic to ontology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020123
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Tags: #God #Leibniz #Truth
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Freedom, Omniscience and the Contingent A Priori
By Fabio Lampert, University of Vienna
One of the major challenges in the philosophy of religion is theological fatalism — roughly, the claim that divine omniscience is incompatible with free will. In this article, I present new reasons to be sceptical of what I consider to be the strongest argument for theological fatalism. First, I argue that divine foreknowledge is not necessary for an argument against free will if we take into account divine knowledge of contingent a priori truths. Second, I show that this argument can be generalized so that ordinary human knowledge of contingent a priori truths also leads to an argument against free will. This, I believe, results in an absurd conclusion that is unacceptable to both theists and non-theists. But if there is something wrong with this argument, there is something wrong, too, with the argument for theological fatalism. Although there is a range of possible responses, I suggest that the core issue in all cases is a closure principle — specifically, the principle that ‘no choice about’ is closed under entailment (or strict implication).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzae058
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #Omniscience #Fatalism
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Rationalism vs. textualism: a comparative analysis of Islamic pedagogical approaches in Iran and Saudi Arabia
By Amir Hassan Sinaee, Graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University
Cultivating rational thinking, rather than solely adhering to the text of Islam, can be a different crucial approach to Islamic pedagogy. We can find some of these differences in the post-Prophetic period when influential figures shaped differing interpretations of Islamic thought. This paper examines two major Islamic theological perspectives regarding the role of rational, logic, and interpretation in understanding sacred texts. The Ahl al-Hadith and Ash’ari school emphasises strict adherence to textual sources, often rejecting interpretative approaches, in contrast to the Ahl al-Ra’y and Mu’tazila schools, which give precedence to reason and interpretation. These divergent views have significantly influenced contemporary Islamic education, leading to notable differences in the method of curricula of Islamic studies. This paper explores how these perspectives shape the content of Grades 1 to 6 of Islamic studies textbooks in Iran and Saudi Arabia, focusing on their impact on developing logic, reasoning, and interpretive skills among students at this crucial stage of intellectual growth.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2025.2451044
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Tags: #Islam #Asharism #IslamicStudies
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A Qualitative Study of Digital Religious Influence: Perspectives from Christian, Hindu, and Muslim Gen Y and Gen Z in Mumbai, India
By Clyde Anieldath Missier, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
This study addresses how religious affective content in digital media influences epistemic authority, social imaginaries, and religious beliefs. It draws on data from 64 in-depth interviews with Generation Y and Generation Z individuals with a higher-education background who identified as Christian, Muslim, or Hindu, conducted in Mumbai, India. While influencers are increasingly playing a significant role in the daily lives of the respondents, the impact of family on religious behavior appears to be more substantial than the epistemic sources on social media. In this context, accrued social capital can help individuals develop resilience or resistance to online disinformation, hate speech, and radicalization. Furthermore, while individuals exhibited animosity toward politicians and journalists, they also expressed nationalist attitudes, e.g., a shared Indian identity and common cultural capital, which may serve as ‘superglue’ for living peacefully in the current climate shaped by religious fundamentalist movements. In general, this field study contributes to the ongoing scholarly growth of the interdisciplinary focus of digital religion studies, and particularly on the impact of the social media domain on fundamentalist beliefs.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010073
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Tags: #Religion #Religiosity #Sociology
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In Defense of a Theistic Essentialist Account of Modality
By Tien-Chun Lo, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
In this paper, I will defend a theory of modality on which all (metaphysically) modal truths are explained in terms of God’s essence. Roughly speaking, it says that for every modal truth P, P is true because of or in virtue of God’s essence. After presenting the idea of this account, I will examine the following four objections: (i) the problem of negative grounds, (ii) the problem of dependence, (iii) the problem of iterated modalities, and (iv) the problem of modally loaded essences. I will argue that none of these problems succeed in refuting this theistic essentialist account of modality.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2023.40.3.2
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Tags: #God #Theology #Metaphysics
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Revisiting Premodern Islamic Science and Experience
By Hannah C. Erlwein and Katja Krause, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
This open access book takes a fresh look at the nature and place of experience in premodern Islamic science. It seeks to answer two questions: What kind of experience constituted premodern Islamic science? And in what ways did that experience constitute science? Answering these questions, the authors critique the trajectory of most existing histories of the period, which tend to reduce “experience” to empirical method or practice. This view reflects the emphasis that histories of modern science, especially of the Scientific Revolution, have placed on empiricism—the standard against which Islamic actors were then measured. This book offers a new historiography, arguing that experience had a far wider scope in the world of Islamic science. Combining an innovative theoretical framework with three case studies and a reflective epilogue by renowned experts in the field, this work offers the history of science a solid foundation on which to build its analyses of premodern science and the modality, scope, and role of experience therein. As a result, it speaks to specialists in the history of premodern Islamic science and historians of science in general to reconsider their historiographical assumptions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76085-3
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Tags: #Islam #History #IslamicStudies
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Did God Cause the World by an Act of Free Will, According to Aristotle? A Reading Based on Thomistic Insights
By Carlos A. Casanova, University of Florida
As a contribution to the reflection on whether classic Greek philosophy gave priority either to Necessity and the Fatum or to freedom, this paper endeavors to prove three theses: (1) according to Aristotle, God caused the being of the world by an act of His will; (2) such an act of divine will was free and not necessary; (3) however, such causation is subject to the necessity of supposition. In order to do this, the paper delves into the interpretation of many passages contained in the Physics, the Metaphysics, De anima, Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics as well as Politics, Topika, De generatione et corruptione, De coelo and De partibus animalium. This interpretation benefits from Aquinas’ acute analysis. In such passages, Aristotle holds that (1) God’s causal power must be exercised not in proportion to the magnitude of divine power, but to the requirements of the effect; (2) such a way of acting is similar to human power; (3) nature is subject to teleology because it is caused by an intellectual power; (4) God is the highest intelligible and the highest good, totally autarchic; and (5) just as the highest intelligible is simultaneously also intellect, so too is the highest good simultaneously also will.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010052
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Tags: #Aristotle #Thomism #God #Teleology
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Islam and the Pan-Abrahamic Problem
By Joshua R. Sijuwade, London School of Theology
This article aims to formulate a philosophical problem that is grounded upon the Pan-Abrahamic nature of early Islam, focusing on the implications that this has for understanding the identity of the contemporary Islamic community. This philosophical problem—termed the Pan-Abrahamic Problem—is structured around the examination of Prophet Muhammad’s leadership and the inclusivity of the early Islamic community, as proposed by Fred Donner in the form of the Pan-Abrahamic Thesis. The formulation of this philosophical problem is presented through the lens of the philosophical criteria of continuity and connectedness of aims (doctrine) and organisation, as proposed by Richard Swinburne. This philosophical problem will, thus, offer a challenge against traditional exclusivist narratives within Islam, ultimately aiming to emphasise the inclusive and pluralistic foundation of the religion and the significance of this for the contemporary Islamic identity.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010051
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Monotheism
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The Kalām-based Continous Re-creation Approach of Basil Altaie Compared to Quantum Divine Action Models from Christian Contexts
By Hakan Turan and Çevirmen: Hakan Turan, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
It is widely accepted that quantum theory predicts an indeterminism for the micro-processes of the physical realm, i.e. a future uncertainty that transcends mechanical necessity. What this indeterminism means ontologically has been debated for nearly a century. According to one of the theses put forward during this time, the uncertainties that are assumed to be present in every phenomenon and the microscopic coincidences that statistically coincide with them are not the ultimate reality, but rather quantum uncertainty has a metaphysical behind-the-scenes, namely the existence of a God who actively ordains and creates the concrete outcome of every micro phenomenon. It is from this indeterminacy that the “quantum divine action” models, especially those put forward by Christian scientists and philosophers with the intention of reconciling modern science with the concept of a creator God, start. This article analyses the natural philosophy of the Muslim theoretical physicist and scholar of Islamic Kalām theology Basil Altaie, which can be interpreted as a quantum divine action model based on Islamic theology. Altaie’s approach is here discussed from different philosophical and theological perspectives and compared with Christian approaches.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5771/2748-
923X-2024-1-25
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Tags: #Kalam #God #Theology
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The return of the positivist theory of religion
By Whitley Kaufman, University of Massachusetts Lowell
The dominant explanation of the origins of religion in the nineteenth century was what we will call the Positivist Theory of religion, according to which religion is understood as form of primitive science, falsely based on an animistic method of explanation of events. Recently, this theory has been revived under the guise of evolutionary psychology and has arguably become the dominant naturalistic explanation of religion today. This essay examines this new form of animism based on the hypothesis of an ‘agency detector’ in the human mind that causes us to believe in gods and spirits. The essay argues that the new positivist theory of religion suffers from all the flaws of the earlier one as well as additional problems of its own.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09944-y
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Tags: #Religion #Psychology #God
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Redefining Leadership: The Role of Spirituality and Motherhood in Muslim Women’s Educational Leadership
By Fella Lahmar, The Open University
This study explores the perspectives and experiences of three Muslim female headteachers in Islamic schools in England, each with over twenty years of experience, to understand how they perceive and negotiate their leadership roles. Using Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s theory of agency and structure, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted in three phases: 2010–2012, and 2018–2020. The rich longitudinal data, despite the limited sample size, provided an in-depth understanding of emerging themes around Muslim women’s leadership in British Islamic schooling. Analysis reveals that these headteachers conceptualise leadership through the Islamic principles of imāmah (spiritual leadership), qiwāmah (guardianship), and amānah(trusteeship), emphasising ethical responsibility, continuous learning, and service-oriented leadership. Their leadership within this framework is neither submissive to men’s authority nor rivalling it but acts as an autonomous agency through the Tawḥīdi (Oneness of God) theological framework and akhlāq(ethical framework), defending chosen values within the Ibādah (worship; acts of devotion to God alone) context. Motherhood is seen as intrinsic to their leadership, with nurturing, guiding, and supporting roles extending from home to school, challenging the dichotomy between private and public spheres. This paper contends that the current educational leadership models are predominantly Western, failing to capture the unique experiences and perspectives of female Muslim leaders who reject framing their perspectives within feminist parameters. Advocating a decolonised approach, centring these women’s coherent religious conceptual frameworks, the study suggests that these leaders’ practices offer a unique perspective on educational leadership, blending spiritual, ethical, and communal responsibilities, and calls for further research to explore the identified themes in broader contexts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121565
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Tags: #Islam #Sociology #Feminism
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Representations of Disability in Qur’anic Narratives
By Akbar Ali and Geraldene Codina, University of Derby
In some Muslim cultures disabled people are ridiculed, abused and face social injustice. Whilst there are texts which examine the representations of disabled people in a range of legal, social, religious, and cultural Muslim documents, there is a paucity of literature which analyzes the representations of disabled people in the Qur’an. Applying critical discourse analysis, this study interprets two well-known Qur’anic stories. Through the application of thematic analysis, the phrases, clauses and sentences of these two stories are analyzed in order to present patterns of meaning which challenge ableism from a scriptural Islamic perspective.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2024.2353603
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Religion
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Hesychasm and Sufism—A Comparison Between Jesus Prayer and Dhikr
By Eiji Hisamatsu, Ryukoku University
The comparison between Hesychasm and Sufism focuses on their respective mystical practices: the Jesus Prayer in Hesychasm and Dhikr in Sufism. Both traditions emphasize withdrawing from worldly distractions to achieve spiritual purity and communion with the divine. In Hesychasm, practitioners use the Jesus Prayer to attain inner stillness and experience divine light, aiming for a state of contemplation where the mind is enveloped in spiritual radiance. Similarly, Sufism’s Dhikr involves a repetitive invocation of Allah’s name to achieve spiritual awareness and unity with God, promoting inner tranquility and protection from negative influences. Both practices stress the continuity of prayer and the progression from vocal to mental recitation, fostering deep spiritual states. Despite theological and doctrinal differences, both traditions share a universal quest for mystical union and emphasize the transformative power of spiritual practice in achieving a direct connection with the divine. These practices continue to shape spiritual life in their respective religious contexts, illustrating common themes of seeking spiritual enlightenment through disciplined meditation and prayer.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121556
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Tags: #God #Sufism #Islam #Christianity #Jesus
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Liberating God: Classical Theism and Political Spirituality
By Simon Hewitt, University of Leeds
Accounts of spirituality are incomplete unless they take into account what I term political spirituality, the working out of religiously motivated political commitment. Working within the Christian tradition, I examine the interaction between political spirituality and God-concepts. My argument is that apophatic classical theism is better suited to underwriting political spirituality than are more recent non-classical doctrines of God. I lay out critiques of classical theism on the part of recent theologians and argue that, far from these critiques being decisive, there are positive reasons to favour apophatic classical theism for political reasons. I conclude by examining how the apophatic classical theist can engage with Marx’s critique of religion.
Link: https://publicera.kb.se/aejpr/article/view/29797
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Tags: #God #Religion #Theism #Spirituality
