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Decolonizing science-engaged theology
By Zara Thokozani Kamwendo, Durham University
This piece is about the value of decolonization for teaching and doing science-engaged theology. I argue that decolonization should be seen as a useful tool that helps students, teachers, and scholars to re-imagine the modern distinction between science and theology/religion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12653
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Tags: #Science #Religion #Pedagogy
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If Molinism is true, what can you do
By Andrew Law, Leibniz University Hannover
Suppose Molinism is true and God placed Adam in the garden because God knew Adam would freely eat of the fruit. Suppose further that, had it not been true that Adam would freely eat of the fruit, were he placed in the garden, God would have placed someone else there instead. When Adam freely eats of the fruit, is he free to do otherwise? This paper argues that there is a strong case for both a positive and a negative answer. Assuming such cases are possible under Molinism, we are left with a puzzling question: if Molinism is true, what can you do?
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-023-09901-1
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Tags: #God #Molinism #Metaphysics
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Deceptive Debauchery: Secret Marriage and the Challenge of Legalism in Muslim-Minority Communities
By Mariam Sheibani, Brandeis University
“Secret Marriage” is a category accommodating a range of arrangements that seek to conceal a marital union, typically from an existing spouse, the family of the bride or groom, a segment of the community, or the state. These contentious unions have seen an upsurge in recent times in Muslim-majority countries, and, more recently, in minority-Muslim communities in the West. This essay examines the phenomenon in minority communities using three interrelated lenses of analysis: the legal, the moral, and the socio-institutional. Taking this multi-faceted approach, in this essay, I first examine the legal doctrines of the four Sunni schools of law on the requirement of publicity and witness testimony in marriage before situating that legal discussion about contractual validity within a comprehensive analysis of the broader moral and religious legitimacy of entering into a secret union. I argue that while jurists stipulate disparate minimums for contractual validity, nearly all secret marriage arrangements are nonetheless considered invalid (fāsid), meaning they are incorrectly conducted by failing to meet the required conditions for the contract to produce its legal effects (ṣiḥḥa) and are also prohibited (ḥarām) in themselves or for their entailments, meaning contracting such a marriage is sinful and entails punishment. As I show, even as some jurists may make arguments that may seem to imply that some versions of secret marriage meet the basic conditions to make them technically valid, these same jurists nonetheless argue that such marriages are immoral, religiously deficient, unbecoming of a Muslim, and little more than a pretext for illicit sex. Apart from the theoretical question of whether a secret marriage meets the conditions of contractual validity, parties to a secret marriage in Muslim communities today further engage in a number of sins and transgressions and cause harms to spouses, children, parents, extended family, and the community that must also be reckoned with. The essay concludes with recommendations for how religious authorities can take steps towards regulating marriage in minority-Muslim communities, highlighting the need for public education on Muslim marriage practices that is embedded in a deeper religious morality centering the Sunna to counteract the dominant legalism in the Muslim community that underlies numerous contemporary dilemmas.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010010
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Tags: #Islam #Muslim #Ethics
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The ‘Year According to the Arabs’: The Rise of the ‘Hijra’-Era in the Context of the Administrative Structures in the Early Islamic Empire
By Eugenio Garosi, University of Haifa
This article offers a survey of the spread and function of what is currently known as the hijrī calendar among different socio-linguistic milieus of the early Islamic empire. In particular, it analyses insider and outsider descriptions of the new imperial calendar as a window into the cultural profile of mediators between the Arabic and Graeco-Egyptian milieus in early Islamic Egypt. I argue that the ways the hijrī calendar was referred to in Greek and Coptic documentary texts diverged depending on the level of the issuing authority in the provincial administration: while documents issued by district officials label the era as the ‘year of the Saracens’ or use it without specifications, documents produced by the gubernatorial office use the designation ‘the year according to the Arabs’ (kata Arabas) instead. The main argument is that the kata Arabas label – as well as other formulaic peculiarities of documents produced in the provincial capital – can be linked to the employment of Hellenized Syro-Aramaean experts among the entourage of Arab governors appointed by Damascus. To flesh out the links between the gubernatorial chancery and a Syro-Aramean milieu, Egyptian evidence will be contrasted with Greek and Syriac texts from Syria-Palestine and Northern Mesopotamia.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2282844
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Tags: #Islam #History #Arab
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The symmetry regained
By Tien-Chun Lo, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
Collin (2022) attempts to break the symmetry between the modal ontological argument for the existence of God and the reverse modal ontological argument against the existence of God by drawing on some Kripkean lessons about a posteriori necessity. He argues that there is an undercutting defeater for taking God’s non-existence to be possible. In this paper, I reply that taking the Kripkean considerations about a posteriori necessity into account does not help break the symmetry. For we can argue in a similar way that there is an undercutting defeater for taking God’s existence to be possible.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anad068
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Tags: #God #OntologicalArgument #Metaphysics
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God and the Numbers
By Paul Studtmann, Davidson College
According to Augustine, abstract objects are ideas in the mind of God. Because numbers are a type of abstract object, it would follow that numbers are ideas in the mind of God. Call such a view the “Augustinian View of Numbers” (AVN). In this paper, I present a formal theory for AVN. The theory stems from the symmetry conception of God as it appears in Studtmann (2021). I show that the theory in Studtmann’s paper can interpret the axioms of Peano Arithmetic minus the induction schema. This fact allows for the development of arithmetic in a natural way. The development eventuates in a theory that can interpret second-order arithmetic. The conception of God that emerges by the end of the discussion is a conception of an infinite, ineffable, self-cause that contains objects that not only serve as numbers but also encode information about each other.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil20231201235
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Tags: #Religion #God #Metaphysics
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“Only a God Can Save Us Now”: Why a Religious Morality Is Best Suited to Overcome Religiously Inspired Violence and Spare Innocents from Harm
By Alan Vincelette, Saint John’s Seminary
It is common to hear the refrain that religion is a major cause of violence today. And this claim is not without merit. Religious differences can fuel animosity and lead to societal conflict. On the other hand, scholars have increasingly recognized the role of religion in overcoming societal divides and helping people to heal and forgive. This paper will examine the latter capacity of religion to minimize the harms that occur during violent conflicts. It will be argued that secular ethical theories often fail to provide any principles or foundations that can help moderate passions, alleviate tensions, or provide frameworks for what is licit in war. In fact, the world views of terrorists and secular ethicists of war are often strikingly similar. Religious ethicists, on the contrary, have often encouraged practices (prayer for one’s enemies, forgiveness) and provided principles (dignity of every human, non-combatant immunity, just war theory) that can help moderate the violent tendencies of war and bring about a more peaceful and equitable resolution. While religion is not entirely off the hook for promoting violent conflict, religion can provide ethical frameworks and principles that help minimize the harms of conflicts and promote world peace.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121495
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Tags: #Religion #Terrorism #Politics
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Entering the Prophetic Realm: ʿAbd Rabbihī ibn Sulaymān al-Qaliyūbī (d. 1968) on the Nature of Mediation (tawassul)
By Florian A. Lützen, University of Tübingen
In his comprehensive work Fayḍ al-wahhāb, ʿAbd Rabbihī ibn Sulaymān al-Qaliyūbī (d. 1968) extensively explores the Prophet Muhammad’s role in theology and argues against interpretations influenced by Wahhābī thought. He emphasizes the prophetic realm, or prophecy and its traces, particularly the means by which believers can establish a connection with it. This article pays special attention to al-Qaliyūbī’s understanding of mediation (tawassul); that is, how the Prophet—by virtue of his elevated status, ordained by God—can serve as a means; similar to how a ritual prayer or any good deed ultimately serves as a means to draw closer to God. For al-Qaliyūbī, following the Prophet means not only regarding him as the founder of the religion, but also incorporating his spirit and character into one’s own life. This article proceeds in four steps: (1) It addresses the systematics of prophecy concerning practical ethics and how this realm can be entered; (2) It introduces the three-layered paradigm of later theology and al-Qaliyūbī’s work; (3) It explores the topic of what constitutes a means (wasīla) and the theological implications of using a means in prayer (tawassul); (4) It zooms in on the aspect of what qualifies a means to be used in an individual prayer.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121518
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #Sufism #Theology
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The Meaning of ibtahala in the Qurʾān: A Reassessment
By Suleyman Dost, University of Toronto
The word nabtahil, which appears only once in the Qur’an in Q 3:61, has become the basis of a fairly well-known practice in pre-modern and modern Islam called mubāhala, “mutual cursing” due to the verse’s alleged connection to a cursing duel between Muhammad and Christians from Najran. Some exegetes, however, took it to mean “to pray humbly/sincerely”. This article argues that among the two explanations offered by Muslim scholars and exegetes for ibtahala, “to pray” and “to curse”, the latter is quite probably incorrect and arose from a misinterpretation of the word’s solitary usage in the qur’anic verse whereas the former explanation fares better in view of the comparative Semitic evidence. Having evaluated the attestations of the word in Muslim sources and in other languages, I offer a third explanation, namely that the word ibtahala means “to debate”, based on a Classical Ethiopic cognate.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0008
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Exegesis
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Are these Nothing but Sorcerers? – A linguistic analysis of Q Ṭā-Hā 20:63 using intra-Qurʾānic parallels
By Marijn van Putten, Leiden University
The seemingly ungrammatical wording of Q Ṭā-Hā 20:63 ʾinna hādhāni la-sāḥirāni has been cause for much debate, both in traditional Muslim sources as well as in modern discussion. This paper sets out to reevaluate the grammar of the various reading that are present by comparing them not against the normative grammar as it is established by the medieval grammarians, but rather by comparing its grammar to other, comparable construction in the Qurʾān. By analyzing this Qurʾānic verse within its intra-Qurʾānic parallels it is argued that the minority reading ʾin hadhāni la-sāḥirāni is the original intended reading of the ʿUthmānic text, while the grammatically problematic majority reading ʾinna hādhāni la-sāḥirāni is to be understood as an approximation to popular non-ʿUthmānic readings. Through the comparison with other verses, it is also shown that we may gain deeper understanding into verses of constructions of the type found in Q al-Ṭāriq 86:4 (wa-ʾin kullu nafsin la-mā ʿalayhā ḥāfiẓun) and shed light on some of the competing canonical readings in these verses.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0002
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Exegesis #Linguistics
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Worship (dīn), Monotheism (islām), and the Qurʾān’s Cultic Decalogue
By Mohsen Goudarzi, Harvard University
The first part of this study presents evidence from the Qurʾān and early Arabic writings to argue that dīn in the Qurʾān often means “worship” instead of “religion” and that islām means exclusive worship of the One God rather than “submission” to Him. Specifically, I show that the noun dīn and the verb dāna frequently convey the ideas of “service” and “servitude” in early Arabic texts, a usage that underlies the qurʾānic meaning of dīn as “service” or “worship” offered to God. Moreover, in line with strong indications from the Qur’an, several early works of exegesis and lexicography understand islām as exclusive devotion to and monotheistic worship of God instead of submission to His will. In the second part, the study reinterprets the three verses that use the terms dīn and islām (Q 3:19, 3:85, and 5:3). It focuses on Q 5:3, which prohibits ten animal food items, announces the completion of the Believers’ dīn, and identifies this dīn as islām. As I argue, the new food restrictions of this verse are not simply dietary but also cultic, as their goal is to distinguish the Believers’ way of worship from that of the mushrikūn (“pagans”). In particular, the “cultic decalogue” of Q 5:3 bans the meat of animals that die violently (during hunting or otherwise), in order to ensure that the Believers eat meat only from animals that are slaughtered properly. Such slaughter involves the explicit and exclusive invocation of Allāh’s name, an act that showcases and safeguards the Believers’ adherence to monotheistic worship, namely, islām.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0006
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Exegesis #Monotheism
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God and Being
By Nathan Lyons, Notre Dame University
This Element examines how the Western philosophical-theological tradition between Plato and Aquinas understands the relation between God and being. It gives a historical survey of the two major positions in the period: (a) that the divine first principle is 'beyond being' (e.g. Plato, Plotinus, and Pseudo-Dionysius), and (b) that the first principle is 'being itself' (e.g. Augustine, Avicenna, and Aquinas). The Element argues that we can recognise in the two traditions, despite their apparent contradiction, complementary approaches to a shared project of inquiry into transcendence.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009026413
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Tags: #Metaphysics #God #Avicenna #Aquinas
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Analytic theology
By Aaron Brian Davis, University of St Andrews
Analytic theology is often described as something like the application of analytic philosophy's tools to theological studies, but what this means can be unclear. In this paper, I offer a primer on analytic theology which clarifies this common description of the field. Particularly, following Sarah Coakley, I sketch an account of analytic theology on which it consists of a relation of familial resemblance. That is, analytic theologians are those who investigate theological loci in ways akin to those seen in contemporary analytic philosophy. In so doing, I also briefly describe how analytic theology is conceptually distinct from both philosophical theology and analytic philosophy of religion. I then provide a threefold typology for understanding analytic theology's literary landscape whereby its practitioners can generally be understood to produce works which are either philosophically-inclined, theologically-inclined, or mixed in their inclination. Finally, I offer a brief survey of new frontiers being explored by analytic theologians.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12481
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Tags: #AnalyticalTheology #Theology #Religion
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God and the Problems of Love
By Kelly James Clark, Ibn Haldun Universitesi
Religious believers are often commanded to love like God. On classical accounts, God seems a poor model for human beings: an immutable and impassable being seems incapable of the kind of episodic emotion (sympathy, empathy) that seems required for the best sorts of human love. Models more conducive to human love, on the other hand, are often rejected because they seem to limit God's power and glory. This Element looks first at God and then divine love within the Abrahamic traditions—Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It will then turn to love and the problem of hell, which is argued as primarily a problem for Christians. The author discusses the kind of love each tradition asks of humans and wonders, given recent work in the relevant cognitive and social sciences, if such love is even humanly possible. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009269131
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Tags: #Islam #Chriatianity #Judaism #God #Metaphysics
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God and Human Genetic Engineering
By David Basinger, Roberts Wesleyan College
Science and Religion have often intersected on issues. However, no set of current scientific advances is more promising and problematic for religious (or non-religious) individuals than those that fall under the heading of Human Genetic Engineering, as these advances have the potential not only to cure human disease, remove undesirable human traits, and enhance desirable human traits but to pass on these modifications to future generations. This Element is an introductory overview of these advances, the ethical issues they raise, and the lines of reasoning, including religious lines of reasoning, used to support or challenge these advances. The author's goal is to suggest a way of assessing these advances that will give us, whether religious or not, a solid basis for deciding these issues for ourselves and engaging in respectful, constructive dialog with others.
Link: doi.org/10.1017/9781009269360
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Tags: #Science #Religion #God #Ethics
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Why Space is No Problem for Religion … But Time is
By Brian Patrick Green, Santa Clara University
Space exploration might seem like it would pose a threat to human religion, both religion-in-general and various religions-in-particular. However, this paper argues that it is not predominantly discoveries in space that might cause problems for religions, but rather the ongoing passage of time which will do so. By examining six scenarios, various salient concerns will be investigated, but it is really only the danger of overtly, actively hostile extraterrestrial intelligences that pose an existential threat to human religions. Other than that extreme possibility, the time horizon of the scenario – 100 years – is likely to have more impact upon religion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2023.2292923
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Tags: #Time #Science #Religion #Exotheology
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Hearing God speak? Debunking arguments and everyday religious experiences
By Lari Launonen, University of Helsinki
Against claims that cognitive science of religion undercuts belief in God, many defenders of theistic belief have invoked the Religious Reasons Reply: science cannot undercut belief in God if one has good independent reasons to believe. However, it is unclear whether this response helps salvage the god beliefs of most people. This paper considers four questions: (1) What reasons do Christians have for believing in God? (2) What kinds of beliefs about God can the reasons support? (3) Are the reasons rationalizations? (4) Can cognitive science undercut the reasons? Many Christians invoke everyday religious experiences (EREs)—such as experiences of divine presence, guidance, and communication—as reasons to believe. Unlike another popular reason to believe in God (the appearance of design and beauty in nature), EREs can support beliefs about a relational God who is present to me, who guides my life, and who speaks to me. EREs are not rationalizations since they seem to cause and sustain such beliefs. Nonetheless, EREs like experiences of hearing God speak are problematic reasons to believe. ‘Soft’ voice-hearing experiences are easily undercut. ‘Hard’ experiences of an external, audible voice are probably underpinned by similar cognitive processes as audio-verbal hallucinations.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-023-09896-9
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #CSR
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Conceptions of Supreme Deity
By Graham Oppy, Monash University
This paper attempts to provide a high-level comparison of Eastern and Western conceptions of deity. It finds some significant similarities—involving worshipworthiness and the ideal shape of human lives—and some important differences—concerning the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of supreme deity to the rest of reality, and the relative frequency of divine incarnation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-023-00987-8
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Tags: #Religion #God #Metaphysics
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The Qur’an: An Oral Transmitted Tradition Forming Muslims Habitus
By Lina Dweirj, Western Sydney University
This paper examines the relation between religious practices and the forming of moral dispositions in light of the Qur’an. Using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, this paper explains the way religious practices mentioned in the Qur’an could form moral dispositions for Muslims. The question that this research aims to answer is whether being a Muslim has anything to do with how he is expected to behave in society. It also investigates how central the Qur’an is in Muslims’ lives. Moreover, it discusses how and why Muslims act and what guides their practices and actions. This paper aims to clarify the ethical, moral and spiritual consequences of embodying religious practices. For example, practices like prayer and charity may give Muslims moral direction and help them be good citizens.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121531
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #History
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Islamic Perspectives on Polygenic Testing and Selection of IVF Embryos (PGT-P) for Optimal Intelligence and Other Non–Disease-Related Socially Desirable Traits
By A. H. B. Chin, Singapore Fertility and IVF Consultancy Pvt Ltd.; Q. Al-Balas, Jordan University of Science and Technology; M. Ghaly, Hamad Bin Khalifa University; M. F. Ahmad, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
In recent years, the genetic testing and selection of IVF embryos, known as preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), has gained much traction in clinical assisted reproduction for preventing transmission of genetic defects. However, a more recent ethically and morally controversial development in PGT is its possible use in selecting IVF embryos for optimal intelligence quotient (IQ) and other non–disease-related socially desirable traits, such as tallness, fair complexion, athletic ability, and eye and hair colour, based on polygenic risk scores (PRS), in what is referred to as PGT-P. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning–based analysis of big data sets collated from genome sequencing of specific human ethnic populations can be used to estimate an individual embryo’s likelihood of developing such multifactorial traits by analysing the combination of specific genetic variants within its genome. Superficially, this technique appears compliant with Islamic principles and ethics. Because there is no modification of the human genome, there is no tampering with Allah’s creation (taghyīr khalq Allah). Nevertheless, a more critical analysis based on the five maxims of Islamic jurisprudence (qawa'id fiqhiyyah) that are often utilized in discourses on Islamic bioethics, namely qaṣd (intention), yaqın̄ (certainty), ḍarar (injury), ḍarūra (necessity), and `urf (custom), would instead reveal some major ethical and moral flaws of this new medical technology in the selection of non–disease-related socially desirable traits, and its non-compliance with the spirit and essence of Islamic law (shariah). Muslim scholars, jurists, doctors, and biomedical scientists should debate this further and issue a fatwa on this new medical technology platform.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-023-10293-0
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Tags: #Islam #Ethics #AI #Science #Medicine
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God and Value Judgments
By Kevin Kinghorn, Asbury Theological Seminary
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009296137
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Tags: #Religion #God #Theism #Metaphysics
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The Search for Originality within Established Boundaries—Rereading Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī (d. 716/1316) on Public Interest (maṣlaḥa) and the Purpose of the Law
By Serdar Kurnaz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
With the arrival of the twentieth century, in their legal theory, Muslim scholars began emphasizing public interest (maṣlaḥa) and the objectives (maqāṣid) of the Sharia. This stood often in contrast to the standards of traditional legal theory. To overcome this gap, scholars searched for concepts of premodern scholars, interpreted them in a way that allowed focusing on abstract categories like maṣlaḥa. An often-quoted figure in this regard is Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī (d. 716/1316). In his hadith commentary entitled al-Taʿyīn, al-Ṭūfī developed a legal framework in which he gave precedence to maṣlaḥa over the Quran, Sunna, and Consensus in cases where there are conflicts between these sources concerning the ruling for a given matter. Many contemporary scholars interpret al-Ṭūfī’s concept from a modern perspective. This approach either leads to overemphasizing al-Ṭūfī’s theory or rejecting it entirely. The present study will analyze al-Ṭūfī’s theory of maṣlaḥa within the established premodern epistemological and hermeneutical boundaries that al-Ṭūfī himself accepted. In doing so, it will locate al-Ṭūfī’s conception of maṣlaḥa in its historical context and in relation to al-Ṭūfī’s biography. The study will show that al-Ṭūfī’s theory, regardless of its modern reception, and with all its pitfalls, is an original attempt to find new ways for deriving norms within the boundaries of a well-established legal theory and in a specific historical context.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121522
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Tags: #Islam #Shariah #Law
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The Problem of Divine Action in the World
By Joel Archer, Duke University
The world's major monotheistic religions share the view that God acts in the world. This Element discusses the nature of divine action, with a specific focus on miracles or 'special' divine acts. Miracles are sometimes considered problematic. Some argue that they are theologically untenable or that they violate the laws of nature. Others claim that even if miracles occur, it is never rational to believe in them based on testimony. Still others maintain that miracles are not within the scope of historical investigation. After addressing these objections, the author examines the function of miracles as 'signs' in the New Testament.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009270328
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #DivineAction
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Mubīn and Its Cognates in the Qurʾān
By Devin Stewart, Emory University
This study investigates the meaning of the term mubīn and its cognates in the Qurʾān. It examines the debate over whether mubīn has the basic meaning of “clear” or “clarifying,” weighing the various arguments that have been made for the two sides. Consideration of the requirements of qurʾānic end-rhyme and the distribution of the adjectives bayyin (masc.) and bayyinah (fem.) “clear” suggest that mubīn means “clear” and not “clarifying.” The meanings of the other cognates of mubīn are examined as well. It is argued that the feminine singular mubayyinah, an anomalous form that occur three times in the reading of Ḥafṣ, might instead be rendered bayyinah or mubīnah, both attested variants meaning “clear.” It is also suggested that a possible way to resolve the anomaly of the feminine plural mubayyināt, which also occurs three times in the reading of Ḥafṣ, would be to emend it to the feminine plural bayyināt “clear,” which occurs frequently in very similar contexts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0004
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Exegesis
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The Shifting Ontology of the Qurʾān in Ḥanafism: Debates on Reciting the Qurʾān in Persian
By Omar Qureshi, University of Southern California
A review of the works of the most authoritative Ḥanafī theologians and jurists shows that the later madhhab taught that its eponym, Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150/767), held the Qurʾān to be the uncreated and eternal speech of God. According to this understanding, he and his followers believed the linguistic composition of the Qurʾān in Arabic to be a component of its miraculous nature. However, a closer examination of Ḥanafī sources leads one to conclude that the claim that Abū Ḥanīfah believed Arabic to be integral to the Qurʾān’s composition is not without contention. Abū Ḥanīfah permitted recitation of the Qurʾān within ritual prayer in Persian, which later Ḥanafī jurists used as a basis to argue that the Qurʾān, for Abū Ḥanīfah, consisted only of its meaning, not its expression in Arabic. After the Miḥnah, Abū Ḥanīfah’s permissive position became associated with the newly heterodox view of the “Created Qurʾān,” placing pressure on later Ḥanafī jurists to ensure that Abū Ḥanīfah was not associated with heresy. Whereas earlier Ḥanafīs contended that the Qurʾān was miraculous solely in its meaning and guiding capacities, later Ḥanafīs, when faced with scandal, condemned the earlier view and reinterpreted Abū Ḥanīfah’s views. The characterization of the miraculous nature of the Qurʾān as inhering in its canonized Arabic expression allowed the Qurʾān to serve as evidence of the prophethood of Muḥammad. This article traces the shift within Ḥanafism on the connection between language and the ontology of the Qurʾān to align with the Sunnī orthodoxy of the uncreated and fully inimitable Arabic Qurʾān. Although some aspects of the roles of Abū Ḥanīfah and Ḥanafism in this evolution have been studied by other scholars, I focus here on an overlooked figure, the proto-Ḥanafī Abū ʿIṣmah Nūḥ b. Abī Maryam (d. 173/789). This case study on the recitation of the Qurʾān in Persian examines and explores the impact of the understudied aspects of this evolution.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0007
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Exegesis #Metaphysics
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The Qurʾān and the Putative pre-Islamic Practice of Female Infanticide
By Ilkka Lindstedt, University of Helsinki
In this article, I take issue with one alleged characteristic of pre-Islamic Arabia: namely, the notion that the Arabians frequently, and disturbingly, practiced female infanticide by burying their daughters alive. This is what the Islamic-era religious scholars inferred on the basis of two qurʾānic passages (Q Naḥl 16:57–59 and al-Takwīr 81:8–9). However, I will argue that the classical Muslim scholars’ interpretation of these verses is highly tendentious. By analyzing the specific qurʾānic passages and comparing the crucial word al-mawʾūdah (Q 81:8), usually translated as “the daughter buried alive,” with early Arabic poetry, I conclude that the conventional understanding of it is unlikely.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/jiqsa-2023-0005
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Tags: #Quran #History #Exegesis
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On the Relation of Public Opinion and Religion: Theoretical Considerations
By Zoltán Hidas, Pázmány Péter Catholic University
Facing the modern expectations about publicity and the high esteem of public opinion, it can be challenging to disclose the sources of these expectations. After sketching the origin of the idea and reality of publicity from the 18th century onward, practical and theoretical concerns about public opinion are discussed alongside the criticism of Walter Lippmann, evoking seminal conceptions of collectivity and of the crowd. It was the German philosopher Ferdinand Tönnies who, from a sociologically informed perspective, systematically analyzed the idea of public opinion. As a stakeholder of religious demands, public opinion is a metaphysical instance. Publicity seems to be socially centered around public intellectuals peculiarly legitimized by scientific knowledge, who have an immense influence on the shape of public opinion through social imagineries (Charles Taylor). The challenge of having a religious relationship with the world has changed due to the public, but self-transcendent need specific responsibilities even in modern circumstances.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121473
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Tags: #Religion #Sociology #Secularism
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Alchemical tafsīr: Qur’anic Hermeneutics in the Works of the Twelfth-Century Moroccan Alchemist Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs
By Richard Todd, University of Birmingham
Beside the codenames and esoteric symbols inherited from Graeco-Egyptian antiquity, the later Arabic alchemical tradition also adopted motifs drawn from the Qur’an: from the blessed olive tree of the famous Light Verse (Q 24.35) to the burning bush and Moses’ staff. This interweaving of scripture and alchemical theory is especially noticeable in one of the major works of the post-Jābirian corpus, Shudhūr al-dhahab (Shards of Gold) by the Moroccan poet Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs (fl. sixth/twelfth century), as well as in Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs’s self-penned commentary, Ḥall mushkilāt al-Shudhūr (The Solution to the Obscurities in the ‘Shards’).
But was the use of such motifs simply a literary device or did Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs claim to discern a hidden alchemical meaning embedded in the qur’anic text? Focusing on this unexplored strand of the Islamic exegetical tradition, this article examines the premises put forward by Ibn Arfaʿ Raʾs in support of an alchemical reading of scripture.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2283677
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Exegesis #Hermeneutics
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Is God a Substance? Avicenna on Essence, Being, and the Categories
By Nathaniel B. Taylor, The Catholic University of America
Avicenna scholars unanimously agree that Avicenna takes the position that God is not classifiable according to the Aristotelian scheme of the ten categories. However, Avicenna scholars are in little agreement about precisely why God evades categorial classification. Scholars report numerous and, at times, mutually inconsistent arguments purportedly made by Avicenna. In this study, I argue that Avicenna has only one argument as to why God is not in the category of substance—the Essence-Being Distinction Argument—and that he makes this argument consistently throughout his major philosophical encyclopediae. Having clarified this argument, two consequences follow. First, we can study this argument to learn not only about God in Avicenna’s philosophical theology but also about the nature and structure of the categories in Avicenna’s metaphysics. I argue that Avicenna’s Essence-Being Distinction Argument reveals a route by which one may arrive at a real distinction between essence and being from a philosophical, rather than a theological premise. Second, Avicenna’s Essence-Being Distinction Argument, along with the prevalence and consistency thereof, suggests that God has an essence for Avicenna and that texts, wherein Avicenna denies that God has an essence, are exceptional and should not govern our broader interpretation of Avicenna’s philosophical theology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121469
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Tags: #Avicenna #God #Metaphysics
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A Dilemma in Pawline Christology
By Jc Beall, University of Notre Dame
A longstanding problem confronting Christian theology and its doctrine of incarnation is the apparent contradiction that it faces. For example, to be divine, in the relevant sense, is to have the limitlessness of God. To be human, in the relevant sense, is to have the limitations of humans. The incarnation (in the person of Jesus per Christian doctrine) is to be both divine and human. Many theologians and sympathetic philosophers have attempted to ‘consistentize’ (i.e., make consistent) incarnation. Timothy Pawl has been one of the latest to do so. In this paper, I concisely note a dilemma for Pawl’s approach.
Link: doi.org/10.22091/JPTR.2023.9856.2941
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Tags: #Christianity #Incarnation #Logic #God
