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Incompleteness of Theological Tawaqquf under Adamic Exceptionalism
By Abbas Ahsan, University of Birmingham
Theological Tawaqquf holds that if Islamic scripture is silent on a proposition, neither it nor its negation can be affirmed. Applied to Adamic Exceptionalism—specifically, human existence before Adam’s descent—Malik and Jalajel adopt a non-committal stance. I argue that Theological Tawaqquf fails as a complete theory because it violates negation completeness. The implications of this contravene classical logic, induce an epistemic limitation, and render Adamic Exceptionalism systematically incomplete. By generating undecidable propositions, Theological Tawaqquf proves inadequate as a theological methodology, necessitating a re-evaluation of Adamic Exceptionalism’s (theoretical) viability.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2546688
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Tags: #Theology #Evolution #Logic #Islam
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Is Ethics Possible Without God?
By Whitley Kaufman, University of Massachusetts Lowell
This essay defends the position that ethics must be grounded in God, where the notion of ‘God’ is understood as a transcendental source of normativity, though not necessarily a personal being who ‘commands’ moral behavior. The essay argues that the true debate is between the naturalistic reduction of ethics and the idea of a transcendental ground for moral normativity. I claim that only the latter can provide a sufficient basis for morality.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081053
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Tags: #Ethics #Theism #God #Naturalism
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Classical theism and universalism
By Scott Hill, Wichita State University
In Not a Hope in Hell, James Dominic Rooney argues that universalism, the view that necessarily God will save everyone, is inconsistent with classical theism. I show that Rooney’s argument is unsound. In particular, some of the premises are false, some of the premises are themselves inconsistent with classical theism, and some of the premises are inconsistent with additional views, beyond classical theism, that Aquinas holds about God and the Beatific Vision. In the end, classical theists are better off accepting universalism than the premises of Rooney’s argument.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09966-0
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Tags: #Theology #Secularism #God
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Testimony and Historical Knowledge
Authority, Evidence and Ethics in Historiography
By Jonas Ahlskog, Åbo Akademi University
This Element explores the relation between historiography and testimony as a question about what it means to know and understand the past historically. In contrast with the recent rapprochement between memory accounts and history in historical theory, the Element argues for the importance of attending to conceptually distinct relations to past actions and events in historical thinking compared with testimony. The conceptual distinctiveness of history is elucidated by placing historical theory in dialogue with the epistemology of testimony and classical philosophy of history. By clarifying the rejection of testimony inherent in the evidential paradigm of modern historical research, this Element provides a thoroughgoing account of the ways in which historical knowledge and understanding relates to testimony. The argument is that the role of testimony in historiography is fundamentally shaped by the questioning-activity at the core of critical historical research. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009447041
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Tags: #History #Testimony #Epistemology
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The gap in the evil-god challenge
By Justin Mooney, University of Alberta; Perry Hendricks, University of Minnesota
We argue that the evil-god challenge is not an additional challenge for theists above and beyond the (much older) gap problem. One version of the evil-god challenge is merely a specific instance of the gap problem, and another is dependent on that specific instance of the gap problem. Therefore, the various solutions to the gap problem that theists have developed double as responses to the evil-god challenge, placing the evil-god challenge in a more vulnerable position than has been supposed.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anae049
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Tags: #Religion #Evil #Theism #PoE
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Islam and Pseudoscience
By Stefano Bigliardi, Al Akhawayn University
Pseudoscience includes any practice or argument that is presented as scientific but systematically violates criteria that distinguish science, particularly experimental verification. This Element discusses, in critical fashion, different ideas and approaches that combine pseudoscience and Islam. It begins by historically reconstructing the debate on Islam-related pseudoscience developed by Muslim and non-Muslim critics. It then analyzes three areas which these critics have identified as pseudoscience: iʿjāz ʿilmī or the “miraculous scientific content of the Qur'an”; Islamic creationism; ideas and approaches related to hygiene, nutrition, health, and illness. Each area is dissected, identifying the exact reasons that characterize some of its versions as pseudoscientific. After a section discussing other malpractices and erroneous approaches, which do not strictly qualify as pseudoscience but accompany and foster it, the Element ends with the discussion of overarching questions constituting an agenda for future discussions of Islam-related pseudoscience.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009608237
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Quran #Science
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Why Philosophers of Religion Don’t Need “God”
By Timothy D Knepper, Drake University
There is no greater obstacle to the philosophy of religion than “God.” Not this god or that. Rather, “God” as the concept of some one and only ultimate reality, first cause, divine being. “God” as the presumed first move in any philosophy of religion that seeks to affirm or reject “His” attributes, existence, and activities. Most of all, the very term God. The first two sections of this article each offer three arguments for why philosophers of religion don’t need “God”: one from confusion, another from ethnocentricity, a third from impoverishment. In the first cycle, these arguments address problems pertaining to the capitalization God, in the second, with the human capital devoted to philosophizing about this capitalized God. The final section of the article then points the way forward to a philosophy of religion without “God,” one undertaken from or inclusive of the perspectives of non-western religio-philosophical “capitols.”
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaf032
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Tags: #Religion #God #Philosophy
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The Preposterous Religion of Muhammad Ali
By M Cooper Harriss, Indiana University
Spotlighting the Muhammad Ali Center museum’s correlation between Ali’s progressive “greatness” and his religious identity reveals a sense of strategic secularization, emphasizing goodness and sincerity while attenuating elements that register as bad religion. This whitewashing of Ali’s Islamic identity mirrors scholarly treatments of the boxer’s religio-political significance that prioritize his sincere belief and religious freedom. To redress these characterizations, I recount a misunderstanding that led me to encounter the museum in reverse—an experience that provided a unique religious reading grounded in what I call Ali’s preposterous religion. Such preposterousness desecularizes Ali, reframing this religious category of greatness not as a progressive one but, rather, as a contested category continually under negotiation—reinforcing recent religious studies scholarship concerning (1) “greatness” in US religious-historical figures, and (2) Islamization as a process rather than a benchmark, casting it beyond the “good” preliminaries of religious freedom and sincere belief.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaf050
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Secularisation
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The Rebuilding of the Kaʻba During the Period of Sulṭān Murād IV in the Context of the ʻUlamāʼ-Umarāʼ Discussions
By Abdullah Çakmak, Afyon Kocatepe University
The last stop on the Muslim pilgrimage is the Kaʻba. Like all other holy and religious places, the Kaʻba has survived due to the repairs it has undergone since its construction. However, the Kaʻba has been rebuilt at times when it was destroyed for various reasons. Since the interruption of the pilgrimage would undermine the legitimacy of the caliph, Muslims attached great importance to rebuilding the Kaʻba in such cases. The Kaʻba was last rebuilt by the Ottoman Sulṭān Murād IV after the flood of 1039/1630. However, the rebuilding process has not been without its controversies. Although the Ottoman Empire attempted to rebuild the Kaʻba out of necessity, some scholars objected to this initiative. Ibn ʻAllān, one of the leading Shafiʻi muftis of Mecca, followed the rebuilding work day by day and did not hesitate to intervene when necessary. Riḍwān Agha, who carried out the rebuilding of the Kaʻba, was able to overcome Ibn ʻAllān’s objections with fatwas from the muftis of the four sects (four Sunni schools of law) and thus completed the building work. After the Kaʻba was rebuilt, Turkish works on its history began to be produced. In this way, the public was informed that the Kaʻba could be rebuilt if necessary, and attempts were made to anticipate and prevent any potential reactions. This study aims to contribute to the history of the Kaʻba by analysing its rebuilding after the flood of 1039/1630 through debates between scholars (ʻulamāʼ) and administrators (umarāʼ) during this period. Access to the details of this issue from the works of the ʻulamāʼ who witnessed the rebuilding makes this paper unique.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070915
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Tags: #History #Islam #Religion
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Exploring the Significance of Andalusian muwashshaḥāt and azjāl in the Study of Islamic Theology
A Case Study of Jādaka al-Ghayth by Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374)
By Mohamed Badredine Tachouche, Anglo-American University
Can the poetic and musical genres muwashshaḥāt and azjālenrich Islamic theology, particularly through their compatibility with traditional naẓm (didactic poetry), while addressing the epistemological and ethical challenges confronting Islamic discourse today? This paper examines the significance of these Andalusian forms, focusing on Jādaka al-ghayth by Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374), and raises critical questions about the role of traditional theological texts, especially naẓm, in meeting the evolving needs of contemporary Islamic thought.
The study underscores four key contributions that muwashshaḥāt and azjāl can bring to Islamic theology: their interdisciplinary nature, their reflection of multireligious contexts, their innovative linguistic features that blend Arabic with Romance, Hebrew, and Amazigh (Berber), and their rich aesthetic value, particularly through Andalusian music. By integrating these genres into Islamic studies, the research advocates for a more flexible and inclusive curriculum, challenging the dominant approach. It suggests that muwashshaḥāt and azjāl—in a way akin to naẓm—offer a transformative perspective on Islamic epistemology by providing a more poetic and accessible approach to theological concepts. This allows for a deeper engagement with God-talk (discussions on the divine) by framing theological ideas in ways that resonate emotionally and intellectually, thus encouraging a re-examination of how theology is taught, understood, and communicated in modern times.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.12441
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Tags: #Theology #Islam #God
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Analytic atheism and analytic apostasy across cultures
By Nick Byrd, Geisinger College of Health Sciences; Stephen Stich, Rutgers University; and Justin Sytsma, Victoria University of Wellington
Reflective thinking often predicts less belief in God or less religiosity – so-called analytic atheism. However, those correlations involve limitations: widely used tests of reflection confound reflection with ancillary abilities such as numeracy; some studies do not detect analytic atheism in every country; experimentally encouraging reflection makes some non-believers more open to believing in God; and one of the most common online research participant pools seems to produce lower data quality. So analytic atheism may be less than universal or partially explained by confounding factors. To test this, we developed better measures, controlled for more confounds, and employed more recruitment methods. All four studies detected signs of analytic atheism above and beyond confounds (N > 70,000 people from five of six continental regions). We also discovered analytic apostasy: the better a person performed on reflection tests, the greater their odds of losing their religion since childhood – even when controlling for confounds. Analytic apostasy even seemed to explain analytic atheism: apostates were more reflective than others and analytic atheism was undetected after excluding apostates. Religious conversion was rare and unrelated to reflection, suggesting reflection’s relationships to conversion and deconversion are asymmetric. Detected relationships were usually small, indicating reflective thinking is a reliable albeit marginal predictor of apostasy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412525000198
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Tags: #Atheism #CSR #Religion
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On the Methodology of Science and the Current Crisis of Religious Belief
By Andrew Loke, Hong Kong Baptist University
The current crisis of religious belief is plausibly correlated with widespread scientific education and a related agnostic way of thinking. I show how this crisis can in principle be addressed, by first asking what are the methodological requirements of the scientific constructive agnostic process (SCAP) itself. I demonstrate that these requirements include deductive reasoning and phenomenological experience, and they can in principle be used to formulate a cosmological argument for the existence of God. Moreover, SCAP also requires well-established historical conclusions, and I show how one can in principle use this consideration to address the difficulties concerning belief in miracles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2514305
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Tags: #God #Science #Religion #ConflictThesis
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Religious delusion or religious belief?
By Richard Gipps, University of Oxford; Simon Clarke, Canterbury Christ Church University
How shall we distinguish religious delusion from sane religious belief? Making this determination is not usually found to be difficult in clinical practice – but what shall be our theoretical rationale? Attempts to answer this question often try to provide differentiating principles by which the religious “sheep” may be separated from the delusional “goats.” As we shall see, none of these attempts work. We may, however, ask whether the assumption underlying the search for a differentiating principle – that religious beliefs and religious delusions can usefully be considered species of a common genus – is a good one. In this paper, we outline an alternative, “disjunctive,” understanding of religious belief and religious delusion. By reminding ourselves both of what is central to any delusion and of what distinguishes bona fide religious claims from their pretenders, we show how to resolve our reflective puzzlement about religious delusion without recourse to differentiating principles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2302519
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Tags: #Religion #Psychology #Faith
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A View on the Possibility of an Ethics Without God
By Elliott R. Crozat, Purdue University
This article addresses the question, “Is an ethics without God possible?” This question is explored in a special issue, edited by Prof. Dr. James P. Sterba, which directly poses this very inquiry. I argue that an objective ethics without God is epistemically possible. Having addressed this initial point, I then make the case that an objective ethics without God is metaphysically possible. In other words, there are plausible explanations to support the thesis that ethics exists without God. Lastly, I propose that although God is not required for ethics, it is reasonable to postulate God’s existence to realize aspects of justice.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070813
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Tags: #Ethics #God #Metaphysics
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From Theodicy to Anthropodicy: The Banalities of Evil
By David Le Breton, University of Strasbourg
This article defends the idea that evil is a notion dependent on social and cultural judgment, and that in our societies, it implies the idea of free will. There is no metaphysics of evil, but rather an anthropology, a myriad of specifically human incidences linked to situations, to good or evil intentions, to specific relationships such as wars, torture, violence, rape, cruelty, abuse, and so on. Their consequences involve suffering and death, sometimes deliberately. The anthropological question of evil differs from a metaphysical conception of human nature.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070805
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Tags: #Evil #Theodicy #FreeWill #Anthropology
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Analyzing al-Ghazali's Perspective on Christianity: A Critical Examination of al-Raddu al-Jamīlu li Ilahiyyat ʿĪsā bi-Ṣarīḥi al-Injīli
By Ahmad Ramli, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris; Jaffary Awang, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
A comprehensive understanding of the thoughts and sources referenced by dialogue partners is fundamental to effective interfaith dialogue. This article offers a scholarly analysis of Imam al-Ghazali's (d. 1111 CE) approach to interfaith dialogue, particularly his interactions with Christianity as outlined in his work, al-Raddu al-Jamīlu li Ilahiyyat ʿĪsā bi-Ṣarīḥi al-Injīli. Employing a content analysis methodology, this study examines al-Ghazali's principal writings on interreligious engagement, with a special emphasis on Christian-Muslim relations. The findings indicate that al-Ghazali adopts a triadic approach: debate, theological comparison, and apologetics. He begins by identifying the primary theological divergence between Islam and Christianity—the divinity of Jesus. Subsequently, he employs theological comparison, reinterpreting contentious texts by referencing both the Gospel and the Qur'an. Additionally, al-Ghazali uses rational critique to highlight the perceived weaknesses in Christian doctrinal positions. This study suggests that al-Ghazali's method can be instrumental in contemporary theological discourse, promoting a nuanced and critical exploration of the areas of convergence and divergence among different religious traditions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70007
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Tags: #Ghazali #Jesus #God #Christianity #Islam #Quran
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God and Technology
By Heidi A. Campbell, Texas A&M University
This Element brings work from the philosophy of technology into conversation with media, religion, culture studies, and work in digital religion studies to explore examples of how popular media and emerging technologies are increasingly framed and understood through a distinct range of spiritual myths, metaphors, images, and representations of God. Working with three case studies about how internet memes, popular films, and media coverage of public philosophy link ideas about God and technology, this Element draws attention to common conceptions that describe a perceived relationship between religion and technology today. It synthesizes these discussions and categories and presents them in four distinct models, showing a range of ways in which the relationship between God and technology is commonly depicted. The Element seeks to create a platform for scholarly study and critical discourse on technology's religious and spiritual representation in digital and emerging media cultures and contexts through this work.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009287104
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Tags: #Technology #AI #God #Religion
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Modal Logic and Modal Metaphysics: An Avicennian Division of Labour
By Jari Kaukua, University of Jyväskylä
This paper argues that Avicenna was both a necessitarian and a realist about contingency. The two aspects of his modal metaphysics are reconciled by arguing that Avicenna's modal metaphysics is founded on realism about essences: strictly speaking, an individual has no contingent properties, but a modal distinction can be made between the properties that it has by virtue of its essence (and that are thus necessary by virtue of its identity) and those that it has by virtue of extrinsic causes (and that are thus contingent with respect to its identity). Consequently, despite its realism about contingency, Avicennian modal metaphysics is not committed to the existence of counterfactual scenarios. This may seem to be in tension with the fact that Avicenna takes counterfactuals seriously in his logic. The paper argues, however, that the logical discussion of counterfactuals must be set in the framework of Avicenna's conception of the relation between modal logic and modal metaphysics: the metaphysical account of the relation between essences and modalities should provide the foundation for logic, and the purely logical kind of possibility should be understood as a case of epistemic modality. The paper concludes by claiming that such a division of labour is in potentially productive contrast to the contemporary mainstream in modal metaphysics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.70034
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Tags: #Metaphysics #Avicenna #God
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Not both ontologies face a problem: On Nagasawa’s argument from systemic evil
By Dani Alnashi, Lund University
According to Yujin Nagasawa (2018, 2024), theists are better equipped than atheists to address the problem of evil arising from natural selection because their ontology is wider and subsumes the ontology of atheists. We see the world as fundamentally and overall not bad, yet the existence of evil creates a mismatch between this expectation and the reality of the world, a mismatch that, Nagasawa argues, theists can address more effectively than atheists. However, I contend that this conclusion is false. I argue that a wider ontology does not always provide better explanations than a narrower one, even when the latter is subsumed by the former; on the contrary, a narrower ontology could provide better answers. I argue that since the theistic ontology is larger than the atheistic one, it comes with a large explanatory burden, which makes the theistic ontology more demanded to provide an answer than the atheistic one. And contrary to Nagasawa’s claim, I argue that the ontology of atheists is not entirely subsumed by that of theists, which provides atheists with a potential response that theists cannot borrow.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-025-02353-5
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Tags: #Religion #Evil #Theism #PoE
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Islamic Modernity and the Question of Secularism: Revisiting the Political Thought of Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī
By Fiona Fu, Taizhou University; Jan Gresil Kahambing, University of Macau
This article explores Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī’s political thought in relation to modern debates on secularism and Islamic reform. While often invoked by Islamist thinkers to support their anti-secular stance, al-Afghānī’s reflections on reason, religion, and constitutional politics show that he engaged with modernity in a more nuanced way than is commonly recognized. This article examines al-Afghānī’s writings and their reception. It argues that his thought was not about choosing a side between religion and secularism. Instead, his thought is better understood as a pragmatic anti-colonial strategy aimed at the revival of Muslim civilization. This reframing challenges the widely cited genealogical narrative that links him to later Islamists. His attempt to reconcile religious traditions with the imperative for reform provides valuable insights into the responses of Muslim reformers to modernity—insights that remain highly relevant today.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081003
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Secularism
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Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse Argument Against Naturalism
By Rad Miksa, Independent
The multiverse is often invoked by naturalists to avoid a design inference from the fine-tuning of the universe. I argue that positing that we live in a naturalistic multiverse (NM) makes it plausible that we currently exist in a problematic skeptical scenario, though the exact probability that we do is inscrutable. This, in turn, makes agnosticism the rational position to hold concerning the reliability of our reasoning skills, the accuracy of our sensory inputs, and the veracity of our memories. And that means that agnosticism is also the rational position to hold concerning all the beliefs derived from those sources, which includes nearly all of them. Consequently, there is an unacceptable skeptical cost to accepting a NM, thereby requiring a rejection of the NM as a counter to fine-tuning or a rejection of naturalism itself.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v8i1.80283
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Tags: #Religion #God #Naturalism
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Toward a Theory of Technical Virtue: Skill, Care, and Process in Qur’anic Studio Recording
By Ian VanderMeulen, Indiana University
Can technical labor be virtuous? This article investigates the production of a Qur’anic sound recording, suggesting that focusing on the processof religious media production rather than its intended product might bring to the fore new ethical engagements that trouble recent oppositions between “ordinary” and “transcendent” ethics or even the classic dialectic of sacred and profane. In particular, the ethnography here foregrounds the sensory and temporal nuances of what I call technical virtue, an ethical orientation comprising three characteristics: technologized modes of listening, an object- rather than subject-oriented disposition of “care” toward the Qur’an, and a teleology that paradoxically requires that subjects defer transcendent engagement with God in favor of the “technical” fulfilment of a given stage of sound reproduction. I argue that religious media production can thus be made virtuous through such technical fulfilment rather than through the linkage of such labor to the subjective cultivation of more recognizably Islamic virtues.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaf034
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Quran
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The Qur’an and the Biblical Subtext for ‘The Messiah, Jesus, Son of Mary’
By Joshua Sijuwade, University of Birmingham
This article explores the significance of the qur’anic term al-Masīḥ (the Messiah) as applied to Jesus, son of Mary (ʿĪsā ibn Maryam). Previous scholarship has often drawn a direct, though problematic, line from first-century messianic expectations to the Qur’an. This article argues for a revised interpretive approach: understanding the qur’anic usage of al-Masīḥ through its more immediate biblical subtext, namely the messianic theology of Late Antique Christianity, particularly within the Syriac tradition. This approach acknowledges that the Qur’an engages not with the Bible as a static text or with the historical Jesus directly, but with Scripture as understood and preached in its seventh-century milieu. The study surveys foundational Second Temple Jewish messianic expectations and the New Testament’s portrayal of Jesus’s messianic role, then explores how these traditions were received and developed in Late Antique Syriac Christianity, which formed a crucial part of the Qur’an’s environment. By analysing the qur’anic account against this backdrop, the article offers a fresh perspective on the term’s theological significance, moving beyond the often de-contextualized interpretations of later Islamic exegetes. Ultimately, the article aims to foster Muslim–Christian dialogue by revealing the Qur’an’s profound engagement with the living messianic traditions of its time.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2529063
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Religion #Jesus #Christianity
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Overcoming Violence in Islamic Ethics: Ṭāhā ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān’s Dialogism and Moral Responsibility
By Abdessamad Belhaj, University of Public Service
Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s Suʼāl al-ʻunf (The Question of Violence) is perhaps the most extensive philosophical-religious critique of violence in Islamic ethics in the last decade. He distinguishes between the notions of violence, force, and struggle, rejecting violence based on Islamic sources and critical ethics. He also suggests dialogism and ethics of trusteeship as viable forms of intellectual confrontation along with a toolkit for engagement with Islamist violent groups. This paper offers first an overview of the current perspectives on non-violence in Islamic ethics. Then, I will explore Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s background and trajectory in order to contextualize his contribution to the ongoing debates on ethics in the Moroccan context. Subsequently, I will discuss his main theses and arguments on Islamist violence as well as the toolkit he offers to overcome it.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070896
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Tags: #Theology #Islam #Morality #TahaAbdalRahman
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A fundamental flaw in the free will defence
By Brandon Robshaw, Open University
In this paper I examine versions of the free will defence by Alvin Plantinga and Peter Van Inwagen. The free will defence states that God allows evil acts to occur because they are an inevitable outcome of granting humans free will. One could only have a world free of evil if humans were unfree. But free will is such a very great gift that a world with no free will and no evil would be worse than a world where there was free will and also evil. I argue that this defence has a fundamental flaw. It leaves something crucial out of account: the fact that acts of evil typically diminish or destroy the free will of their victims. If God wants all humans (not just powerful ones) to have the valuable gift that is free will, therefore, he has reason to prevent evil acts which take away other individuals’ free will. The free will defence is therefore paradoxical: the value of free will is no reason for allowing evil, but for restricting it.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09962-4
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Tags: #FreeWill #Plantinga #Morality #Evil
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Islamic emotional-cognitive integration: how Islamic education shapes students’ cognitive processes and outcomes through expressive writing
By Redite Kurniawan, Imam Karya Bakti, M. Firmansyah, Rosidi Bahri, Nur Kholis & Kusaeri, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel
This study explores the role of Islamic education in shaping cognitive processes, the internalisation of Islamic values and the cognitive-emotional integration of students through the practice of expressive writing. Using a mixed-methods approach, this research compares the expressive writing of 34 participants from two different institutions: a madrasah tsanawiyah, which intensively implements an Islamic atmosphere, and a public middle school. The results reveal that students in the madrasah consistently demonstrate a deeper understanding of Islamic concepts and reflect religious values in their writing, even without religiously specific prompts. In contrast, students in the public middle school show minimal expression of Islamic values, primarily prompted by the religious cues given in the writing task. These findings suggest that religious education integrated with Islamic habituation in the school environment strengthens students’ reflective abilities, both cognitively and emotionally. This study demonstrates that social support and value-based learning can accelerate the internalisation of Islamic values and the emotional regulation of students.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2025.2523385
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Tags: #Psychology #Sociology #Religion #Pedagogy
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Morality and the Gods
By Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Aarhus University
The relationship between religion and morality has been a steadfast topic of inquiry since the dawn of the social sciences. This Element probes how the social sciences have addressed this relationship by detailing how theory and method have evolved over the past few generations. Sections 1 and 2 examine the historical roots of cross-cultural inquiry and Section 3 addresses the empirical tools developed to address cross-cultural patterns statistically. Sections 4-6 address how the contemporary evolutionary social sciences have been addressing the role religious cognition, behaviour, and beliefs play on moral conduct. By critically examining the tools and theories specifically developed to answer questions about the evolution of morality, society, and the gods, this Element shows that much of our current knowledge about this relationship has been significantly shaped by our cultural history as a field. It argues that the relationship between religion and morality is, despite considerable diversity in form, quite common around the world.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009414036
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Tags: #God #Religion #Morality
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Beyond Interest: The Legal Development of Bayʿ al-Wafāʾ in Hanafi Legal Thought
By Birnur Deniz, Independent Researcher
Credit relations in Muslim societies have attracted significant scholarly attention across disciplines due to the prohibition of interest. In the Ottoman Empire, renowned for its vast resources, the presence of sophisticated credit mechanisms alongside its strong Muslim identity has often been perceived as paradoxical. While this apparent contradiction has been extensively studied, the perception and legitimacy of these credit mechanisms within Islamic law, particularly in English-language scholarship, remains underexamined. This study addresses this gap by analyzing bayʿ al-wafāʾ, a significant financing mechanism in which asset ownership is temporarily transferred to a lender in exchange for a loan, with the understanding that the asset will be returned upon full repayment. This transaction, employed for centuries across diverse regions as an interest-avoiding solution, has been extensively debated within Hanafi jurisprudence. This research chronologically examines bayʿ al-wafāʾ’s integration into Hanafi legal thought from its emergence through the 18th-century Ottoman Empire, drawing on primary sources across various genres of Hanafi legal literature. The findings reveal that bayʿ al-wafāʾ could not be categorized within existing Islamic contract frameworks. Instead, it is recognized as a contract with unique provisions deriving legitimacy from custom and necessity. This study illuminates both how this transaction achieved legal and legitimate status within Hanafi jurisprudence and, more broadly, demonstrates the dynamic evolution of Islamic law within the Hanafi school from the 10th to 18th centuries. Through this analysis, this study demonstrates how the paradoxical challenge of providing interest-free financing was resolved within the framework of Islamic legal principles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070832
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Tags: #Islam #Shariah #Law #History
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Ibn Rushd’s Unification of Forms in the First Form as an Early “Theory of Everything”
By Hakan Turan, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
Besides God's role as the First Mover, in Ibn Rushd's Metaphysics, God also represents the First Form, which is the cause of all forms in the world. But how can the existence of a variety of forms be reconciled with a causing single First Form? This article will present three phases in the development of this problem by Ibn Rushd. After a comparison of these with the concept of unification of the laws of nature in modern physics, the article concludes with a proposal to introduce objects of modern mathematics into Ibn Rushd's concept of the unification of forms.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2514316
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Tags: #IbnRushd #God #Metaphysics
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Reason and Revelation in Ibn Taymiyyah’s Critique of Philosophical Theology: A Contribution to Contemporary Islamic Philosophy of Religion
By Adeeb Obaid Alsuhaymi and Fouad Ahmed Atallah, Jouf University
This paper addresses the longstanding tension between reason and revelation in Islamic religious epistemology, with a focus on the thought of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328). It aims to reassess his critique of philosophical theology (falsafa and kalām) and explore his constructive alternative to rationalist metaphysics. The study adopts a descriptive–analytical methodology, combining close textual reading of Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql and Naqd al-Manṭiq with conceptual analysis informed by contemporary religious epistemology and philosophy of religion. The findings reveal that Ibn Taymiyyah advances a triadic epistemological model centered on revelation (naql), reason (ʿaql), and innate disposition (fiṭrah). He refutes the autonomy of reason, redefines logic as a tool rather than a judge, and repositions fiṭrah as an intuitive foundation for belief. His approach emphasizes the harmony of sound reason with authentic revelation and challenges the epistemic assumptions of speculative theology. By presenting a comparative table of rationalist and Taymiyyan epistemologies, the study demonstrates how Ibn Taymiyyah’s framework anticipates key themes in Reformed Epistemology and the cognitive science of religion. The conclusions suggest that his vision offers a coherent, theocentric paradigm for religious knowledge that is highly relevant to the contemporary philosophy of religion and Islamic theology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070809
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Tags: #IbnTaymiyyah #Kalam #Islam #Fitrah #Epistemology
