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Is God Sustainable?
By Eugene Halton, University of Notre Dame
This essay approaches the “God is dead” theme by offering a new philosophical history addressing what would make belief in divinity, in God, sustainable and unsustainable. I claim that the death of nature and the death of God in the modern era are manifestations of a progressive distancing from a religious philosophy of the Earth that guided human development until the beginnings of civilization. I outline within the space limitations here a new way of looking at the rise of civilization and the modern era by re-evaluating large-scale epochal beliefs and assumptions of progress within a context of sustainable ends and what I have termed sustainable wisdom. From an original evolved outlook I call animate mind, rooted in a religious philosophy of the living Earth, succeeding contractions of anthropocentric mind and machine-centric mind have regressively disconnected from the community of life. This trajectory courses the disconnect from the livingness of things as defining cosmos, to that of machine-centric mind in the modern era, a devolutionary elevation of the feelingless machine, of deadness, of what Erich Fromm described as cultural necrophilia. I propose rebalancing these later contractions of anthropocentric and machine-centric mind with that deeper reality of animate mind, forged as the human evolutionary legacy still present in the human body-mind today. The renewed legacy of animate mind provides a key to what a sustainable God might mean.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9040093
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Tags: #Religion #God #Philosophy
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On Worshipping the Same God
By T. J. Mawson, University of Oxford
In this paper, I argue that if any one of Judaism, Christianity or Islam is true, then the adherents of each worship the same God as one another. The issue is primarily one of reference and on any plausible account of how “God” and what I call “cognate names” of God work, all refer to God if any refers to God. Thus, anyone who directs worship to what they suppose they refer with these names directs worship to God if there is a God. There is (perhaps surprising) scope for those with radically misguided views of the nature of God to nevertheless refer to Him and to worship Him should He exist.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v1i1.22900
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Tags: #Religion #God #Islam #Judaism #Christianity
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Defending the “Backward Civilization”: The Resurrection of a Forgotten 17th Century Text in 20th Century Intellectual Discourse on Islam
By Mahmut Cihat İzgi, Sakarya University; Enes Ensar Erbay, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University
It is an irony of history that since texts transcend the intentions and purposes of their authors, their meaning and significance are often contested anew as they enter new historical contexts; even historical texts are thus subject to reading and criticism over time. This article discusses the posthumous fate of Henry Stubbe’s own text on Islamic history, The Rise and Progress of Mahometanism—seen by some to represent a Copernican revolution in the study of Islam. The fate of this work is a clear example of the critical contingencies and fluctuating fortunes experienced by a corpus of texts. The continuing existence of a text as an object open to reconfiguration and re-evaluation is termed its after-history (Nachgeschichte) or afterlife (Nachleben). This notion of the afterlife of an object as a period of critical appreciation and political appropriation aptly defines the fate and fame of The Rise and Progress of Mahometanism. The present study seeks to explore the narrative surrounding a publication authored by Stubbe in the 17th century and finally published by Hafiz Mahmud Khan Shairani, with the critical support of Ottoman intellectual Halil Halid Bey, nearly two centuries later. Its objective is to investigate how the life and contributions of a figure whose work has transcended generations was resurrected within the political backdrop of the 20th century, as evidenced in the columns of Ottoman newspapers.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09917-1
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Prophet #History
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Theology and Theories of Metaphor: How We Talk When We Talk about God
By Kerilyn Harkaway-Krieger, Gordon College
In theology, how language about God communicates is inseparable from what is being communicated, and the form that theological discourse takes must be part of what is considered when it is interpreted. Although analogy has been given pride of place in theology, more recent interest in metaphor, from theologians, philosophers, and linguists, reveals new debates over how deeply embedded metaphor is in language, how metaphor shapes our cognition and perception, and metaphor's role in theological understanding. This article provides an overview of the relevance for theology of two recent approaches to metaphor—those of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur and the cognitive linguistic approach—and ultimately argues that the most fitting understanding of how metaphor operates theologically is to say that it is mystical, because it contains both affirmations of identity and acknowledgement of difference (between the divine and the human, the spiritual and the material).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.14330
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Tags: #Theology #God #Metaphysics
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Religious and Spiritual Diversity in Multiple Modernities: A Decolonial Perspective Focusing on Peripheral Religious Expressions
By Cristián Parker, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
This paper challenges the World Religion Paradigm (WRP) dominating religious studies, advocating for a decolonial approach that focuses on diverse and often marginalized religious expressions. The approach that prioritizes world religions over the rich diversity of religious expressions in multiple modernities turns out to be insufficient and biased. Through theoretical research, this paper explores the implications of multiple modernities for the religious landscape. Drawing on Eisenstadt’s theory of multiple modernities, the analysis critiques linear notions of modernization and secularization, and it highlights the complex interplay between religious centers and peripheries. It develops a critical examination of how the theory of the Axial Age, by prioritizing elites and centers in the historical genesis of world religions, generates a preconception that overlooks the religious and spiritual productivity of the peripheries, which persists within current interpretative frameworks. To emphasize the dynamic between center and periphery as a key factor in understanding religious diversity, the text proposes some theoretical theses. By embracing a diversity paradigm and decolonizing frameworks, this paper offers a more inclusive understanding of religious phenomena, contributing to a broader discourse on religion and spirituality beyond Eurocentric perspectives.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060726
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Tags: #Spirituality #Sociology #Religion
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Can Scientists Become Prophets? Christian and Islamic Eco-Theology
By Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Who would have expected to hear God's word spoken by Amos (760–755 BCE)? Amos was no prophet by profession. He was a sheep herder near Tekoa, in Judah, the southern kingdom. Amos wandered north to the kingdom of …
Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2359186
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Tags: #God #Science #ConflictThesis
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The Effectiveness of Islamic Spiritual Therapy on the Perception of Pain Intensity and Catastrophic Pain in Female Patients with Chronic Pain
By Faride Ensafdaran, Maryam Jalali, Mahmoud Nejabat & AbdolReza Mahmoudi, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Chronic pain is an important medical problem that is associated with significant negative effects in many aspects of life. Based on prior studies, certain religious behaviors and having religion-based beliefs help coping with chronic diseases. this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual therapy on the perception of pain intensity and catastrophizing of pain in patients with pain.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2024.2361869
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Tags: #Spirituality #Islam #Religion #Sociology
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Supernatural Attributions for Extraordinary Events: Examining Cognitive and Contextual Predictors
By Joshua A. Wilt, Julie J. Exline & Nick Stauner, Case Western Reserve University
Why do people make supernatural attributions (SA) for events? This article focused on five possible predictors: stressfulness, unusual events, religiousness, seeing a supernatural explanation as meaningful, and seeing supernatural entities as powerful. We also predicted that people would be more likely to adopt supernatural explanations seen as highly accessible, motivating, and plausible. We focused primarily on SA in general and secondarily on specific entities. We tested preregistered hypotheses using survey data in two samples of undergraduates: one reporting life-changing events (N = 594) and another reporting on an event with a supernatural air, or supernaturally perceived events (N = 475). Results supported all proposed predictors except for stressfulness. Path analyses revealed that, in both samples, predictors were linked with seeing supernatural explanations as accessible, plausible, and motivating; these ratings, in turn, had positive associations with SA. These results begin to integrate previous theory and research on individual predictors of SA.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12933
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Tags: #Psychology #Miracles #Religion
Philosophical Inquisition Online Research Seminar
Thursday 27th June 2024 | 18:30-20:00 (GMT)
Islamic Legal (Ifta) Training in the UK:
An Empirical Study of the Applied Pedagogical Methods in British Ifta Training Programs from Teachers’ and Students’ Experiences
To be delivered by: Mufti Abdul Waheed
Abstract
The ifta course is a rigorous and systematic legal training program offered to passionate alimiyyah alumni wanting to advance their knowledge of theory and practice in Islamic law. Whilst there is a plethora of research studies exploring Islamic pedagogy in higher Islamic seminaries, literatures exploring ifta pedagogy in the UK setting are scarce. This presentation seeks to discuss my thesis submitted as a Masters dissertation at the University of Warwick (in August 2023) which empirically investigates the applied pedagogical practices in British ifta training programs. This research is the first of its kind within the field of Islamic education and pedagogy.
Literatures on classical tarbiyah legal training pedagogy were reviewed to infer specific pedagogical principles and then examine their correlation with the current ifta teaching practices. It adopts a qualitative methodology approach and uses a semi-structured interview, focus group and structured observation as data collection tools to collate participants’ subjective experiences. A deductive thematic analysis method was used to analyse and interpret our findings. The research findings of the current ifta pedagogy revealed that participants overall demonstrated a positive experience of the ifta training program and it fostered essential skills such as critical thinking, comprehension and research skills in advanced classical law manuals. The ifta program comprises of mixed pedagogical strategies namely instructional and dialogical approaches to combine the theoretical knowledge with the application of law. The study identified major gaps in the current ifta programs such as the need for incorporating advanced structured research modules to produce extensive and well-researched works and the inclusion of contemporary legal topics in the curriculum for wider exposure on modern issues.
For those interested in participating, kindly complete and submit the online registration form via the following link:
https://forms.gle/dSxvYREzNrdkP3TU8
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Corruptio boni: An alternative to the privation theory of evil
By Christophe de Ray, Nanyang Technological University
The classic ‘privation theory’ of evil defines evil as an absence (or ‘privation’) of a good that ought to obtain. Despite its historical importance, privation theory is faced with a number of serious difficulties. I outline two of these difficulties and argue that they continue to pose a threat. I then present ‘corruption theory’, an alternative theory of evil reconstructed from some of Augustine's writings on the subject. I argue that this theory shares the strengths of privation theory, while evading its problems.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12410
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #Metaphysics
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Does Providence Entail Divine Temporality? Maybe
By R. T. Mullins, University of Lucerne
Within contemporary Christian philosophical theology, there are three broad theories of providence being debated. These are theological determinism, Molinism, and open theism. Of course, there are nuances amongst proponents of each theory, but the nuances are not terribly important for my purposes in this essay. I will argue that the basic conceptual machinery of each theory seems to entail divine temporality. Since open theists are already committed to divine temporality, there is nothing for me to argue there. Things get interesting when I consider theological determinism and Molinism. There are proponents of each view who already affirm divine temporality, but there are also proponents of each view who affirm divine timelessness. What I will argue is that theological determinism and Molinism are incompatible with divine timelessness. In order to make my case, I will start by defining some terms. Then, I will offer some arguments related to acting for a reason, divine freedom, and so-called logical moments in the life of a timeless God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060702
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Tags: #Time #Metaphysics #God
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Consciousness, Subjective Facts, and Physicalism – Fifty Years since Nagel’s Bat
By Robert Van Gulick, Syracuse University
The existence of subjective facts in the epistemic sense defined by Thomas Nagel’s famous article, “What is it like to be a bat?” might be taken to support an anti-physicalist conclusion. I argue that it does not. The combination of nonreductive physicalism and teleo-pragmatic functionalism is not only consistent with such subjective facts but predicts their existence. The notion that conscious minds are self-understanding autopoietic systems plays a key role in the argument. Global Neuronal Workspace Theory is assessed in terms of its potential to answer David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of consciousness. A suggestion is made for augmenting the theory that involves another sense in which facts about conscious experience are subjective. The idea of conscious minds as self-understanding systems again plays an important role.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9030072
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Tags: #Consciousness #Physicalism #Philosophy
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A Holistic Response to the Problem of Evil
By Jonathan Fuqua, Conception Seminary College
The four standard theistic responses to the evidential problem of evil are theodicy, Reformed Epistemology, natural theology, and skeptical theism. It’s somewhat common for theists to combine Reformed Epistemology and skeptical theism or natural theology and theodicy. An insufficiently appreciated possibility is that of combining all four of these positions into a more holistic response to the evidential problem of evil. The chief hurdle to doing this is that it seems that skeptical theism isn’t compatible with either natural theology or theodicy. This first appearance, however, is misleading. And, interestingly, certain theists have implicitly put forth a holistic response to the problem of evil. In this paper, I sketch out how one can combine all four of the standard theistic responses to the evidential problem of evil so as to yield a holistic response to the problem of evil. The focus will be on reconciling skeptical theism with natural theology and theodicy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.5
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Tags: #Religion #God #Evil #Theism
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The Beliefs of Nonbelievers: Exclusive Empiricism and Mortal Finitude Among Atheists and Agnostics
By Joseph Blankholm, University of California
This essay argues that “atheist” and “agnostic” are not merely negative labels that indicate a person lacks belief in God or is not religious. Relying on a new survey of very secular Americans and the General Social Survey, we demonstrate a statistically significant and substantively meaningful relationship, in both predictive directions, between identifying as atheist or agnostic and holding certain beliefs about how best to know the world and what happens when we die. We can reliably predict that most people in the United States who trust science, reason, and evidence and do not trust religious sources will identify as atheist or agnostic—and vice-versa. We find the same bi-directional relationship with belief in mortal finitude, i.e., that death is the final end. Our findings suggest that exclusive empiricism and mortal finitude are positive tenets of belief systems that those who identify as atheist or agnostic are likely to hold.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srae003
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Tags: #Religion #God #Atheism #Agnosticism
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Dialetheism and the A-theory
By Sam Baron, University of Melbourne
According to dialetheism, there are some true contradictions. According to the A-theory, the passage of time is a mind-independent feature of reality. On some A-theories, the passage of time involves the movement of the present. I show that by appealing to dialetheism, one can explain why the present moves. I then argue that A-theorists should adopt this explanation. To do this, I defend two claims. First, that the dialetheic explanation is an improvement on the only other explanation available for why the present moves and, second, that adopting the explanation is better than leaving the motion of the present unexplained. Assuming that A-theorists should adopt the best available version of their view, it follows that they should adopt a dialetheic explanation of why time passes.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqae035
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Tags: #Kalam #Metaphysics #Time
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Modern religion as vestigial structure: an evolutionary account of secularisation
By Konrad Talmont-Kaminski, University of Bialystok; F. LeRon Shults, University of Agder
This article offers a new solution to a theoretical problem facing scholars attempting to interpret religion and secularisation in light of biological evolution. Some scholars argue that the diversity of religious beliefs and rituals in contemporary societies is compatible with secularisation or even facilitates it by weakening the plausibility structures of any one religion. Other scholars argue that religious diversity is not evidence of a decrease in interest in religion but rather shows the ingenuity of religious entrepreneurs. Here we extend the former school of thought by outlining a theory of the vestigilisation of religion. We describe three key characteristics of vestigial structures (increasing variability, decreasing costliness and the appearance of novel functions) and identify shifts in these characteristics in some religious traits. We argue that this supports the idea that religious diversity is a predictable effect of secularisation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2023.2289421
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Tags: #Religion #Secularism #Evolution
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Religion, spirituality, and responding to guilt among Muslim women
By Nada Eltaiba, German Jordanian University
Commitment to culturally sensitive practice is an ethical obligation that requires knowledge and skills specific to the practice context. Research shows that incorporating religion and spirituality into mental health practice is central to working effectively with Muslim communities. Practitioners need to consider the unique positionality and intersectionality when promoting mental health among Muslim women living in Western countries. This paper explores the trauma-informed, counseling approach and the integration of spirituality and religion when working with Muslim women living in Western Australia. Using the critical reflection approach, the research focuses on the concept of guilt about mental health and summarizes the main points considered in the counseling framework such as the centrality of spirituality and religion in perceiving guilt. The paper presents some practical strategies to incorporate cultural, religious, and spiritual concepts into the counseling relationship.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2024.2363309
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Muslim #Sociology
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What is wrong with exclusivism? Religious exclusivism between epistemic overconfidence and epistemic humility
By Dirk-Martin Grube, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
I compare the discussion on exclusivism in religion to the discussion on exclusivism in general. With defenders of religious exclusivism, such as Plantinga, I argue that it is a subset of general exclusivism and is as little blameworthy as the latter is. This explains why defenders of religious exclusivism are right in assuming that the burden of proof is on the shoulders of the critics of exclusivism. Yet, this answer solves only part of the problem. It answers only the first order question of whether it is legitimate to hold exclusivist truth claims in religion. It does not answer the second order question of how, in what spirit, they should be held. I argue that there are contexts in which exclusivist truth claims should be held in a humble fashion, for example contexts in which (cognitive) ambiguity reigns. If they are held in those contexts in an overconfident fashion, they are epistemically and/or morally blameworthy. Since religion is characterized by a measure of (cognitive) ambiguity, exclusivist religious truth claims should be held in a humble fashion. They are thus blameworthy if held in an overconfident fashion. Yet, if held in a modest spirit, there is nothing wrong with religious exclusivism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09917-1
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Tags: #Religion #God #Plantinga
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Vacuum Genesis and Spontaneous Emergence of the Universe from Nothing in Reference to the Classical Notion of Causality and Creation ex nihilo
By Mariusz Tabaczek, Pontifical University
The article addresses philosophical and theological reflections inspired by the cosmological models of the origin of the universe from the quantum vacuum (through quantum tunneling) and through a spontaneous emergence from an a-temporal initial state of non-being. A thesis about the possibility of cosmogenesis ex nihilo without the need of God the creator—inspired by these models—is put into question. Its philosophical and theological presuppositions are verified in reference to the classical thought of Aristotle and Aquinas and the categories of potency and act, causality and chance, and metaphysically defined nothingness.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2359189
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Tags: #Aquinas #Aristotle #God #Cosmology
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Can Quantum Contextuality Help to Understand the Contextuality of Theology?
By Wojciech P. Grygiel, Pontifical University
The precise formal account of the contextuality of the quantum measurement provided by the Kochen-Specker theorem allows for a unique insight into the nature of the contextuality of theological language. The conceptual analysis carried out in this paper has demonstrated that despite of the methodological difficulties in juxtaposing theoretical physics and theology, legitimate bridges can be established between them whereby quantum contextuality may serve as a model of contextuality in theology. A structural factor in the form of a richer logic proper to the Divine nature has been identified as the possible source of contextuality of theological discourse.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2359194
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Tags: #Theology #Science #Religion
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The extended evolutionary synthesis: An integrated historical and philosophical examination
By Yafeng Shan, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Among biologists and philosophers, there is an ongoing debate over the Modern Synthesis and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Some argue that our current evolutionary biology is in need of (at least) some substantial revision or nontrivial extension, while others maintain that the Modern Synthesis remains the foundational framework for evolutionary biology. It has been widely debated whether the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis provides a more promising framework than the Modern Synthesis. The nature and methodological implications of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis were also examined. This paper offers an integrated historical and philosophical examination of the debate over the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. It reviews the development of evolutionary biology of the twentieth century. It argues that there are substantial conceptual and theoretical differences between the Modern Synthesis and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, but they are not incommensurable paradigms in the Kuhnian sense. It also argues for a functional approach to the debate over these two frameworks of evolutionary theory.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.13002
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Tags: #Science #Evolution #Philosophy
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Representations of Disability in Qur’anic Narratives
By Akbar Ali & 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: #Quran #Islam #Religion
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Perceptual transformation in Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy: The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) of Prophet Muḥammad
By Ismail Lala, Gulf University for Science and Technology
The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) represent arguably the most significant and unique events in the life of Prophet Muḥammad. However, the influential Sufi thinker Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) argues that the Prophet had thirty-four night journeys of which only one was physical. This physical night journey, and the ascension that took place with it, was the one in which he was given the five daily prayers. Ibn ‘Arabī thus employs the secondary night journeys and ascensions of Prophet Muḥammad to delineate a point of emulation between the Prophet’s spiritual experience and those of his nation. Muslims can also have their own ascensions, but their journeys cannot be physical, and, analogously, cannot have autonomous legislative authority. They can, nevertheless, cause a change in their perception that allows them to see the world as it truly is: a manifestation of the divine Names.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2024.2366044
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Tags: #God #Prophet #Islam #IbnArabi
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Could Avicenna’s god remain within himself?: A reply to the Naṣīrian interpretation
By Ferhat Taşkın, Indiana University-Bloomington
Avicenna holds that since God has existed from all eternity and is immutable and impassible, he cannot come to have an attribute or feature that he has not had from all eternity. He also claims for the simultaneous causation. A puzzle arises when we consider God’s creating this world. If God is immutable and impassible, then his attributes associated with his creating this world are unchanging. So, God must have been creating the world from all eternity. But then God’s creative act, one might object, seems to be no different from a matter of natural necessity. This is a threat to divine freedom, for God would then have no choice concerning his creative action. Anthony Ruffus and Jon McGinnis argue that this puzzle can be solved in such a way that Avicenna can consistently affirm divine freedom along with divine simplicity. They suggest that Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī’s interpretation might help to show that it is false that Avicenna’s God cannot choose absolutely. For it is still open to him to choose either to create eternally or to refrain from creating anything at all. Ruffus and McGinnis argue that since creating or not creating anything at all do not correspond to two distinct concepts, Avicenna’s account of divine simplicity, which denies any multiplicity in divine mind, is safeguarded along with divine freedom. I claim that God’s omnirationality requiring that he always acts for reasons is a serious threat to such an interpretation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09918-0
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Tags: #God #Avicenna #Metaphysics
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The Pursuit of Justice in the Women’s March: Toward an Islamic Liberatory Theology of Resistance
By Etin Anwar, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
The Women’s March on 21 January 2017, opened a new social and political landscape for Muslim women to engage in Islamic liberatory activism. I locate Muslim women’s participation in the marches following the 2017 ‘Muslim travel ban policy’ as a site for discovering the link between the politics of resistance and the utility of Islam as a source for liberation. I argue that Muslim women living in minority and post-secular contexts resort to faith as a source of agentival liberation to address the political rhetoric of anti-Islamic sentiments and policies. The outcome of this research demonstrates (1) how Muslim women activists challenge the Western narratives of being oppressed and explore the ways they want to represent themselves; (2) how Islam serves as a catalyst for theological resistance and how this enhances the role of Muslim women as moral and spiritual agents in transforming their political and social conditions; (3) how the Islamic liberation in the US context historically intersects with Black churches’ resistance toward White racism; and (4) how Muslim women’s agency as spiritual beings is linked to the promotion of justice in the Western liberatory movements. Overall, the article shows how Muslim women resort to their spiritual journey and use such narratives to confront unjust political rhetoric and policies.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060706
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Tags: #Islam #Feminism #LiberationTheology
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A female imam in Paris: Islam, gender, and secular normativity
By Francesco Piraino, Harvard Divinity School
This article discusses Kahina Bahloul’s political and religious engagement and her project to create the liberal ‘Fatima Mosque’, founded in 2019 in Paris. Bahloul is a complex figure, and her political and religious project touches on several dimensions: she was inspired by Sufi doctrines (Ibn ʿArabi and the ʿAlāwiyya) and Islamic modernist philosophy (Mohammed Arkoun). Furthermore, she advocates for a liberal and secular Islam, proposing radical reform and implying the compliance with secular constraints, the merging of social sciences with Islamic sciences, and the polarisation between liberal Muslims and ‘fundamentalist’ Muslims. This article will show that 1) Sufism is mainly used to justify an individualistic approach to Islam; 2) Bahloul’s epistemological hybridity, based on Islam and social sciences, implies a strong tension between her role as a scholar and as a religious authority; and 3) Bahloul’s reform of Islam is not new or radical. The peculiarity of her political and religious project is her compliance with the whimsical French debate on Islam and laïcité, which implies accepting new bans, the privatisation of Islam, and the polarisation between ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims’.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2024.2350950
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Feminism #Secularism
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Metaphysical explanation and the cosmological argument
By Thomas Oberle, University of Alberta
A premise of the Leibnizian cosmological argument from contingency says that no contingent fact can explain why there are any contingent facts at all. David Hume and Paul Edwards famously denied this premise, arguing that if every fact has an explanation in terms of further facts ad infinitum, then they all do. This is known as the Hume–Edwards Principle (HEP). In this paper, I examine the cosmological argument from contingency within a framework of metaphysical explanation or ground and defend a ground-theoretic version of HEP which says, roughly, that the plurality of contingent facts is grounded in its members.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02148-0
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Tags: #Religion #God #CosmologicalArgument
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What to Expect from the God of History
By Laura Frances Callahan, University of Notre Dame
I argue that our expectations for particular evil events, conditional on theism, ought to be informed by our empirical knowledge of history—that is, the history of what God, if God exists, has already allowed to happen. This point is under-appreciated in the literature. And yet if I’m right, this entails that most particular evil events are not evidence against theism. This is a limited but interesting consequence in debates over the evidential impact of evil
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.3
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Tags: #Religion #God #Evil #Theism
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The Necessity and Goodness of Animals in Sijistānī’s Kashf Al-Maḥjūb
By Peter Adamson and Hanif Amin Beidokhti, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Neoplatonic notion of “emanation” implies a required progression through hierarchical stages, originating from the highest principle (the One or God) and cascading down through a series of principles. While this process is deemed necessary, it is also inherently good, even “choiceworthy”, aligning with the identification of the first principle with the Good. Plotinus, a prominent Neoplatonist, emphasizes the beauty and goodness of the sensible world, governed by divine providence. This perspective, transmitted through Arabic adaptations of Plotinus, influences Islamic philosophers too. This paper delves into the thought of the Ismāʿīlī philosopher Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (d. after. 349/971), exploring the interplay of necessity and goodness in his cosmology, with a focus on non-human animals. Sijistānī’s Persian Uncovering the Veiled provides a unique perspective on animals, presenting them as both necessary unfoldings of the universal intellect and inherently good beings with intrinsic value. The paper concludes with an appendix featuring an improved edition and English translation of relevant passages.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9030072
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Tags: #Islam #Shiism #God
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The Prophet’s Day in China: A Study of the Inculturation of Islam in China, Based on Fieldwork in Xi’an, Najiaying, and Hezhou
By Chuanbin Zhou, Ping Shang
Ping Shang and Wenkui Ma, Lanzhou University
Islam is widely spread throughout every corner of China, with the Hui people, the largest Muslim ethnic group in China, numbering over 10 million people, serving as its main carrier. Their culture types and local features exhibit great diversity across different provinces. The ceremony of Prophet’s Day or Mawlid al-Nabi in China, as one of the three fundamental festivals of the Hui people alongside Eid al-Fitur and Eid al-Qurban, appears to be more comprehensive, open, and localized. Drawing from fieldwork in three Hui communities—Xi’an in Shaanxi province, Najiaying in Yunnan province, and Hezhou in Gansu province—this paper approaches the topic from the perspective of inculturation and cultural innovation. It aims to describe the ritual processes observed in these three different Hui communities and discuss how the Hui people integrate Islam with traditional Chinese culture in their local contexts, with the intention of forming and preserving their own cultural characteristics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060630
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Culture
