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On the Nature (and Irrationality) of Non-religious Faith
By M. Benoit Gaultier, University of Zurich
My main aim in this paper is to contribute to the elucidation of the nature of non-religious faith. I start by summarising several well-known arguments that belief is neither necessary nor sufficient for faith. I then try to identify the nature of the positive cognitive attitude towards p that is involved in having faith that p. After dismissing some candidates for the role, I explore the idea that faith and hope are similar attitudes. On this basis, I then advance a new characterisation of faith. Finally, I turn to the question of the rationality of faith. I argue that faith is intrinsically irrational because it is an intrinsically incoherent propositional attitude, but that there is nonetheless a sense in which faith is neither intrinsically epistemically irrational nor intrinsically practically irrational.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-023-00776-2
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Tags: #Religion #Logic #Faith #Atheism
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Why Do They Not Do More? Analyzing Peacebuilding Actions of Religious Leaders during and after Violent Conflicts
By Stipe Odak, Université catholique de Louvain
This article examines how religious leaders navigate between tensions involving theological ideals of peace and pragmatic realities during violent conflicts. The findings are based on 75 in-depth interviews with Orthodox, Catholic, and Islamic religious leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina, conducted between the years 2015 and 2017. The paper introduces the concepts of “theological dissonance” to describe mismatches between principles and actions, and “pastoral optimization” for the strategy of maximizing influence under constraints. Factors influencing engagement in peacebuilding include doctrinal traditions, individual differences, organizational capacity of a religious community, effective control over messaging, and audience receptivity. In terms of practical suggestions, the article proposes several measures that could enhance synergy between religious and nonreligious actors working together in this field, most notably, understanding each other’s scopes and limitations and clarifying what “peace” and “peacebuilding” represent to each partner.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010116
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Religion #Sociology
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Maqāsid al-Sharī‘a in Islamic Finance: A Critical Analysis of Modern Discourses
By Necmeddin Güney, Necmettin Erbakan University
This study delves into the complexities surrounding the determination, interpretation, and application of maqāsid al-sharī‘a within modern Islamic economics and finance. By conducting an extensive review of classical and contemporary literature, this research explores the diverse methods and criteria employed for ascertaining maqāsid. It critically examines the inherent subjectivity involved in categorizing maqāsid, shedding light on the ambiguity in delineating their boundaries. Additionally, the study scrutinizes the unintended consequences of broader utilization of maqāsid, particularly in transactions such as bay‘ al-‘īnah, and evaluates the risks associated with prioritizing maslaha (utility) over textual evidence. The findings underscore the challenges posed by the subjective nature of maqāsid interpretation, illustrating how diverse perspectives can lead to differing conclusions. They emphasize the potential misuse of maqāsid for legitimizing practices contrary to the core principles of sharia. This research underscores the preservation of legislative intent and advocates a cautious approach to integrating maqāsid al-sharī‘a into Islamic economics and finance. The objective is to strike a balance that upholds Islamic principles. It highlights the essential need for collectively establishing standards for both macro and micro maqāsid and their usage in ijtihād, promoting responsible applications within contemporary Islamic finance for informed and ethical solutions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010114
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Shariah #Law
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The Problem of Animal Pain
By Victoria Campbell, Global Methodist Church
In this Element atheists cite animal pain as compelling evidence against the existence of the loving God portrayed in the Judeo-Christian Bible. William Rowe, Paul Draper, Richard Dawkins and others claim widespread unnecessary suffering exists in nature and challenge theism with the Evidential Problem of Natural Evil. This Element engages the scientific literature in order to evaluate the validity of those claims and offers a theodicy of God's providential care for animals through natural pain mitigating processes.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009270717
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Tags: #Theodicy #PoE #God #Religion
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The Health/Salvation Nexus: Religion, New Forms of Spirituality, Medicine and the Problem of “Theodicy”
By Antonio Camorrino, University of Naples Federico II
The health/salvation nexus can be better understood if analyzed through the transformations that have affected the social relationship with the sacred in Western society. These changes have caused relevant implications concerning the sphere of “ultimate meaning”, in the words of Peter Berger. Today, we are witnessing a weakening of legitimized “theodicies” capable of promising—according to Max Weber—salvation and guaranteeing “just equalization”, that is, compensation or metaphysical condemnation for worldly conduct. However, this occurs to different extents depending on whether we are in the field of Western religions or new forms of spirituality. Medicine deserves a separate discussion. The hypothesis is that the health/salvation nexus leans towards salvation in the case of Western religions; towards health in the case of medicine; and, in the case of new forms of spirituality it leans neither exactly towards health nor exactly towards salvation: new forms of spirituality promise more than the achievement of health, but less than the achievement of salvation. Ultimately, the health/salvation nexus is structured differently depending on how much Western religions, new forms of spirituality and medicine are able to respond, more or less effectively, to the questions of “theodicy” and of “ultimate meaning”. I use the term of “theodicy” in the way Max Weber and Peter Berger conceived it: therefore, this concept can also be usefully applied to non-theistic and secular worldviews.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010097
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Tags: #Spirituality #Religion #Theodicy
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Feeling grateful to God and change in chronic health problems: exploring variations by age
By Neal Krause, The University of Michigan; Gail Ironson, University of Miami
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between feeling grateful to God and change in chronic health problems. Three sets of findings are provided. First, the data suggest that feeling grateful to God is associated with more chronic health conditions among younger adults while older adults who are grateful to God report fewer chronic conditions. Second, the results reveal that feeling grateful to God is associated with more spiritual struggles among younger people but elderly individuals who are grateful to God experience fewer spiritual struggles. The third set of findings emerge from a three-way statistical interaction between age, gratitude to God, and spiritual struggles on change in health. The data indicate that the most vulnerable group consists of younger adults who are grateful to God and who experience more spiritual struggles. In contrast, fewer health problems are found among older adults who are grateful to God and who experience more spiritual struggles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2022.2153395
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Tags: #Sprituality #Religion #Psychology
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“To err is human, to forgive, divine”: religious doubt, psychological well-being and the moderating role of divine forgiveness
By Laura Upenieks, Baylor University; Christopher G. Ellison, University of Texas; Neal M. Krause, University of Michigan
A significant amount of research to date has been done to study the effects of forgiveness on mental health and well-being, but less research has been conducted on divine forgiveness. The main purpose of the current study is to examine the possible moderating role of divine forgiveness. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of 1,500 older adults, regression results suggest that greater divine forgiveness exacerbated the relationship between high religious doubt and greater depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. We did not document similar moderation patterns between religious doubt and forgiveness of others and self-forgiveness. Understanding the impact of divine forgiveness for those experiencing uncertainty in their faith is crucial to gaining a more complete picture of religion’s “dark side, and we hope future research continues to pursue these objectives.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2023.2262406
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Tags: #Sprituality #Religion #Psychology
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Quantum Physics and the Existence of God
By Stephen Priest, University of Oxford
Interpretations of quantum physics are shown to presuppose the reality of consciousness. But if a minimal realism about the external world is true, then the consciousness presupposed by quantum reality cannot be only that of the scientific observer, cannot be only ‘local’ but must be ‘global’. Global consciousness is argued to have all and only the essential properties of God. Quantum reality depends on God’s consciousness and the physical world depends on quantum reality. Therefore, the physical world depends on God’s consciousness.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010078
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Tags: #God #Religion #Science #Consciousness #QuantumPhysics
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Time, atemporal existence, and divine temporal consciousness: a bimodalist account for divine consciousness
By Lyu Zhou, Colgate University
If God exists atemporally, could God still be temporally conscious? This article aims to clarify a conceptual space for a divine temporal mode of consciousness under the traditional assumption that God exists atemporally. I contend that an atemporally existing and conscious God – by the divine nature, and not just the human nature in Christ – could also be conscious of the temporal world – and indeed, all possible temporal worlds – through a temporal mode that is akin to human temporal consciousness, albeit exempt from its limitations. I submit that although (a) God exists atemporally (ontological atemporalism), (b) God could be both temporally and atemporally conscious (bimodalism of divine consciousness), and (c) these two modes of consciousness could be unified in an absolute divine consciousness without incurring schizophrenia-like problems (unity of bimodal divine consciousness).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-023-09900-2
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #Consciousness
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Pedagogy of tolerance and violence prevention in the Arab world
By Ahmed Ali Alhazmi, Jazan University
This article is a conceptual examination of tolerance and pedagogy with regard to the prevention of violence in the Arab world from a critical theory perspective. Tolerance is a socially and culturally bound system, indicating that any pedagogy of tolerance must be authentic to its context. Therefore, the value of adopting a nuanced Western pedagogy in the Arab world is limited. Consequently, a pedagogy of tolerance in the Arab world must incorporate its diverse codes of ethics and reasoning, and the dominant Arabic Islamic culture. However, politically constrained education systems have questionable abilities to help those previously colonised accept the negative impacts of colonialism and serve as an effective tool against ignorance-based intolerance and violence, especially since the tolerance agenda is largely driven by the formerly colonising countries. Thus, to reduce intolerance-based violence in the Arab world, the pedagogy of tolerance must depart from Western-based constructions and reflect the region’s values.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2023.2254511
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Tags: #Sociology #Religion #Pedagogy #Islam
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Perceptions of science, religion and spirituality in high school students: an empirical approach
By Lluis Oviedoa, Pontificia Universita Antonianum et al
Many questions arise regarding the compatibility between scientific and religious education. While some voices have pointed to issues that stem from a traditional model in which science becomes a factor or religious crisis and doubt, other views reveal surprising forms of collaboration and complementarity between both dimensions in the educational curriculum. To better understand how those directly involved – the students – perceive that possible conflict, an international team has launched an extensive survey in three Catholic countries – Italy, Poland and Spain – to assess to what extent that relationship is viewed in a more or less problematic way. The results point to an overcoming of the conflictive model by those with more religious formation and practice, and point towards a possible arrangement between both science and religion in regular education.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2023.2279919
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Tags: #Sociology #Religion #Pedagogy #ConflictThesis
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Confluences of the Islamic in Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics: Toward a Comparative Theo-Poetics with Islam
By Axel M. Oaks Takacs, Molloy University
This essay is an excavation of Islamic theological confluences in Hans Urs von Balthasar's theological aesthetics. It likewise demonstrates how comparative theology facilitates the de-essentialization of religious traditions. This essay uses the Swiss theologian as a case study in exposing how someone apparently closed off from interreligious learning is still inadvertently shaped by non-Christian traditions. Being adjacent to the work of Anne Carpenter, who seeks to save his theological project from Eurocentrism, this essay seeks to save it from theological exclusivism and Orientalism. It will argue that in the case of Christian theology, confluences of the Islamic in the past offer possibilities for future exercises in comparative theology. It looks back to look ahead by suggesting theo-poetics as a new direction for Christian comparative theology with Islam.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12917
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Theology #Orientalism
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Craig's Contradictory Christ
By Dale Tuggy, Independent Scholar
William Lane Craig’s “Neo-Apollinarian” christology aims to give us a model of Incarnation which seems not to imply any contradiction, and which fits well with the Bible and with at least the creed from the fourth ecumenical council. It is argued that the theory fails to achieve any of these goals.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v7i2.68363
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Tags: #WLC #Christianity #Trinity
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Presentism, Timelessness, and Evil
By Ben Page, University of Oxford
There is an objection to divine timelessness which claims that timelessness shouldn’t be adopted since on this view evil is never “destroyed,” “vanquished,” “eradicated” or defeated. By contrast, some divine temporalists think that presentism is the key that allows evil to be destroyed/vanquished/eradicated/defeated. However, since presentism is often considered to be inconsistent with timelessness, it is thought that the presentist solution is not available for defenders of timelessness. In this paper I first show how divine timelessness is consistent with a presentist view of time and then how defenders of Presentist-Timelessness can adopt the presentist solution to the removal of evil. After this, I conclude the paper by showing that it’s far from clear that the presentist solution is successful and that unless one weakens what is meant by the destruction/vanquishing/eradication/defeat of evil, one can only make the presentist solution work by adopting a number of additional assumptions that many will find unattractive.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v7i2.67763
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Tags: #God #PoE #Evil #Metaphysics #Presentism
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From Aesthetic Virtues to God:
Augmenting Theistic Personal Cause Arguments
By Rad Miksa, Independent Scholar
I argue that the aesthetic theoretical virtues of beauty, simplicity, and unification, as well as the evidential virtue of explanatory depth, can transform theistic-friendly personal cause (PC) arguments—like the kalām cosmological argument (KCA) and the fine-tuning argument—into stand-alone arguments for monotheism. The aesthetic virtues allow this by providing us with the grounds to rationally accept a perfect personal cause (i.e., God) as the best PC to believe in given the success of some PC argument. Using the KCA as an example, I argue that, once the KCA is accepted and a PC believed in, then a theory that posits a perfect PC as the cause of the universe is more beautiful, simpler, and has more unification and explanatory depth than the imperfect PC normally posited by the KCA’s standard conceptual analysis. And the same would hold true for any imperfect PC. Thus, once a PC argument has been accepted, the perfect PC theory is preferable to hold over any other PC theory. Finally, I address various objections to this reasoning.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v7i2.64083
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Tags: #God #KCA #Metaphysics
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God and Astrobiology
By Richard Playford, Leeds Trinity University; Stephen Bullivant, St Mary’s University; Janet Siefert, Rice University
The perception that life on other planets would be, problematic for religious people, and indeed for religion itself, is a longstanding one. It is partially rooted in fact: astrobiological speculations have, on occasion, engendered religious controversies. Historical discussions are often far more nuanced, and less one-sided than often imagined. 'Exotheology' is a lively subdiscipline within several religious traditions. This Element offers a wide-ranging introduction to the multifarious 'problems of God and astrobiology', real and perceived. It covers major topics within Christian theology (e.g., creation, incarnation, salvation), as well as issues specific to Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. It also discusses the very different perspectives offered by other (non)religious traditions, including Mormonism, various 'alien-positive' new religious movements (e.g., Heaven's Gate, Scientology, Raëlism), and the 'Ancient Astronaunt' theories popularized by Erich von Dāniken and the History channel's Ancient Aliens.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009296175
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Religion #Science #Exotheology
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Ribāṭ in the Furthermost Coasts of Early Al-Andalus
By Joan Negre, Universität Hamburg
In recent decades, the concept of ribāṭ and its practice have been the subject of intense debate. Recent summary papers on the eastern Mediterranean, Ifrīqiya, al-Maghrib al-Aqṣà, and al-Andalus, among others, have made it possible to compare different realities that express strong links with their local historical contexts. In this paper, we present the results of a new study that analyses the specific case of Northern Sharq al-Andalus, where the practice and institutionalisation of ribāṭ took shape from the early 9th century. There are three elements that lead us to corroborate this hypothesis: the documented presence of numerous individuals and groups voluntarily involved in the active and passive defence of the furthermost frontier of al-Andalus; the confirmation of a construction programme with homogeneous characteristics aimed at building fortified enclosures along the coast, and, lastly, the founding, in the early 9th century, of the Ribāṭ Kashkī centre at the mouth of the Ebro, a building were these practices would become centralised. In conclusion, we propose a much more complex scenario than that proposed previously, which enables us to characterise local forms of armed spirituality and sacralisation of the land that globally enriches the historical reading of ribāṭ.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010124
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #History
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Between Religion and Politics: The Case of the Islamic Movement in Israel
By Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud, Coastal Carolina University
The power of the “moderate” branch of the Islamic Movement (Alharaka al-Islamiyya, subsequently referred to as IM) Southern Branch (IMSF) in Israel stems from its ability to adapt to different situations, reconcile with the complex reality of being an indigenous minority in a state that defines itself a “Jewish state”, and operate within the state structure accepting democratic processes that have long been debated to clash with Islamism. Besides being represented in the Israeli Knesset since 1996, the culmination of this adaptation was the joining of the movement to the short-lived Zionist coalition government on 2 June 2021 (the government collapsed in July 2022). This historic entry of an Arab Party into a Jewish/Zionist government coalition for the first time in Israel’s history was a shocking surprise to many, not only due to the IM being an Arab–Palestinian movement but also an Islamist movement. My analysis shows that despite this reconciliation, the IM continues to emphasize religiosity, binding it to the national political struggle and identity of Israel’s Palestinian minority. For its supporters, the IMSF is seen as a meeting point of spiritual/religious needs on the one hand and material needs in the social, political, and cultural spheres on the other. However, for its opponents, mainly from the other Arab political parties, the Islamic IM had deviated from the national consensus and accepted strategies and tools to deal with the challenges facing them as a minority in Israel. And, for some others, the IM had even deviated from Islam itself. I draw on a field study that spanned several years. It is based on qualitative, extensive interviews with senior Islamist and non-Islamist leaders in Israel, as well as primary sources of the IM, including publications, leaders’ speeches, and social media. All quotes in this article are based on the author’s interviews during 2022–2024. Interviews with the following leaders and activists: IM leader Abdul-Malik Dahamsheh, former MK Muhammad Hasan Kenan, Nosiba Darwish Issa, IM MK Eman Yassin Khatib, NDA’ chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, secretary general of Abnaa al-Balad (Sons of the Country) Muhammad Kananeh, and with Kufr Qare former mayor Zuhair Yahya were conducted by in-person or by phone during summer–fall 2023. The interviews with former IMNF activist Aisha Hajjar, activist Zuhriyyeh ‘Azab, journalist Abd el-Rahman Magadleh, and DFPE member Elias Abu Oksa were conducted via What’s App, Messenger, and e-mail in 2022. The interview with political analyst Ameer Makhoul was conducted in December 2023 via Messenger. Follow-up communication was mainly through What’s App to clarify certain points. The interview questions focused on the reasons for the Islamic Movement’s division into two wings, the religious and political justifications for entering the Knesset and the coalition, the relationship between the southern wing and the main Arab parties active in the Israeli Knesset, the experience of unity with them, and the experience of its members while in the Zionist coalition. This article examines how the Islamic Movement in Israel uses religion as a tool to influence the national, cultural, political, economic, and social lives of the Arab minority in Israel. It asks: How does the Islamic Movement, religiously and politically, justify its involvement in the political game and in a Zionist government coalition, and how do Arab parties perceive this involvement? Moreover, it raises an important question about the nature of the movement: to what.....
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010110
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Politics
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Islam, Salafism, and Peace: Facing the Challenges of Tradition and Change
By Amine Tais, California State University Fresno
Moving away from both the apologetic and polemical frames that have become ubiquitous in public discourses about Islam and Muslims, I position Salafism within the interpretative battles of the mainstream Sunni tradition. Through that analysis, I also highlight how the salafi orientation presents a difficult challenge for contemporary Muslims who seek to promote peace, pluralism and harmony within their communities and with other groups and communities in a fast-changing world.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010093
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Culture
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Akbarian Metaphysics: A Brief Elaboration
The positivistic attitude brought forth by modernity, insofar as its insistence on perpetuating a reductionistic epistemological model founded on empiricism and materialism is concerned, contradicts the Islāmic viewpoint not only in terms of its metaphysics, but permeates the loci of thoughts and comprehension. The locus of cognition, in all senses, is the heart, which comprises a litany of layers that cognize different aspects of reality, from the material to the metaphysical, and the rational to ...
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Facing death without religion: how non-religious elders imagine death and how that shapes their lives
By Christel Manning, Sacred Heart University
Religious beliefs in the afterlife are often found to help people cope with death anxiety. This article explores how non-religious elders imagine death and the impact such imaginaries have on their lives. Data come from a qualitative study of non-religious US elders (n = 97). The author finds that non-religious elders imagine death in three main ways (lights out, recycling, mystery). While at least one of these imaginaries allows for a sense of continuity after death, they are distinct from religious beliefs about the afterlife in their affirmation that death marks the end of individual consciousness. That acceptance was seen as an important part of what it means to be non-religious. While some non-religious elders appear to seek symbolic immortality through building a legacy, for others the acceptance that death is end of individual consciousness prompts an effort to focus on the present, on finding joy and connection with people they love.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2023.2243855
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Tags: #Sprituality #Religion #Psychology #Atheism
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Monotheism and Divine Aggression
By Collin Cornell, Fuller Theological Seminary
The aggression of the biblical God is notorious. The phrase 'Old Testament God' conjures up images of jealousy and wrath, smiting and judging. But is it only an accident that this god became capital-G God, the unique creator and sustainer of three world religions? Or is there a more substantive connection between monotheism and divine aggression? This Element proposes exactly this causal connection. In three case studies, it showcases ways that literarily treating one god alone as god amplifies divine destructiveness. This happens according to two dynamics: God absorbs the destructive power of other divine beings-and God monopolizes divinity such that other beings, even special ones like God's beloved king or the people of God, are rendered vulnerable to divine aggression. The Element also attends to the literary contexts and counterbalances within which the Hebrew Bible imagines divine aggression.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067171
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Tags: #God #Religion #Metaphysics #Monotheism
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Evoking, Grounding, and Defining: How Contemporary Scientists Connect Religion, Spirituality, and Aesthetics
By Bridget Ritz, University of Notre Dame; Di Di, Santa Clara University; Brandon Vaidyanathan, University of America
Social scientific research challenges stereotypes of scientists as irreligious, on the one hand, and lacking aesthetic sensitivity, on the other. Yet, while some research suggests connections between these domains, the question remains as to whether and how scientists themselves connect their religion or spirituality with their aesthetic experiences in science. Drawing on interviews with 71 biologists and physicists in India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we find three distinct logics by which scientists connect these experiences, which we call “evoking”, “grounding”, and “defining”. We also find some scientists assume a modernist logic on which religion or spirituality and science are seen as separate to explain why they do not experience their religion or spirituality and aesthetic experiences as connected. Our findings enhance our understanding of how personal beliefs can shape and be shaped by professional experiences and suggest opportunities for dialogue between scientists and communities of faith centering aesthetic experience.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010065
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Tags: #Sociology #Religion #Science #Spirituality
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God, Logic and Lies: Intra-Ḥanafī Polemics on Divine Omnipotence in Colonial India
By Safaruk CHOWDHURY, Cambridge Muslim College
This article is the first logical exploration of a major Islamic theological controversy regarding divine omnipotence (qudra) emerging in early 19th century northern India and persists today. The controversy involved two interconnected propositions. The first is known as ‘imkān-e naẓīr’, which is the proposition that God is able to create another identical Prophet Muḥammad. The second dubbed ‘ikmān-e kidhb’, is the possibility of God being able to lie or say untruths. The article will examine the arguments of two formidable scholars. The first is the one who detonated the controversy Shah Ismail Dihlawi (d. 1831) who argues for the possibility of God to actualise an identical Muḥammad and to lie and the second is his opponent and archnemesis Fazl-e Haqq Khayrabadi (d. 1861), who vehemently rejects both possibilities. The focus of the article is a detailed logical analysis of the structure and premises of the arguments as well as the core modal concepts assumed in the debate.
Link: https://doi.org/10.18317/kaderdergi.1360521
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Tags: #God #Logic #Kalam #Theology #Islam
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Maktab education: a community imperative and the making of Muslim ambassadors
By Imran Mogra, Birmingham City University
Contemporary discourse on Muslims and Islam has included a reassessment of traditional educational institutions; makātib and madāris. Hitherto, understanding insider aspirations and anxieties appear to be rare. To this end, the perspectives of Muslim female teachers in makātib (supplementary schools for Muslims, sometimes known as ‘mosque schools’) in England were surveyed. This original article attends to their views regarding the aims of this educational provision. Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction is used to rationalise their perspectives. The findings reveal their professional aspirations and suggestions to better the learning processes. They expose a changing phenomenon. Furthermore, through their services, they challenge stereotyped assumptions about makātib and their functions. The data de-mystifies the visions they hold for Muslim children and the wider society.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2023.2278129
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Tags: #Sociology #Religion #Pedagogy #Islam
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Poetry and Sufi Commentary: A Case of/for Religious Reading in Premodern Sufism
By Arjun Nair, University of Southern California
One of the obstacles in the study of post-classical Sufi literatures has been the sceptical attitude toward Sufi commentary on Arabic and Persian lyrical poetry (specifically ‘mystical’ or ‘Sufi allegorical’ readings of the lyric). This attitude has prevented a wider appreciation of Sufi interpretations of such poetry. While there are signs of a shift in attitudes as scholars grapple with different Sufi commentators and their discussions of notable verses, many still hold to their scepticism. Although studies of individual commentaries will be necessary to reform these attitudes, a general response to the sceptical views may help to orient those studies, particularly one that draws its evidence and arguments from representative Sufi commentators and theorists of the lyric. This paper attempts such a response. Following a brief outline of critiques of Sufi commentary, and the reasons for continued scepticism toward commentators, I suggest how shifting understandings around the ambiguity present in the lyric should help to make allegorical interpretations seem more plausible as a collection of meanings in the archive that was persuasive to many readers, the figurative language of the lyric being able to support both literary-historical and allegorical interpretations of words, phrases, or images in particular verses. Sufi commentators used this ambiguity as a means by which to explore the meanings of the allegory according to the principle ‘The figurative is the bridge to the Truth–Reality’. Sufi theorists, moreover, discussed how the figurative language of the lyric and its allegoresis by way of commentary could serve distinct functions for different kinds of readers in Sufi knowledge–practice. If the figurative form of the lyric was more suitable for non-Sufi readers or novices in Sufism to encounter its ‘specific meanings’, commentary, expressed in the technical language of Sufism, could assist more advanced Sufi readers to verify its ‘general meanings’. Far from diminishing the lyric, Sufi commentary only enhanced its value, showing it to possess both literary beauty as well as profound depth of meaning. I invoke Paul Griffiths’s ‘religious reading’ to suggest that an approach to the lyric that privileges the views of Sufi commentators is not only feasible, it can even be valuable for specialists of the lyric in the contemporary academy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etad057
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Tags: #Sufism #Religion #History
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God and the Problem of Evidential Ambiguity
By Max Baker-Hytch, University of Oxford
When it comes to what many of us think of as the deepest questions of existence, the answers can seem difficult to make out. This difficulty, or ambiguity, is the topic of this Element. The Element begins by offering a general account of what evidential ambiguity consists in and uses it to try to make sense of the idea that our world is religiously ambiguous in some sense. It goes on to consider the questions of how we ought to investigate the nature of ultimate reality and whether evidential ambiguity is itself a significant piece of evidence in the quest.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009269841
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #Philosophy
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A Moral Fine-Tuning Argument
By Martin Jakobsen, Ansgar University College
This paper develops Mark D. Linville’s brief description of “a sort of moral fine-tuning argument”. I develop the argument in four ways: I unpack the argument and give it a clear formulation, I unpack the theistic explanation of why a somewhat reliable moral capacity is expected, I point to the significance of not seeking to explain a perfect moral capacity, and I put the argument up against the recent work on non-theistic moral epistemology by Derek Parfit, David Enoch, and Erik Wielenberg.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010031
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Tags: #God #PoE #Morality #Metaphysics
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On the Privation Theory of Evil
A Reflection on Pain and the Goodness of God's Creation
By Parker Haratine, University of St Andrews
Augustine’s privation theory of evil maintains that something is evil in virtue of a privation, a lack of something which ought to be present in a particular nature. While it is not evil for a human to lack wings, it is indeed evil for a human to lack rationality according to the end of a rational nature. Much of the literature on the privation theory focuses on whether it can successfully defend against counterexamples of positive evils, such as pain. This focus of the discussion is not surprising, given that the privation theory is a theory about the nature of evil. But it is also a theory that protects venerable theological concerns, namely, that God is the good creator of everything, and that everything is good. It is the purpose of this article to further this discussion on both fronts. I argue that the counterexample of pain still defeats the privation theory despite the most recent defense. What is more, I suggest, this is not theologically disastrous. The individual who rejects the privation theory is not obligated to reject the theological theses which motivate it. To show how a rejection of the privation theory is a live option, I offer an alternative view of evil that also maintains these theological theses and encompasses both privative and positive evils.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v7i2.65803
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Tags: #God #PoE #Evil #Metaphysics
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Islam and the Contemporary World: Interview with Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr
By Kaleem Hussain, University of Birmingham
In 2009, I had the honour to interview Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who is a Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, Washington, DC, as part of the ‘Muslim Heritage Interview Series’. During the interview, Nasr touched on various topics related to Islam and modernity, Sufism, spirituality, consumerism and the environment. Thirteen years had elapsed since that interview and, with so many changes having taken place across the world in this intervening period, I was keen to speak to him again on some of the core themes we discussed then and to see how things have evolved in those areas over the years. The interview with Nasr covers some rare gems and insights from his illustrative career along with the following themes - Islamic Environmentalism, Trust, Resaclarization of the Sacred Tradition, Inspirational Scholars, The Concept of al-insān al-kāmil, Impact of Covid-19, Extremist Narratives, Globalization, Saudi 2030 Vision, Iran, Social and Geo-Political Trends, Traditionalism and Modernity. I conducted the interview with Nasr at George Washington University in December 2022. I do hope that the readers find the interview both enlightening and beneficial.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2023.2292935
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Sufism #Modernism #Tradition
