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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
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The Golem, the Djinni, and ChatGPT: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamicate Occult Sciences
By Amina Inloes, Islamic College - London
What do golems, talismans, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) share? How would Ibn Sīnā have classified ChatGPT? Must AI be de-mythologized, or can mythos help us navigate a strange new world? Why does AI seem occult, and is ChatGPT a pricey talisman? These questions offer insight into theological concerns about AI, including (1) human exceptionalism, (2) creating new beings, (3) objects knowing, and (4) metaphors other than a demon or demigod. This article examines AI through a classical Islamicate occult paradigm to better grasp what it is, metaphysically speaking, and how developments in AI might outmode some post-Enlightenment worldviews.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2436785
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Tags: #Religion #AI #Islam
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The apodotic wāw in Qurʾānic Arabic
By Tareq Moqbel, University of Oxford
This article discusses the usage and semantic function of the apodotic wāw in Qurʾānic Arabic. It takes as its starting point the usage of the same particle in the Hebrew Bible, and goes on to survey the discourse about it in the classical treatises of Arabic grammar. It then analyses a number of Qurʾānic passages where the exegetical literature discussed whether a wāw is (or could be) marking an apodosis. By demonstrating the interpretive options enabled by the apodotic wāw, the article argues—pace the classical Arabic grammarians and Qurʾān exegetes, many of whom denied its existence outright—that this particle is not simply superfluous. Rather, the article contends that the apodotic wāw creates a space for ambiguity, and thereby expands the range of hermeneutical possibilities. In presenting this argument, the article suggests that the function of the apodotic wāw in the Qurʾān closely resembles its function in the Hebrew Bible.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etae056
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Bible #Arabic
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Angels and Monotheism
By Michael D. Hurley, University of Cambridge
While angels have played a decisive role in all the world's major religions and continue to loom large in the popular religious and creative imagination, modern theology has tended to ignore or trivialize them. The comparatively few scholarly works on angels over the last century have typically interpreted them as mere symbols and metaphors: they are said to offer glimpses not of the divine order, but of human desires, anxieties, and ideologies. Angelology has collapsed into anthropology. By contrast, this polemical book argues for the indispensable importance of studying angels as divinely created beings, for theology at large, and for understanding the defining doctrine of monotheistic religions in particular. Additionally, the book contends that the spirit of modern science did not originate with the so-called Scientific Revolution but was actually inspired centuries earlier by the angelological lucubrations of medieval scholastics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009374644
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Tags: #Religion #Monotheism #Theology
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The Development of the Concept of Predication in Arabic Philosophy
By Mahmood Zeraatpisheh, University of Birjand
Predication is a central theme in Arabic logic that has undergone significant semantic transformation throughout history. This article explores the evolution of predication's scope and meaning across four successive stages. Rather than pinpointing specific historical moments—given that these transitions lack clearly defined beginnings or endings—the focus is on key propositions that enrich our understanding of predication, drawing on the classifications of thinkers such as Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī (d. 950), Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī (d. 1262-65), Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1635), and Muhammad Ḥusayn Ṭabātabāʾī (d. 1981). The transition from the first to the second stage is characterized by the acceptance of natural propositions (ṭabīʿīya), while subsequent stages involve essential primary (dhātī awwalī) and stronger/weaker (ḥaqīqa-raqīqa) propositions. This progression illustrates a shift from expressing the properties of external objects to articulating the properties of concepts, ultimately culminating in the expression of identity between concepts and external entities. The four stages can be summarized as follows: (1) First-order predication; (2) Second-order predication; (3) Second-order identity; (4) First-order identity.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2024.2423590
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Tags: #MullaSadra #Arabic #Logic #Gender
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Agnostics’ Well-Being Compared to Believers and Atheists: A Study in Europe’s Religious–Cultural Zones of Christian Heritage
By Moise Karim and Vassilis Saroglou , Université catholique de Louvain
Past research suggests three distinct major trends regarding the links of religion with well-being. First, religious faith contributes to well-being, with believers showing higher well-being than nonbelievers. Alternatively, it is certainty about one’s own worldviews, be they religious or irreligious, that predicts well-being. Finally, secularization moderates the above, making nonbelief normative. We investigated these trends by focusing on agnostics, who, compared to believers and atheists, combine a lack of faith and uncertainty about worldviews and should, thus, be the lowest in well-being. By analyzing European Values Study 2017 data from 29 countries and controlling for personal variables, we found that in countries of Western Christian heritage, be they religious or secularized, agnostics were the least happy compared to believers and atheists. Religionists, compared to atheists, were happier (countries of Protestant heritage) or equally happy (countries of Catholic heritage). In countries of Eastern Orthodox tradition, believers were happier than nonbelievers, agnostics, and atheists alike—but again, agnostics were the lowest in the less religious countries. In sum, uncertainty makes agnostics, consistently across religious cultures, to be the lowest in well-being, whereas the effect of religious faith on well-being varies across cultures.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121502
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Tags: #Religion #Agnosticism #Theism #Sociology
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What Is Salafism? An Intellectual History of Salafī Hermeneutics
By Jaan S. Islam, University of Oxford
This article offers a reconceptualization of the movement that came to be known as Salafism in the twentieth century. Existing theories of Salafism seek to characterize it either as a modern sociological movement or a term denoting (neo-)Ḥanbalite belief. This article argues for a reconceptualization of Salafism as a hermeneutical stance grounded in an explicit affirmation of the text in the absence of a countervailing indication (qarīna). While the abstract noun “Salafism” (salafiyya) is a neologism, it is argued that its antecedents derived from its root word previously denoted a claim space for religious authenticity in the form of the literal interpretation of scripture. An analysis of these related terms from the fourth century AH/tenth century CE onward reveals the use of the concept to denote the literal affirmation, belief, and implementation of Qurʾanic verses and prophetic traditions. Furthermore, an analysis of these terms by contemporary Salafīs shows that they too define Salafism as an affirmation of this hermeneutical stance. This study comprehensively traces the historical usage of the term Salafī and its derivations, which it is argued remains central to understanding contemporary Salafism. The findings of this article also inform debates concerning what constitutes Islamic meaning creation, including Asad’s conception of Islam as a discursive tradition and Shahab Ahmed’s classification of interpretive complexes. It argues that Salafism constitutes a hermeneutical complex that pervades Islamic meaning construction across spatial and temporal boundaries.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1086/731596
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Epistemology #Hermeneutics
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God and the Problem of Epistemic Defeaters
By Joshua Thurow, University of Texas
Any modern, moderately intellectually mature (MMIM) believer in God faces a variety of epistemic defeaters of their belief in God. Epistemic defeaters challenge the rationality of a belief. After explaining the notion of a defeater and discussing various ways and targets of defeat, this Element categorizes the many defeaters of belief in God into four classes: rebutting, undercutting, base defeaters, and competence defeaters. Then, several general defeaters of theistic belief are examined in some detail: the superfluity argument, the problem of unpossessed evidence, various forms of debunking arguments, and a cumulative case competence defeater. The typical MMIM believer, it is argued, has resources to resist these defeaters, although the cumulative case competence defeater has some force. The strength of its force depends on the strength of grounds for theistic belief and of various defeaters and deflectors for the competence defeater. No easy general defeater of theistic belief is found.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009270649
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Tags: #Religion #Theism #God #Rationality
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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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Embodiment, Dependence, and God
By Kevin Timpe, Calvin University
The significance of our physical bodies is an important topic in contemporary philosophy and theology. Reflection on the body often assumes, even if only implicitly, idealizations that obscure important facts about what it means for humans to be 'enfleshed.' This Element explores a number of ways that reflection on bodies in their concrete particularities is important. It begins with a consideration of why certain forms of idealization are philosophically problematic. It then explores how a number of features of bodies can reveal important truths about human nature, embodiment, and dependence. Careful reflection on the body raises important questions related to community and interdependence. The Element concludes by exploring the ethical demands we face given human embodiment. Among other results, this Element exposes the reader to a wide diversity of human embodiment and the nature of human dependence, encouraging meaningful theological reflection on aspects of the human condition.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009270052
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Tags: #God #Metaphysics #Religion
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The Problem of Divine Personality
By Andrew M. Bailey, Yale-NUS College; Bradley Rettler, University of Wyoming
The main question of this Element is whether God has a personality. The authors show what the question means, why it matters, and that good sense can be made of an affirmative answer to it. A God with personality - complete with particular, sometimes peculiar, and even seemingly unexplainable druthers - is not at war with maximal perfection, nor is the idea irredeemably anthropomorphic. And the hypothesis of divine personality is fruitful, with substantive consequences that span philosophical theology. But problems arise here too, and new perspectives on inquiry itself. Our cosmos is blessed with weirdness aplenty. To come to know it is nothing less than to encounter a strange and untamed God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009269254
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Tags: #Religion #God #Metaphysics
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‘The caliphate will last for thirty years’: polemic and political thought in the afterlife of a prophetic ḥadīth
By Han Hsien Liew, Arizona State University
The Prophetic ḥadīth ‘The caliphate will last for thirty years, then it will be kingship’ is one of the key proof texts for the Sunni doctrine of the ‘rightly guided caliphs’. While modern scholarship has examined its origins and transmission during the first two centuries of Islam, the political discussions that emerged from it after the crystallization of Sunnism in the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries have not received adequate attention. By examining ḥadīth compilations and commentaries, theological treatises, and historical chronicles, this article maps out the various ways in which Sunni Muslim scholars have engaged with the ḥadīth. It argues that in addition to employing the ḥadīth as a polemical tool against Shiʿi political claims, most Sunni scholars through the Mamluk period sought to circumvent its literal meaning out of reluctance to concede that a legitimate caliphate was limited to the first four caliphs. But in doing so, they were also hard-pressed to define what a true caliphate entailed. The ensuing discussions surrounding the ‘thirty-year ḥadīth’ often revolved around the political ideals of consensus, justice, and piety. They also shed light on the intricate connection between historiographical considerations and political thought in medieval Islam.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etae049
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Tags: #Islam #Hadith #Shiism #Politics
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Anonymity and Digital Islamic Authority
By Avi Astor, Ghufran Khir-Allah and Rosa Martínez-Cuadros, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Much of the literature on digital religious authority has focused on spiritual “influencers” and the challenges they pose to traditional religious hierarchies and structures of authority. Less attention has been dedicated to religious websites, social media pages, and digital feeds whose popularity and influence do not hinge on the personalistic qualities of their creators. There is a wide assortment of generic religious reference sites that, although developed and managed by largely anonymous webmasters and administrators, command significant audiences and exert substantial influence on religious interpretations and practices. We argue that anonymity affords certain advantages for bolstering visibility and influence that have hitherto received insufficient attention in the literature on religion, authority, and cyberspace. In contrast to spiritual influencers, who draw attention to their personal biographies, credentials, appearances, and connections to enhance their legitimacy and authority, individuals or groups who administer religious reference sites commonly employ alternative strategies that involve concealing personal identities, experiences, and affiliations. Their aim is to come off as neutral, impartial, and free of ideological baggage that might bias their interpretations. This facilitates their efforts to frame the content they share as a form of universal religious truth that transcends ideological and sectarian differences. Our analysis centers on websites and social media pages that provide guidance to Spanish speakers on Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and piety.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121507
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Ethics
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The Importance of an Interreligious Quranic Hermeneutics for a Gender-Sensitive Reading of the Quran, Using the Example of the Story of the Queen of Sheba
By Dina El Omari, University of Münster
This article explores a novel perspective on the Quran by examining its interreligious and intercultural dimensions, challenging traditional readings that often treat it solely as a religious or historical text. By focusing on the Quran’s engagement with diverse religious traditions, the article highlights how the Quran negotiates and reflects its multicultural context. The analysis centers on the story of the Queen of Sheba, revealing how her portrayal disrupts conventional gender roles and provides a unique lens for understanding the Quran’s treatment of gender and religious diversity. Through a comparative study with Jewish intertexts, the article demonstrates that the Quran not only engages with other religious traditions but also incorporates and positively represents figures from these traditions. This approach offers new insights into how interreligious hermeneutics can enhance our understanding of the Quran’s stance on religious plurality and gender dynamics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121502
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Tags: #Islam #Exegesis #Hermeneutics #Gender
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Traces of Jewish Piyyut in a Verse by Dhū l-Nūn al-Miṣrī
By Omer Michaelis, Tel Aviv University
The significant impact of Jewish sources on early Muslim theological discourses has been well documented and explored for over a century. However, Jewish piyyut—a mammoth corpus of liturgical texts that circulated extensively among Jews in the Islamicate world—has been notably absent from such comparative, archeological, and genealogical research. In this study, I aim to demonstrate that through a genealogical investigation of a particular motif—the intercession of the four creatures beneath the divine throne on behalf of the entities represented by their names—a doctrinal influence of the Jewish piyyut from the classical period (sixth to eighth centuries) on a verse by Dhū l-Nūn al-Miṣrī (d. 861) can be discerned. The article presents a brief introduction to the long verse, which has been almost entirely overlooked in previous scholarship. To establish the article’s main argument, it then examines the motif in question and analyzes the motif’s earlier appearances in late antique and early medieval Jewish liturgical sources. Finally, this article’s findings suggest the possibility that the influence of the piyyut extends far beyond the specific example under discussion, potentially leaving its mark on a much broader array of early Muslim sources.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1086/731700
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Judaism #History
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Jewish Concepts of Divine Oneness
A Comparative Introduction
By Job Y. Jindo, Academy for Jewish Religion and New York University
This book offers a selective, typological overview of Jewish perspectives on the belief in God's oneness. To achieve this, the author divides the history of Judaism into four phases - biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern - and presents diverse models for understanding the reality of divine oneness within each phase. These models not only offers insight into different perspectives on the topic but also illuminate diverse layers of polemical discourse in the Jewish tradition, whether internal or in dialogue with other religions and worldviews. In addition, the author invites readers to consider how to think about the plurality of the perspectives at hand, and if and how such meta-reflection can enrich the lives of contemporary readers, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. No prior knowledge of Judaism is necessary.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108946728
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Tags: #Religion #Judaism #God #Monotheism
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The Politics of Monotheism
By Ragnar M. Bergem, MF Norwegian School of Theology
Monotheism, the belief in the One True God, seems to have an ambiguous role in political life: On the one hand, monotheism may foster the inclusion of everybody, regardless of identity or background. On the other, monotheistic religions demand submission to a singular revealed truth, distinguish between faithful and the heretics, and thus seemingly promote an antagonistic and tribalistic politics. What, then, are the political implications of the monotheistic belief in absolute truth? This Element traces the Enlightenment origins of our contemporary debates about monotheism and argues that these debates reflect a deeper Western ambivalence towards religion. It does so while discussing both secular and Christian critics of the politics of monotheism. The Element contends that there is no singular politics of monotheism, and that we can only approach monotheism's political significance if we take seriously the various ways in which truth is represented in political life in monotheistic traditions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009349260
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Tags: #Religion #Monotheism #Politics
