𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:38

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Anselm's Temporal-Ontological Proof

By Daniel Rubio, Toronto Metropolitan University

In his Reply to Gaunilo, Anselm presented two additional arguments for the existence of God beyond those that appear in the Proslogion. In “The Logical Structure of Anselm's Argument,” Robert M. Adams isolates each. One, he develops into a modal ontological argument along the lines of other 20th century ontological arguments (e.g., those of Malcolm, Hartshorne, and Plantinga). The other he sets aside with the following remark: “[this argument] turns on the philosophy of time, not the philosophy of logic.” Now the argument's time has come. In this paper, I show the following: (i) this argument is valid in system K, and so requires fewer logical resources than other modal ontological arguments; (ii) its axiological premise is plausible, requiring only the judgment that a perfect being cannot begin to exist, and can be defended; (iii) its metaphysical premise follows from David Lewis's recombination approach to modal plenitude; (iv) unlike other modal ontological arguments, it requires as a premise only that a perfect being is possible, not that one is necessarily possible; and (v) while it avoids parodies and the charge of begging the question, it does face a symmetry counterargument, although one that is more complicated than standard symmetry objections.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.70028

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Tags: #Anselm #God #Philosophy

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:29

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Treaty (Mu’ahada) Making in Islam

By Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul, Khalifa University

This study explores the concept and practice of treaty-making within the Islamic tradition, delving into its theological, legal, and historical underpinnings. The study highlights the principles and processes that have governed treaty-making in Islam by examining key sources such as the Qur’an, Hadith, and classical Islamic jurisprudence. The research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the drafting, negotiation, and implementation of treaties within an Islamic context, focusing on the ethical and legal norms that guided Muslim rulers and states in their engagements with Muslim and non-Muslim entities. Through analysis of notable historical treaties and the jurisprudential debates surrounding them, the study underscores the significance of treaties in Islamic governance and diplomacy, offering insights into how these practices have evolved.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17010018

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #IslamicLaw #Quran

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:20

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A Comparative Analysis of Woman Imagery in Imruʾ al-Qays’ Muʿallaqaand the Qurʾānic Depiction of Ḥūr al-ʿĪn

By Ahmed Ali Hussein Al-Ezzi, Dumlupinar University; Soner Aksoy, Sakin Taş, Sakarya University

This study explores the Qurʾānic portrayal of ḥūr al-ʿīn in relation to pre-Islamic poetic traditions, with a particular focus on Imruʾ al-Qays’s Muʿallaqa—a foundational text in Arabic love poetry. It aims to examine how the Qurʾān reconfigures familiar expressions of female beauty—such as luʾluʾ al-maknūn, qāṣirātu al-ṭarf, kawāʿib atrāban, ʿuruban, and abkāran—within a spiritual and eschatological framework. The research problem centers on understanding the rhetorical and semantic shift from the sensual, body-centered depictions of women found in Imruʾ al-Qays’s couplet to the morally elevated and symbolically charged representations presented in the Qurʾān. Using a comparative textual analysis method, the study draws on classical tafsīr literature and selected passages from Muʿallaqa to trace the semantic transformation of key terms and metaphors. The findings demonstrate that while the Qurʾān retains the linguistic forms and imagery familiar to its audience—including poetic conventions of beauty from Imruʾ al-Qays—it redirects them toward a higher moral and theological purpose. Female beauty becomes not a site of fleeting desire, but a symbol of divine reward, integrating physical perfection with spiritual purity. Ultimately, the research argues that the Qurʾān does not reject the aesthetic legacy of pre-Islamic poetry, but absorbs and elevates it, establishing a new rhetorical paradigm grounded in revelation and ethical transcendence. This study encourages further comparative research between Qurʾānic discourse and early Arabic poetry to illuminate the cultural and expressive transformations shaped by Islam.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17010022

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Quran #Women

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:14

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Modelling the Divine

By Ben Page, Eton College

There are different approaches to modelling the divine, with each raising questions one needs to consider when employing them to produce a model. Outlining some of the most widely used methods is one of the goals of this Element, providing something of an introductory 'how-to' guide for divine modelling. Through discussing what models are, the different sources of data acquisition, how to acquire data via reason, how to sort data, and what we might think a model provides us with, this Element aims to give readers the resources to take on the task of modelling informatively and effectively for themselves.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009270991

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Tags: #Religion #God #Theology

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:42

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Ecotheological Implications of the Qur’anic Verses on Tawbah(Repentance): An Analysis from a Sufi Perspective

By Ibrahim Ero, Trabzon University

This study examines the ecotheological implications attributed to tawbah (repentance) in the Qur’an and the interpretations of the subject by Sufi exegetes. While numerous Qur’anic verses address tawbah, some indicate that it extends beyond the forgiveness of individual sins to encompass ecological consequences. In the Sufi exegetical tradition, tawbah is interpreted as a bridge between the transformation/awareness of the heart and the divine order of nature. The central research question of this study concerns how Sufi interpretations, in light of the relevant Qur’anic verses, contribute an ecotheological perspective to human–nature relations. In this context, the transformative power of tawbah in fostering awareness of oneself and one’s environment is examined from a Sufi perspective. The secondary problem of this study is the analysis of Sufi interpretations concerning the ecological afflictions encountered by individuals and societies as a consequence of the absence of repentance, as well as the psychological states of those subjected to such afflictions. Sufi scholars fundamentally associate environmental crises with the spiritual corruption of individuals and, more broadly, society, arguing that tawbah is not merely a process of spiritual purification but also provides a foundation for developing ethical and responsible engagement with the environment. Their ecotheological interpretations demonstrate that tawbah can serve as a spiritual and ethical basis for addressing environmental problems and support environmentally oriented behavioral models.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16121529

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Quran #Sufism

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:30

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Incorporating religious moderation values into the Islamic religious education curriculum in secondary education: a systematic review of goals, experiences, methods, and evaluation

By Abdul Muis, Universitas Islam Negeri Kiai Haji Achmad Siddiq Jember

Religious moderation, or wasatiyyah in Arabic, refers to the principle of balance in faith, practice, and social interaction within Islam. It is, therefore, an essential aspect of Islamic religious education which promotes tolerance, justice, and inclusivity. However, the systematic integration of these values into the secondary school curriculum development remains underexplored. Grounded in Tyler’s model of curriculum development (1949), this study examines how religious moderation is embedded in the curriculum through learning goals, learning experiences, teaching methods, and assessment systems. This qualitative systematic review approach employs the PRISMA method, analysing articles from Scopus and Web of Science indexed journals published between 2015 and (early March) 2025. The findings highlight the representation of moderation values in Islamic religious education enacted across secondary education institutions. Furthermore, they identify key strategies through which religious moderation can be effectively integrated into the Islamic religious education curriculum in secondary education. This study provides practical recommendations for educators and policymakers to design a more adaptive curriculum that strengthens religious moderation values in secondary schools.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2025.2598619

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Pedogogy

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:12

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Generative AI and Theology: A Three-Year Retrospective

By Mark Graves, Fuller Theological Seminary

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, making accessible the transformative potential of Generative AI that had been emerging within the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) research communities. Soon after, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and the AI and Faith community of experts began collaborating on an AI and Faith editorial series to explore the theological and ethical implications of emerging AI technologies. As the ninth installment in the series, the present editorial reflects over the past three years, reviews those earlier editorials and some additional publications, and reexamines some significant changes since 2022.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2592326

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Tags: #Religion #Science #AI #Theology

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 07:42

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The Aḥmad Enigma: Unveiling Qur’anic and Matthean Scriptural Engagements

By Hadi Taghavi & Alireza Heidari

Through meticulous philological analysis of Arabic, Syriac and Greek lexica, this study posits that Qur’an 61.6–9 manifests a purposeful literary, contextual and etymological engagement with Matthew 12.16–31, proposing a novel interpretation of the qur’anic reference to aḥmad. Surmounting the hitherto common association of aḥmad in Q 61.6 with the Johannine Paraclete discourse, the research contends that the term aḥmad functions not merely as a proper noun or superlative adjective, but as a verbal construction – ‘I [God] praise’ – functioning as a citational echo of the divine declaration in Matthew 12.18: ‘whom I desire, in whom my soul delights’. This specific connection intimates that the qur’anic islām(‘self-surrender to God’) actualizes the Matthean malkūteh da-llāhā (‘the Kingdom of God’), positioning divine sovereignty within the human heart. A salient insight of this Isaianic-Matthean-qur’anic parallelism resides in underscoring the core concept of dīn as ‘divine judgement’, rather than merely ‘religion’, powerfully evoking the semantic domain of dīn in the frequent qur’anic phrase yawm al-dīn (‘the Day of Judgement’). The study furthermore asserts that Sūrat al-Ṣaff’s thematic nexus centres on the ultimate manifestation of ‘the light of God’ and ‘the judgement of truth’, superseding earlier interpretations that prioritized martial exhortation.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2592172

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Tags: #Religion #Quran #Islam #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

02 December 2025 07:20

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Religion and Food

By Alexandra S. Wormley and Adam B. Cohen, Arizona State University

Religion plays an important role in what and how we eat. Indeed, food is a critical component of religion-as well as a reflection of the other components that make religion unique. This fact is what necessitates greater attention towards food as a lens for understanding psychological phenomenon both within the psychology of religion and the social scientific community at large. Utilizing theories and exemplars from multiple disciplines, the authors discuss how food relates to four dimensions of religion – beliefs (Section 2), values (Section 3), practices (Section 4), and community (Section 5). Throughout the Element and in a concluding section, the authors provide exciting directions for future research. In addition to providing a review of our current understanding of the role of food and religion, this work ultimately seeks to inspire researchers and students to investigate the role of food in religious life.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009421898

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Tags: #Religion #God #Theology

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

02 December 2025 07:13

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Assisted Reproduction in the Abrahamic Religions: Ethical Contributions for a Pluralistic Society

By María del Carmen Massé García, Pontifical University Comillas

Recent advances in reproductive science have prompted a profound reexamination of some of the most fundamental anthropological aspects of human life: the value of nascent human life, the meanings of motherhood and fatherhood, and the concept of family. Abrahamic religious traditions in particular offer a rich moral heritage, developed over centuries, that can significantly contribute to ethical reflection on assisted reproductive technologies. This article examines the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, which are predominant in the Western cultural context and greatly influence the lives and moral frameworks of more than half of the world’s population. The study underscores the strength of the ethical foundations shared across these religious traditions and common values, principles, and moral concerns, while also seeking to understand and integrate the distinctive nuances that differentiate them.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16121508

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Tags: #Religion #Ethics #Islam

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:53

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Divinely Prescribed Evil and Moral Knowledge in Islam and Beyond

By Farbod Akhlaghi, Trinity College Dublin

Can one who takes Scripture to be the word of God, and who takes their independent moral judgements to be reliable, reconcile such beliefs with Scriptural injunctions that appear to permit and require evil actions? That is the Problem of Divinely Prescribed Evil. An ethics-first solution takes our independent moral judgements to be reliable and attempts to reconcile them with seemingly divinely prescribed evil. Amir Saemi (2024) offers a prima facie promising ethics-first solution: take Scriptural injunctions to be not moral, but legal. In this paper, I critically examine this proposal. After raising worries about Saemi’s argument for his solution, I explore his analogy with the ethics and laws of war, raise three concerns for his solution, and present a dilemma which is, ultimately, an argument against Saemi’s solution. I end with some suggestions for further inquiry into this recalcitrant problem, and analytic philosophy of religion about Islam. 

Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i3.58891

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Tags: #Islam #Morality #PoE #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:46

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Problems of Evil: Old and New

By Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame

This paper is a critical study of Amir Saemi’s Morality and Religion in Islamic Moral Thought and Beyond: A New Problem of Evil. This book identifies and enhances resources available to conscientious Muslims for resolving normative conflicts. Saemi focuses particularly on tensions between, on the one hand, Scriptural commands and permissions and, on the other, deliverances of moral reflection. This paper first notes some representative ideas Saemi brings out from among the many classic Islamic philosophers and theologians he explicates. It then indicates the apparently central elements in his own resolution of some major conflicts faced by conscientious Muslims. These conflicts center on the issues of how to interpret theologically authoritative testimony; how, in doing so, to weight the reliability of competent human reflection; and how to balance the requirements of piety with the constraints of conscientious believers. The paper concludes with a proposal that respects the piety Saemi hopes to accommodate and the sound moral standards of conduct that, despite their tension with commands and permissions widely considered theologically binding, he argues are reasonable for conscientious Muslims.

Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i3.59385

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Tags: #Islam #Morality #PoE #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:40

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Evidence-Based Creationism: The Origin of the Universe

By Richard Liangchen Wang, Independent Researcher

There is currently no scientific theory on God’s creation of the universe yet, which has a negative impact on people’s belief in God. This paper aims to establish an evidence-based creationism about God creating the universe. The Creationism Theorem, which is proved in this paper, asserts that the fundamental physical laws were designed by a Designer. The universality, mathematical formulation, and succinctness of physical laws reveal that the Designer is almighty and possesses the highest wisdom. It is concluded that God, a supernatural being, designed physical laws and used them to create and govern the universe.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2592330

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Tags: #Creationism #Evolution #Design #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:32

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Reviving Manichaeism with the Evil God Challenge

By Zoheir Bagheri Noaparast, Stellenbosch University

In contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, the evil God challenge has been developed by several authors as a parody argument. Proponents of this challenge contend that, given the goods in our world, the hypothesis of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnimalevolent God or the Evil God is absurd. Similarly, they argue, we should conclude that the hypothesis of a good God is also absurd due to the evils present in our world. This paper argues that, with the aid of this challenge and other contemporary debates in the philosophy of religion, one can make the case that a reintroduction of Manichaeism into philosophy of religion is worthwhile. This argument will propose that, considering our total evidence, the Good-God and the Evil-God demonstrate a similar level of support. Additionally, under a reconstructed Manichaean hypothesis, good and evil are seen as mutually explanatory. Furthermore, the natural order can be understood within this framework. Therefore, the Manichaean hypothesis could serve as a viable alternative to monotheistic theism; it can account for the co-existence of good and evil and is compatible with the observed order in nature.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16111432

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Tags: #PoE #Evil #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:26

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Atheist Morality Without God

By John W. Loftus, Independent Researcher

This essay is a response to James Sterba’s “An Ethics without God That Is Compatible with Darwinian Evolution.” As an atheist philosopher I show that atheist morality is essentially and thoroughly a secular morality, and that the most reasonable ethics are secular systems in that they do not require a God, gods, or goddesses. I go on to defend an atheist morality based on polls showing that countries with atheist populations are healthier than religious ones. Then I point out the sources of human morality, arguing that there is a common neighborly morality that matters, based on facts about who we are as a species, which includes the pre-human sources in the animal world. Finally, I mention how that Sterbaian Ethics, as it should henceforth be called, can succeed.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16111444

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Tags: #God #Morality #Religion #Atheism #Ethics

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:33

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An Abduction About Aristotle’s Apagoge with Inspiration from al-Fārābī

By Mahdi Azimi and Morteza Motavalli, University of Tehran;

In the Prior Analytics, book 2, chapter 25, Aristotle presents a strange type of argument called apagoge. Some, such as Ross, consider the situation in this chapter problematic, and some, such as Peirce, do not. Ross believes that apagoge is a semi-demonstrative, semi-dialectical syllogism, in the form of the first figure, with a probable conclusion that is obtained from a more probable minor premise with an apodictic major premise. Peirce says that apagogeis the very abduction or −in a more recent term−inference to the best explanation. Al-Fārābī, however, without explicitly discussing apagoge, replaces it with the Arabic translation of epagoge, i.e. ‘ 'istiqrā’ (induction)’, which inspires the hypothesis that apagoge is a miswriting of epagoge. Inspired by al-Fārābī’s words, we formulate another abduction, based on which the strange and problematic situation of Chapter 25 is explained by accepting the hypothesis that apagoge is a miswriting of epagoge. However, this reading is neither economical nor consistent.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2025.2587538

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Tags: #Aristotle #AlFarabi #Philosophy

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:24

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Word Pairs as Rhetorical Elements in the Qurʾān: In Memoriam Alexander Sima (1969–2004)

By Kathrin Müller, Independent Researcher

Anyone who starts reading the Qurʾān out of linguistic and literary interest—whether in the original language or in a translation—very quickly becomes aware of the strong rhetorical effect of the text in its forcefulness and intensity. But by what means is this effect achieved? One means is duality, which, in Arabic, is already inherent in thought through the existence of the dual between singular and plural and is therefore of particular importance. The constantly repeated mention of God’s attributes in the Qurʾān—usually two terms of similar meaning, such as ġafūrun raḥīmun “All-forgiving, All-compassionate” (Arberry) or ʿalīmun ḥakīmun“All-knowing, All-wise” (Arberry)—determines the text as caesuras, and a second term is also often added to other terms in order to emphasise and intensify the statement, such as mā la-hū min waliyyin wa-lā naṣīrin “to have neither protector nor helper.” The phenomenon of merism—the totality ‘everything,’ ‘everywhere,’ and ‘always’ expressed by two opposing terms—is also used in the Qurʾān, for example, in ẓāhirun/bāṭinun “inward/outward,” meaning ‘all.’

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17010019

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Quran #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:18

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The Disaffected Wife: Reinterpreting Nushūz, Authority, and Punishment in Qurʾān 4:34

By Fateme Najjarzadehgan, University of Tehran

In this research, I examine the concept of nushūzas it appears in verses 34 and 128 of Surah An-Nisāʾ, tracing its interpretive development across classical and modern Islamic discourse. I explore how exegetes have understood nushūz to include resentment, defiance, challenges to spousal authority, and a desire for separation, as well as how more recent interpretations associate it with spousal infidelity.
These readings are considered in relation to pre-Islamic and early Islamic sources. While the former approach has shaped Islamic legal and social norms for centuries, the latter seeks to harmonize Qurʾānic teachings with contemporary perspectives on gender equality and human rights.
The analysis follows a three-phase framework: (1) a linguistic study to assess the term’s consistency with Qurʾānic usage and structural patterns; (2) a contextual study to evaluate its coherence within the immediate passage and thematically related verses; and (3) an isnād–matn analysis of relevant narrations (ḥadīth reports) to examine their transmission chains and textual variations.
This re-examination proposes a revised understanding of nushūz as a state of relational estrangement or disaffection. This definition invites a reinterpretation of several key elements: the identification of the subjects in verse 34; the relationship between nushūz and the expressions al-lātī takhāfūna and fa in aṭa’nakum; the connection between nushūz and the description of al-ṣāliḥāt women; the meaning and practical application of the three prescribed measures (ʿiẓūhunna, uhjurūhunna fī al-maḍājiʿ, and iḍribūhunna); and its relationship to related passages, including al-Nisāʾ 4:35 and al-Baqarah 2:229.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70018

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Quran #Hadith

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

30 December 2025 07:08

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Ibn Battuta’s Journey–Analytical Study: Eliciting Values and Curious Customs from Ibn Battuta’s Journey: “Tuhfat An-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ibal-Amsar wa-‘Aja’ib Al-Asfar”

By Gamal Adawi, The College of Sakhnin

The research aims to derive the positive and negative values and strange habits included in Ibn Battuta’s journey called “Tuhfat An-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ibal-Amsar wa-‘Aja’ib Al-Asfar” by Shams al-Din bin Abdullah al-Lawati, the Moroccan al-Tanji, known as Ibn Battuta (d. 1377 AD), presented and investigated by Ali al-Muntasir al-Katani (D.T), which was included in Ibn Battuta’s trip, to the peoples of the countries he visited on the African and Asian continents. A total of 440 respondents participated in the study: 195 teachers in the supplementary track and 245 fourth-year regular track students at an Arab College of Education from all disciplines: early childhood, Arabic language, science, mathematics and computer science, English language, and special education. The respondents were asked to select an enrichment text or a story of one or more pages from Ibn Battuta’s travels, with the aim of eliciting the positive and negative values and strange customs of the peoples and countries Ibn Battuta visited in Africa and Asia. The study results indicated that Ibn Battuta’s travelogue, “Tuhfat An-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ibal-Amsar wa-‘Aja’ib Al-Asfar,” is considered an important literary reference, rich with texts and stories from which we can deduce the values and customs of the people of the countries Ibn Battuta visited in Africa and Asia. Teachers can use this information for discussion and constructive dialogue with their students in schools, in various educational subjects such as social studies, religion, literature, Arabic language, history, and geography. Most of the study participants support the idea of integrating Ibn Battuta’s travelogue into various lessons. The study recommends the importance of integrating and expanding it to include other subjects in schools, colleges, and universities. This integration should be systematically built around various activities that achieve “meaningful learning,” ensure active student participation, and enhance value for the learner and society. In conclusion, I recommend conducting detailed studies and research on the educational values derived from travel literature.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16121520

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #History

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:39

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Policing (Im)Modesty in Modest Fashion: Islamic Feminist Renegotiations of Modesty in Influencer Culture

By Inaash Islam, College of the Holy Cross

This article examines how Muslimah influencers based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are policed for, and negotiate with the policing of their Islamic modesty in influencer culture. Data come from interviews with 14 Muslimah influencers, and a survey distributed amongst 188 self-identified followers of Muslim female influencers. Findings show that Muslimah influencers are policed by their followers, fellow modest fashion participants, and sometimes their families for prioritizing their nafs(self), violating Islamic principles of awrah(covering of private parts), and inviting their sexualization by others through the pursuit of influencer celebrity. Data show that Muslimah influencers respond to this policing through Islamic feminist Ijtihād (critical reasoning), positing their aesthetic labor as a form of dawah(proselytizing). This article argues that Muslimah influencers operate as ‘pious critical agents’ who employ Islamic feminism to broaden understandings of modesty as it operates in the lived realities of Muslim women in anti-Muslim contexts.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2025.2598619

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Feminism #Sociology

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:24

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The Veil in the Abrahamic Faiths: A Cross-National Analysis

By Mansoor Moaddel, The University of Maryland

Explanations for veiling among Muslim women fall into two main clusters of ethnographic studies. The first, from the 1990s, sees veiling as an accommodation strategy through which women navigate tensions between autonomy and patriarchy or subvert such norms to cultivate piety—though the evidence still reflects fundamentalism's influence. The second, emerging after the 2011 Arab Spring, focuses on women doffing the veil. Viewed together, the two reflect the spirit of their times: veiling aligned with the rise of fundamentalism, unveiling with its decline. Using a clash-of-values framework, this paper analyzes data from 10 Middle Eastern countries and among adherents of the Abrahamic faiths. Findings show veiling preference skews more conservative in fundamentalist contexts, while liberal ones support more relaxed dress codes. Sartorial conservatism weakens with greater female employment and social media access, but strengthens in countries with more men and younger populations. At the individual level, conservative veiling correlates with stronger fundamentalist orientation, religiosity, and support for gender segregation, but weakens among those committed to liberal values or with higher socioeconomic status. Since clothing projects power, future research should examine how the nature of political power mediates religion–clothing dynamics.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.70013

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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Sociology

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

27 December 2025 09:09

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An Exploration into a Decenteredness: A Multireligious Approach to Science and Religions

By Greg Cootsona, California State University

This paper explores a decentered, multireligious approach to science. It first looks at three broad waves in religious studies with a focus on the third, which features leading voices like George Lindbeck and Stephen Prothero. It then brings this approach into an interchange with science. Next, it presents A. N. Whitehead’s philosophy through what Michael Welker has called a “polycontextual” and “multi-perspectively adjusted” concept of the world. It closes with one specific example of reframing how science and religion can interact and three implications for helping unwind the predominant models that have shaped and constrained the field.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2592339

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Tags: #Religion #Science #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

02 December 2025 07:23

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Monotheism and Creation

By David Cheetham, University of Birmingham

This Element discusses the idea of creation ex nihilo as an expression of monotheistic belief mainly with reference to Jewish and Christian traditions. It outlines the philosophical and theological discussion about monotheism and creation, considering key historical figures such as Philo, Irenaeus, Augustine, and Aquinas as well as contemporary thinkers. It reviews key topics such as divine sovereignty, the goodness of creation, pantheism, process, and feminist thinking on creation. It argues for creation ex nihilo over other models. In particular, it examines the notion of 'creaturehood' as an overlooked and under-developed dimension in contemporary debates about the relationship between created humanity and the one God. The doctrine of creation does not just address the question of origins, it also serves to affirm the finite or immanent aspects of life.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009357395

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Tags: #Religion #God #Theology #Evolution #Creationism

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

02 December 2025 07:16

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The Moral Argument for the Existence of God: An Evaluation of Some Recent Discussions

By Henry Hock Guan Teh, Andrew Loke, Hong Kong Baptist University

This paper contributes to the discussion on the Moral Argument for the existence of God—an important argument of natural theology which is relevant to science and religion dialogues—by showing that the argument can be formulated in a such way that avoids the lack of comprehensiveness in Andrew Loke’s original formulation and the unnecessarily complicated reformulation offered in Jack et al.’s criticism of Loke. This paper also contributes to the discussion by demonstrating the failure of relaxed (moral) realism proposed by Jack et al. to rebut the Moral Argument and offers replies to their other objections concerning moral obligations and social relations, the law-like character of moral obligations, and moral truths and responsibilities.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16111467

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Tags: #Realism #Theology #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:55

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The Ethics-First View Defended: Responses to Audi, Aijaz, Akhlaghi, and Buchak

By Amir Saemi, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences

This paper offers four detailed responses to four commentators on my book. First, in response to Robert Audi, I clarify my position on the Abraham’s sacrifice case, defending both the objective and subjective impermissibility of the sacrifice, grounded in the “Moses principle” and the “Accessibility Constraint.” Second, in reply to Imran Aijaz, I address concerns that my “Legal Interpretation” solution could be appropriated by Islamic fundamentalists, clarifying my metaphor of Hayy’s island as a condition of reasoned moral reflection rather than a narrative of historical inevitability. Third, in response to Farbod Akhlaghi, I engage with challenges to Legal Interpretation, defending it against charges of question-begging, examining whether legislation can justifiably require grave moral wrongs, and elaborating the unique epistemic role of revelation in providing underdetermination-solving and relationship-based reasons. Finally, in response to Lara Buchak, I explore her game-theoretic model of moral development as an enhancement of Legal Interpretation and propose a variation that addresses gender dynamics in 7th-century Arabia.

Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i3.60061

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Tags: #Islam #Morality #PoE #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:48

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Comments on Amir Saemi’s Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond: A New Problem of Evil

By Imran Aijaz, University of Michigan-Dearborn

In this article, I offer a friendly engagement with Amir Saemi’s recent publication, Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond: A New Problem of Evil. In this book, Saemi introduces what he terms the “Problem of Divinely Prescribed Evil,” which arises from the apparent conflict between the divinity of Scripture, the existence of seemingly prescribed immoral actions, and the reliability of human moral judgment. To resolve this conflict, Saemi proposes and defends what he calls the “Legal Interpretation” solution, which reframes morally problematic scriptural injunctions as historically contingent legal measures intended to resolve the social challenges of a nonideal community. In what follows, I argue that this solution is vulnerable to two significant objections. First, it risks being appropriated by traditionalist or fundamentalist perspectives that resist claims of moral progress (the “Absāl’s Island” objection). Second, it fails to resolve the underlying moral tension, merely relocating the problem without dissolving it (the “Illusory Solution” objection). I conclude my discussion by noting that my criticisms should be viewed as constructive and part of a larger, ongoing conversation about Saemi’s important work.

Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i3.58859

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Tags: #Islam #Morality #PoE #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:44

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One Book, Many Gains: On Saemi’s Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond

By Mohammad Saleh Zarepour, University of Manchester

Over the past twenty years, many scholars have argued that the analytic philosophy
of religion is unhealthy for the following reasons, among others: Most analytic
philosophers of religion are Christian theists or are significantly influenced by Christianity more than by any other religion. Most of the field’s central problems have arisen through engagement with Christian beliefs. Most philosophical theories developed in defence of religious belief are proposed from a Christian perspective, and most arguments against religious belief are primarily targeted at Christianity. Until very recently, all the leading journals in the field were Christianity oriented, and most of the major funded research projects centred on themes inspired by or formed in reaction to Christianity.

Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i3.62593

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Tags: #Islam #Morality #PoE #God

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:36

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Reconfiguring Political Islam
A Discursive Tradition Approach

By Abbas Jong, Freie Universität Berlin

This article reconceptualizes Political Islam through the analytic lens of discursive tradition, restructured within the framework of social configurations. Departing from essentialist, universalist, nominalist, and reductionist readings, the study foregrounds the epistemological contingencies and internal pluralities that characterize Political Islam as a historically situated and discursively constructed phenomenon. Rather than treating political Islam as a fixed ideological project or a transhistorical expression of Islamic governance, the article theorizes it as a dynamic and contested field in which diverse actors articulate Islamic categories within distinct configurations shaped by contextual transformations, historical ruptures, institutional dislocations, regimes of reasoning, and so on. Drawing on Talal Asad’s notion of discursive tradition, the analysis reconstructs its scope through the concept of social configurations, which enables a multilayered reading of Political Islam across three analytical levels: conditions of possibility, categorical and discursive formation, and social objectification. This theoretical reconstruction clarifies how Islamist discourses emerge not from doctrinal continuity alone, but through strategic negotiations over core issues such as temporality, authority, power, and legitimacy. Through comparative and context-sensitive examination of various Islamist traditions—from reformist to revolutionary, nationalist to transnational, moderate to militant—the article shows how Political Islam operates through a grammar of differentiation and reconfiguration within the broader Islamic tradition. The resulting framework not only situates Political Islam within shifting social terrains, but also offers an epistemological intervention into its interpretation as a plural, indeterminate, and generative discursive tradition.

Link: https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v42i3-4.3609

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Tags: #Islam #Politics #Tradition

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:29

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Theology meets philosophy of science

By Meghan D. Page, Loyola Maryland University; Ignacio Silva, Universidad Austral

This is a brief introduction to a special issue highlighting the relevance of philosophy of science to many core topics in theology and philosophy of religion. Several points of intersection between knowledge production in the sciences and knowledge production in philosophy and theology are discussed.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412525101297

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Tags: #Philosophy #Theology #Religion #Science

𝐈 𝐇 Rᴇᴘᴏsɪᴛᴏʀʏ

29 November 2025 08:21

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Islam, Science, and the Environment
An Application of Ibrahim Kalin’s “Three Views of Science in the Islamic World”

By Bilkis Bharucha

Contemporary discussions on Islam and science are highly variegated, often taking on fundamentally opposite assumptions. The remarkable divergence in the basic methods and assumptions underlying publications in this field make any meta-study, or comparison between approaches, nearly impossible. One pragmatic meta-framework of Islam and science that incorporates a wide range of views and provides meaningful distinctions between them is suggested by Ibrahim Kalin. In his chapter titled, “Three Views of Science in the Islamic World,” Kalin identifies three (non-exhaustive) Islamic critiques of science, which he labels as: ‘ethical/puritanical’; ‘epistemological’; and ‘ontological/metaphysical’. Applying Kalin’s framework to contemporary publications on Islam and the environment offers a rich analysis, enabling us to identify attempts at the instrumentalization of Islamic ethics, hermeneutics, and metaphysics, as well as identify contact points between religion and science.

Link: https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v39i3--4.3724

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Tags: #Islam #Ethics #Religion