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Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality
By Edward (Ward) B. Davis, Wheaton College (Illinois); Pehr Granqvist, Stockholm University
Across the world, most people are religious or spiritual, and many have a strong relational-emotional bond (attachment relationship) with God(s). This Element summarizes social-scientific theory and research on these relationships. Part I outlines basic principles of attachment and religion/spirituality. Part II describes normative (human-universal) processes and patterns. It explains how God and other supernatural beings often serve as irreplaceable relational caregivers (attachment figures), safe havens, and secure bases for people. Then it examines how religious/spiritual development interacts with attachment maturation across the lifespan. Part III explores individual differences in human and religious/spiritual attachment. After describing human-attachment differences, it examines how such differences can manifest jointly in forms of emotionally/socially correspondent or emotionally compensatory human attachment and religion/spirituality. Part IV discusses applied theory and research on religious/spiritual attachment. It explores the relationship between religious/spiritual attachment and health/well-being and concludes discussing how transformation in religious/spiritual attachment can occur through psychospiritual intervention or healthy relationships. (Cambridge University Press & Assessment)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009501019
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Tags: #PsychologyOfReligion #AttachmentTheory #Spirituality #Religion #MentalHealth
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Can We Trust the Word of God? Defending Skeptical Theism from Skeptical Theology
By Joshua David McKeown, Mississippi College
I argue that skeptical theism does not imply skepticism about theologically indispensable propositions. I distinguish metaphorical truth and belief from “ordinary” or cognitive truth and belief. I then argue that the belief that theologically indispensable propositions like “Jesus is the Son of God” are true belongs to the former, metaphorical kind of belief. I therefore argue that God cannot tell us that they are true without commanding us to do something that is either moral or immoral. If then He loves us in the “parental” sense, and it is detrimental to our well-being to do something immoral, I argue that He cannot tell us that such a proposition is true unless it is.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09991-7
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Tags: #SkepticalTheism #PhilosophyOfReligion #Theology #Epistemology
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From Taqlid to Digital Ijtihad: Al-Ghazali’s Epistemology and the Fake News Challenge
By Mesfer Alhayyani, Kuwait University
This paper argues that al-Ghazali’s (1058–1111) distinction between taqlid (uncritical acceptance of authority) and ijtihad (independent reasoning) can offer a normative response to the contemporary challenge of fake news, thereby connecting a medieval epistemic framework to a pressing twenty-first-century problem. This study treats fake news as both an epistemic and an ethical challenge. Epistemically, fake news undermines the aim of belief, which is the aspiration toward truth, by introducing and sustaining falsehoods within the testimonial networks on which individuals depend for knowledge. Ethically, it constitutes a form of deception that manipulates audiences, corrodes intellectual virtues such as honesty, and disintegrates the trust between individuals and public institutions that is essential for collective life. Methodologically, this paper adopts an analytical–critical approach. It examines recent philosophical literature on the epistemology of misinformation, reconstructs al-Ghazali’s taqlid–ijtihad framework from his original texts, and then adapts it to the conditions of digital information environments. The resulting model distinguishes between digital ijtihad, the responsible and competent verification of online information, and justified digital taqlid, the legitimate reliance on credible digital authorities when independent verification is impractical. The findings suggest that this adapted framework not only enriches contemporary epistemic theory but also offers practical normative guidance for cultivating responsible belief formation, including in educational contexts where teaching itself functions as a structured form of testimonial exchange.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020039
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Tags: #IslamicPhilosophy #AlGhazali #Epistemology #FakeNews #DigitalEthics
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Can Eliminativism Save Evolutionary Naturalism From Defeat?
By Jędrzej Gosiewski, Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science; Doctoral School, University of Bialystok, Poland
This paper evaluates whether eliminativism – the thesis that the posits of folk psychology do not refer to anything real – can be employed by the naturalist to deflect Alvin Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN). I start by trotting out Plantinga’s argument. After that, I present the conditionalization problem and propose to treat eliminativism as a defeater-deflector against EAAN. I then argue that eliminativism does not fall prey to Plantinga’s response against other potential defeater-deflectors from philosophy of mind. The next part consists of showing why the probability that our cognitive faculties are reliable on evolutionary naturalism combined with eliminativism is high. The last part of the article is aimed at arguing that despite the initial appeal, eliminativism is not a solution most naturalists would be happy to adopt – that is because eliminativism forces the naturalist to interpret naturalism as a methodological postulate.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anag015
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #Naturalism #Eliminativism #Epistemology #PhilosophyOfMind
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Universe without a cause: a reply to David Lu
By Daniel Linford, Old Dominion University
David Lu has recently argued that denying the Modified Causal Principle (MCP)—that if the universe began to exist, then it has a cause—leads to the conclusion that we likely inhabit an Omphalos universe, one that began recently with the appearance of age. Lu goes on to argue that if the universe is likely Omphalos, then independent measurements of the universe’s age are unlikely to agree. I offer three families of objections. First, Lu’s probabilistic reasoning faces technical challenges and, even if those challenges are overcome, cannot rule out an Omphalos universe. Second, I propose an alternative hypothesis that does so. Third, I argue—drawing on a standard argument in the foundations of statistical mechanics—that no ordinary scientific inference can be used to rule out our living in an Omphalos universe. Instead, we must either presuppose that we do not inhabit one or else be stuck in a skeptical scenario tolerable to no one. (Springer Link)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09992-6
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #Metaphysics #Cosmology #Causation #PhilosophyOfScience
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Taymiyyan Diplomacy, or ‘What Brings One Close to God’: Revisiting Ibn Taymiyya’s Letter to a Christian Lord in Cyprus
By Caterina Bori, University of Bologna, Italy
This article challenges the conventional reading of Ibn Taymiyya’s Al-Risāla al-qubruṣiyya as an apologetic work. This interpretation marginalizes the letter’s purpose and overlooks its structural coherence. By re-examining the text in light of its historical context and rhetorical strategy, the article argues that the letter should be understood as a ‘diplomatic-like’ appeal – a carefully crafted request aimed at persuading its recipient to release a group of Muslim captives held in Cyprus. This situates the letter within Ibn Taymiyya’s broader experience in negotiating with the Mongol authorities, highlighting his ‘diplomatic’ undertakings in moments of acute military and political crisis. Shaped by the letter’s dense, cross-confessional language, polemics and persuasion are part of the same intended message. Ibn Taymiyya grounds his request in the dialectical truth of Islam, which is theologically at odds with Christianity but in line with Jesus’s ethical teachings. He crafts his requests as a sincere piece of advice (naṣīḥa), an act of moral concern according to which kindness to captives is both a religious duty and a path to future benefit. The article also offers new insights into the likely identity of the letter’s recipient.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2626187
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Tags: #IbnTaymiyya #IslamicHistory #PoliticalTheology #Diplomacy #ReligiousStudies
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Guardian of Faith: Ibn Taymiyya’s Theological Discourse on Frontier Garrisoning versus Pious Residence in Mecca
By Hassan S. Khalilieh, University of Haifa, Israel
This article analyses Ibn Taymiyya’s theological discourse on the precedence of frontier garrisoning (murābaṭa) over pious residence in Mecca (mujāwara), situating his argumentation within the tumultuous milieu of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Amid Mongol incursions, Crusader campaigns and pervasive internal discord, Ibn Taymiyya advocates for active frontier defence, arguing that genuine spiritual merit resides not in contemplative retreat within sacred precincts but in actions that safeguard and fortify the Muslim ummah (nation). Drawing upon Qurʾānic injunctions, Prophetic traditions and juristic consensus, he conceives murābaṭa as an essential dimension of jihad, whilst privileging communal welfare above individualistic devotional observances. His treatise challenges conventional notions of sanctity, demonstrating that spatial holiness emanates from virtuous conduct rather than from any intrinsic qualities. Through integrated historical and theological analysis, this article explores Ibn Taymiyya’s enduring intellectual legacy and examines how his reflections on religious obligation, spiritual excellence and collective responsibility continue to resonate within Islamic jurisprudential and theological discourse. (University of Haifa)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2026.2617798
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Tags: #IbnTaymiyya #IslamicTheology #Jihad #IslamicHistory #ReligiousStudies
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Neuroscience and the Non-Elimination of Theology
By Paul C. Knox, Independent Researcher
The scientific activity and outputs of the neurosciences are fascinating and, for the most part, uncontroversial. However, there have been sustained claims that neuroscientific findings represent a powerful challenge to historic, orthodox Christian teaching concerning human ontology. While philosophers had long debated the “mind/brain” problem, the rise of “eliminative materialism” (in the specific form of “neurophilosophy”) in the last quarter of the 20th century evoked various responses to the proposition that a mature neuroscience would forever banish familiar “folk science” entities like beliefs and desires as well as immaterial souls or minds.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020236
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Tags: #Neuroscience #PhilosophyOfMind #Theology #EliminativeMaterialism #PhilosophyOfReligion
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Allegory of the Human Condition: Reading the 12th-Century Islamic Philosophical Tale Hayy Ibn Yaqzān Within the Interpretive Model of Erik Erikson
By Aqib Javaid Parry, Mudasir Ahmad Mir, Shamsudheen Mannekuzhiyan, Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, India
This paper examines the Andalusian philosophical tale Hayy Ibn Yaqzān, written by the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Tufail, through the lens of Erik Erikson’s theory of the eight stages of human psychosocial development. In his book The Childhood and Society (1950), Erik Erikson offers eight key insights into how humans progress through different stages of development across their lifespan. The paper argues that Ibn Tufail’s allegory of the titular character, Hayy, is fundamentally a philosophical romance that examines various phases of Hayy’s philosophical development while also reflecting his complex psychosocial evolution. The paper highlights that Hayy’s early nurturance by a doe and his life among animals and plants correspond to Erikson’s stages of trust, autonomy, and initiative. His later intellectual and ethical development aligns with the psychosocial stages of generativity and integrity—though there are notable differences from Erikson’s model at some crucial stages. The Eriksonian model is applied heuristically, not exhaustively, as the overarching aim is to shed light on the classical Islamic philosophical tale by applying a modern theoretical framework to demonstrate how it prefigures contemporary discussions of the human condition, identity, and spiritual integrity. It contributes to ongoing interdisciplinary discussions on Islamic philosophy and developmental psychology by showing how Hayy Ibn Yaqzān can be read as a narrative of psychosocial growth.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020035
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Tags: #IbnTufail #HayyIbnYaqzan #IslamicPhilosophy #ErikErikson #PhilosophyOfMind
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Metaphysical Infinitism and Theoretical Virtue
By Evan Welchance, Department of Philosophy, University of Richmond, USA
Call metaphysicians who think that chains of ontological dependence must terminate in a collection of fundamental entities foundationalists. Call metaphysicians who think that chains of being can proceed ad infinitum infinitists. Foundationalists claim that foundationalism displays certain theoretical advantages over infinitism. First, some maintain that infinitism has a special explanatory problem that foundationalism doesn’t. Second, others maintain that foundationalism exhibits greater theoretical unity than infinitism. I argue that these considerations give us no reason to prefer foundationalism to infinitism. Against the foundationalist’s first purported advantage, I argue that foundationalists must make theoretical concessions similar to those infinitists must make. And against the foundationalist’s second purported advantage—an advantage infinitists haven’t yet addressed—I argue that infinitism exhibits a different, but nevertheless attractive, kind of theoretical virtue; namely, infinitists explain all existence facts in similar ways. I conclude that foundationalism and infinitism are, at worst, on a theoretical par. (Springer)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-026-01084-1
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Tags: #Metaphysics #MetaphysicalInfinitism #Foundationalism #Ontology #Philosophy
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Islamic Finance in the Digital Age: Fintech as a Civilizational Tool
By Edib Smolo, International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
This study explores the potential synergy between Islamic finance and financial technology (fintech). This synergy may prove to be a strong civilizational tool to help in the propagation of the Islamic finance principles as long as it is done right. The study discusses the conceptual compatibility between fintech innovation and the ethical foundations of Islamic finance, while also examining potential risks and governance concerns. By highlighting both opportunities and challenges, the paper argues that fintech can play an important role in expanding financial inclusion, improving efficiency, and strengthening the global relevance of Islamic finance if guided by proper regulatory frameworks and adherence to Shariah principles. (MDPI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020218
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Tags: #IslamicFinance #Fintech #IslamicEconomics #DigitalFinance #ShariaFinance
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Ibn al-ʿArabī between Two Renaissances: Genealogies of a Double-Truth Theory
By Aydogan Kars, Department of History, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
This article sheds light on the influence of tenth-century Baghdad’s philosophical circles – regarded as the architects of what is known as the ‘renaissance of Islam’ – on Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240), and particularly on the theory of knowledge in his later work. This theory envisioned distinct spheres of inquiry, tools, purposes and methods for natural sciences and religion. The article argues that this division strongly resonates with the increasingly pronounced version of the ‘double-truth theory’ that shaped science and philosophy in Europe from the fifteenth century. It thereby invites a broader historical contextualization of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s epistemology. On the one hand, it offers an analysis of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s philosophical background that goes beyond the Brethren of Purity and extends to their rivals within the same intellectual milieu of tenth-century Baghdad. On the other hand, it calls for a prehistory of the double-truth theory that reaches beyond Averroism and European renaissance.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2623582
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Tags: #IbnArabi #IslamicPhilosophy #Sufism #Epistemology #MedievalPhilosophy
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The ethics of disagreement (adab al-ikhtilaf): religious education for intercultural competence in Arabo-Islamic pedagogy
By Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar, Hamad Bin Khalifa University
This article explores Adab al-Ikhtilaf, the ethics of disagreement in Islamic thought, as a pedagogical framework for teaching religious education (RE) in high schools within diasporic Muslim contexts. It argues that the principles of ethical disagreement can serve as culturally grounded tools for fostering intercultural communication competence. The paper conceptualises Ikhtilaf as a dialogical practice rooted in humility, synthesis, and reasoned argumentation. For example, the integration of Iqrar, or concession, acts as a conflict resolution practice to nurture mutual recognition in classroom settings. The article responds to dominant Western pedagogical paradigms, such as the Socratic dialogue, and offers Adab al-Ikhtilaf, as an Islamic dialectical tradition, as an alternative mode of engaging disagreement. By distinguishing between Jadal, Munadhara, and Mukabara, it proposes a reorientation of Islamic dialectics away from polemics and towards ethical deliberation. The article provides a guide for implementation and an assessment rubric that translate these philosophical and theological concepts into teachable strategies. These include the use of Dalil (evidence) and Tadabbur (deliberation) to foster reasoning and ethical engagement. Ultimately, this study aims to equip students with the ethical, dialogical, and intercultural skills necessary for pluralistic societies. It theorises a curriculum that enacts religious thought as pedagogy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2026.2619036
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Tags: #Islam #Pedagogy #Ethics
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Sustainable Communication in Sūfī Way of Contemplative Life (Vita Contemplativa): Aspects of Silence (al-Ṣamt) and Speech (al-Nuṭq) in Theoretical and Practical Ṣūfīsm
By Nurullah Koltaş, Trakya University
The desire to discover the nature of existence and one’s proper role in the universe has been a matter of concern throughout the ages, and individuals have endeavoured to examine the events that occur around them accordingly. In their pursuit, some have embarked on a deeper search for meaning, independent of common perceptions, and have posited that forms of expression beyond the limits of language could potentially provide important clues about the course of their lives. Transcending the limits of language can essentially be achieved by choosing a form of expression that goes beyond sounds, letters, words, or speech. Explained by certain scholars as beyond words, silence (Ar. al-ṣamt) is a discourse or mode of expression that involves the ability to speak inwardly (Ar. al-nuṭq). Thus, silence encompasses the ability to speak through remaining silent—a mode that, at first glance, appears to be paradoxical. This study focuses on one of the ways of attaining truth in theoretical and practical Ṣūfīsm: by remaining silent and finding the key to inner silence simultaneously. To reach such a level of understanding, it is crucial to examine how Ṣūfīs attempt to assimilate the inherent meaning beyond the boundaries of ordinary speech and approach the concept of silence from various aspects. By way of examining the possibility of communicating through silence according to some Ṣūfīs, the ways to a life in contemplation may be analysed to the extent that one could find a language that goes beyond letters or words.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020174
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Tags: #Islam #Sufism #Religion
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Does the mark of the Beast lead to salvation? Some hypotheses on the eschatological meaning of the mark of the Beast in Christianity and Islam
By Anna Canton, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies
The anticipation of the Hour or Final Judgment represents a central concern within both Christian and Islamic traditions, each envisioning history culminating in a decisive eschatological event. A shared motif in these narratives is the Beast of the Earth, described in the Book of Revelation (chapter 13) and the Qurʾān (sūra 27:82). In Islamic thought, the Beast (Dābba) is regarded as a divine sign endowed with two attributes associated with Solomon and Moses: the seal and the rod. These objects symbolize divine authority, enabling the Beast to distinguish between believers and unbelievers. According to tradition, it illuminates the faces of the faithful with the rod while marking the noses of the unbelievers with the seal. A parallel motif appears in Revelation, where the mark of the Beast is imposed upon the right hand or forehead of all individuals, regardless of social status. In both traditions, the mark serves as a sign of ultimate division: the faithful are identified for salvation, while the faithless are destined for destruction. This paper seeks to examine the theological and eschatological implications of the Beast’s mark, interrogating questions of authority, permanence, and consequence, and highlighting the interpretive resonance between Christian and Islamic perspectives.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70020
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Eschatology
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The Rukhsa of Psychedelics in Shariah: Neural Correlates of Religious Experience and the Issue of License
By Haroon Asghar, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
A previous paper by the same author demonstrates that psychedelic medicines differ from intoxicants (khamr) as they do not induce moral impairment or “veil” rational faculties. While unsupervised should remain impermissible due to psychological risks, their therapeutic application may be justified under Islamic law through rukhsa (legal concession). Since psychedelics can mimic neural and phenomenological states which are produced in prayer or meditation, the paper suggests permitting their clinical use when such spiritual practices would otherwise serve as treatment, provided threshold of disease severity or functional impairment is met.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637223
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Tags: #IslamicLaw #Psychedelics #Neuroscience #ReligiousExperience #Shariah
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The Engineered Messiah: Islamic Theology as Source Code in the Post-Cybernetic Universe of Dune
By Nimetullah Aldemir; Emrullah Ataseven, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University
Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) establishes a universe defined by the “Butlerian Jihad”, a historical crusade that banned artificial intelligence and created a vacuum filled by religious engineering. This paper argues that in this post-cybernetic setting, religion functions as a sociological operating system designed for political control rather than a metaphysical connection to the divine. The study analyzes the Missionaria Protectiva to demonstrate how the Bene Gesserit order creates belief systems by co-opting and re-engineering Islamic theology. It suggests that the order’s manual of superstitions serves as a library of cultural scripts that primes the indigenous population to accept a manufactured Messiah, specifically the Mahdi. Consequently, the protagonist Paul Atreides is reinterpreted not as a traditional “White Savior” or authentic religious prophet but as a “hacker” who utilizes these pre-planted Islamic codes to access and manipulate the social infrastructure of Arrakis. His prescience functions as a form of biological predictive analytics that traps him in a deterministic loop of his own calculation. Ultimately, this reading suggests that Dune offers a critique of “techno-theology” by showing how the instrumentalization of the Mahdi figure transforms the concept of Jihad from a spiritual struggle into an unstoppable, automated algorithm of violence.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17030372
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Tags: #Dune #IslamicTheology #TechnoTheology #Messianism #ScienceFiction
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Islam and Its Conditions: An Anthropological Concept of Transcendent Force
By Mohamad Marwan Jarada, University of California
This article critically examines a constituent tension within the anthropological inquiry of the Islamic tradition. It focuses on the contentious relationship between Islam and liberalism and on its elaboration in some literature in the subdiscipline of the anthropology of Islam. Along these lines, the article articulates this tension through a discourse regarding the internal practices necessary for an Islamic form of life and the extrinsic conditions of liberalism that are often deemed inimical to the development of this form of life. I argue that there is an important ambiguity in the very texts that have articulated an inimical encounter between Islam and liberalism. Rather than suggest that this ambiguity debilitates their account of Islamic life, I suggest the need to exploit this ambiguity so as to develop the conjunction between the internal conditions of Islamic normativity and the extrinsic conditions that situates the Divine within the struggles of the world.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfag001
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Tags: #AnthropologyOfIslam #IslamAndLiberalism #ReligiousStudies #PoliticalTheology #IslamicThought
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God and Value
By Julien Beillard, Toronto Metropolitan University
Over the last decade, Guy Kahane and others have argued for Narrow Personal Anti-Theism (NPA): Some world where God does not exist is significantly better for some people, in some respects, than any world where God exists. Their arguments depend on the assumption that the values of states such as privacy are invariant across worlds. Against this assumption, I claim that the ontological status of God partly determines the values of these states: There are worlds where we have a valuable kind of privacy, because God does not exist, and worlds where our privacy is not (equally) valuable, because God exists. I propose a kind of anti-theism appealing to values of values—the value of privacy being valuable, for example. Paradoxically, this kind of anti-theism may be coherent only if God exists: The omniscience of God may be necessary for anti-theism to be a value judgment.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.4.7
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #MetaEthics #Theism #Atheism #ValueTheory
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Women’s Testimony in Criminal Law (Ḥudūd and Qiṣāṣ): Classical Islamic Frameworks, Contemporary Applications, and Normative Tensions
By Dr. Zainab Amin, Department of Islamiyat, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University
This article critically examines classical Islamic legal frameworks governing the admissibility of women’s testimony in ḥudūd (fixed punishments) and qiṣāṣ (retributive justice) cases, tracing their doctrinal evolution and contemporary reinterpretations. Grounded in Qurʾānic injunctions and Prophetic ḥadīth, classical jurists generally restricted women’s testimonial roles in criminal proceedings, often invoking epistemological and sociocultural rationales. Modern legal systems in Muslim-majority countries—including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco—continue to navigate the tension between inherited juridical norms and contemporary imperatives of gender equity and evidentiary reliability. This study highlights that many classical restrictions were contextually contingent rather than divinely mandated. Drawing on legal-theoretical discourses, Prophetic precedent, and the framework of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah (higher objectives of Islamic law), it argues for a recalibrated evidentiary paradigm where credibility, rather than gender, determines admissibility. Case studies from hybrid legal systems illustrate both the rigidity of traditional positions and the potential for reform through maqāṣid-oriented jurisprudence. The article concludes that the flexibility inherent in Islamic legal theory not only allows but necessitates the revision of evidentiary standards to meet contemporary demands for gender justice and procedural fairness. This analysis contributes to broader discussions on Islamic legal renewal (tajdīd), emphasizing the dynamic interplay between tradition.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70021
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Tags: #IslamicLaw #GenderJustice #Shariah #LegalTheory #Maqasid #IslamicStudies
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The Precreation Moment Is Easy to Find: A Reply to Ben Page and Some Reflections on Rival Theories of Creation
By R. T. Mullins, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
In previous publications I have argued that divine timelessness is not compatible with the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo says that prior to creation God existed all alone, and then God exists with a universe. This precreation moment in the life of God generates all sorts of difficulties for divine timelessness. In a series of papers, Ben Page claims that the doctrine of creation ex nihilo does not have to mean that God once existed all alone, and hence a proponent of divine timelessness can ignore the precreation moment. In “O Precreation Moment, Where Art Thou?” Page argues that it is difficult to find the affirmation of the precreation moment. In this reply, I explain that it is quite easy to find the explicit affirmation of the precreation moment among proponents of creation ex nihilo. I also argue that Page’s reinterpretation of creation out of nothing makes the doctrine indistinguishable from its well-established historical rivals.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09988-2
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #CreationExNihilo #DivineTimelessness #Metaphysics #Theology
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Doing Theology Creatively in a Scientific Age: Tradition, Reflexivity, and Second-Order Cybernetics
By Claudio Tagliapietra, Pontifical Gregorian University, Vatican City; KU Leuven, Belgium
This article offers a meta-theological inquiry on the roles of creativity and tradition in innovating theological knowledge. After distinguishing between problem-driven and solution-driven creativity, it argues that theology, as a discipline rooted in a living tradition, must negotiate the tension between fidelity to inherited doctrines and openness to novelty. The article proposes second-order cybernetics as a heuristic vocabulary for understanding theological inquiry as an observer-included and reflexive process. By framing theology in terms of feedback, communal discernment, and historically extended reception, the study shows how new theological insights can emerge without undermining doctrinal continuity. Ultimately, it suggests that the scientific age calls for a more reflexive and self-aware theological methodology, one that remains faithful to tradition while engaging constructively with contemporary epistemic cultures. (MDPI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020242
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Tags: #Theology #PhilosophyOfReligion #ScienceAndReligion #Cybernetics #Epistemology
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Islamic Pacifism: Contexts, Principles, and Dilemmas
By Abdessamad Belhaj, Institute of Religion and Society, University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary
Despite increased interest in Islamic pacifism, there are still significant gaps in academic research on this topic, especially regarding the contexts of its emergence, its shared principles and ethical dilemmas. The goal of this article is to chart the rise and evolution of Islamic pacifism throughout various Muslim contexts since the middle of the 20th century. I will also discuss some of the main ethical principles of Islamic pacifism as they relate to modern Muslim ethics and politics, particularly the peaceful settlement of disputes and the recent work on covenants in Islam and peacebuilding. Additionally, I will address some of the dilemmas that Islamic pacifists confront in relation to absolute pacifism, the efficacy of nonviolence, conflict and just peace. This article makes the case that pacifism could be a viable alternative to Islamist politics in the current Middle East conflicts. However, Islamic pacifists also face major skepticism amidst unjust policies. (MDPI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17030327
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Tags: #IslamicPacifism #IslamicEthics #PeaceStudies #NonViolence #PoliticalIslam
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Can pantheism’s God be perfect?
By Thomas Oberle, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, Canada
Perfect Being Theism is the idea that God is the greatest metaphysically possible being. Most theists argue that God’s greatness entails that God must be ontologically distinct from the cosmos. Otherwise, God would be dependent in some respect, and so imperfect. This constitutes a formidable challenge to pantheism, the view that God is identical with the cosmos. If pantheism is inconsistent with Perfect Being Theism, then pantheists’ concept of God is deficient. I respond by arguing that Perfect Being Theism doesn’t entail God’s distinctness from the cosmos. I then argue that Perfect Being Theism is not a neutral methodological constraint on our theorizing about the divine nature. As a result, pantheists are entitled to develop an alternative conception of God’s perfection that is congenial to their view of the divine. (watermark02.silverchair.com)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqag010
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Tags: #Pantheism #PhilosophyOfReligion #Metaphysics #PerfectBeingTheism #AnalyticPhilosophy
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The Beautiful Prophet: A Literary and Thematic Analysis of Sūrat Yūsuf
By Luis Serrano Lora, Vanderbilt University, USA
This article proposes a literary and semantic analysis of Surah 12, Yūsuf, centred on the concept of iḥsān (virtue, goodness, or beauty), which reveals the intimate connection between the Qur’ān’s aesthetic value and the veracity of its contents. A close reading of the surah reveals that iḥsān encompasses dream interpretation, wisdom, forbearance, moral excellence, and other prophetic qualities bestowed by God and displayed by Yūsuf throughout the story. Likewise, iḥsān is presented as structurally antithetical to the intrigues (kuyūd, sing. kayd) plotted by the characters of the story, such as Yūsuf’s brothers, or the mistress of the house. These intrigues are explicitly associated with falsehood and deceit, which explains their ultimate failure against Yūsuf, the bearer of iḥsān and the knowledge of truth, and the Divine Decree. This story presents an ethical model which transcends the boundaries of the narrative and is constantly appropriated by the Qur’ān at the metalevel to demonstrate its veracity and its divine origin. Qur’ānic claims such as being the most beautiful of the stories (aḥsan al-qaṣaṣ) are not simply declarations of its unparalleled eloquence, but rhetorical devices that confirm the text’s contents and its authority by constructing a nexus between iḥsān and truth.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020226
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Tags: #Quran #SurahYusuf #QuranicStudies #IslamicStudies #LiteraryAnalysis
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Christian Perspectives on imago Dei and Ibn ʿArabī’s Theologization of the Natural World
By Ismail Lala, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait, Kuwait
This article explores the ecological implications of adopting the theological outlook of Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī, who argues that the natural world is nothing but a manifestation of God’s most beautiful Names. Since humankind is a focused locus of divine manifestation, it exhibits all the divine Names that are manifested in the natural world disparately. This is what it means, says Ibn ʿArabī, when God declares that Adam was created in God’s image. Imago Dei, or the creation of humankind in the image of God, is mentioned many times in the Bible, most notably in Genesis. There have been three main interpretations of what this means: the substantial view, the relational view, and the functional view. This study builds on recent works that argue that (a) these three perspectives are not mutually exclusive in the Christian tradition and all interpretations are co-implicative, and (b) there is a correlation between Ibn ʿArabī’s conception of imago Dei and the Christian perspectives. It uniquely synthesises many of Ibn ʿArabī’s ideas on imago Dei to reveal that they simultaneously maintain the substantial, relational and functional views, much like the Christian tradition. It is the functional view that has major implications for ecological preservation. (Taylor & Francis Online)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2624267
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Tags: #IbnArabi #ImagoDei #IslamChristianRelations #IslamicPhilosophy #Ecotheology
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The Relevance of God to Metaethics
By Luke Taylor, Independent Researcher
I argue in this paper that moral realism is more likely to be true if God exists than if God does not exist. I will first argue that, without the existence of God, objective moral facts would be queer, but that the queerness problem is solved if God exists. I will then go on to argue that no being could be God unless that being has authority over all created rational beings just as morality does, which explains why the existence of God is relevant to metaethics.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020209
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Tags: #Metaethics #PhilosophyOfReligion #MoralRealism #Theism #Atheism
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The Problem of Evil and the Problem of Consciousness
One and the Same?
By Yujin Nagasawa, University of Oklahoma
The problem of evil and the problem of consciousness occupy central positions in the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of mind, respectively. On the face of it, these problems seem to be fundamentally distinct. The problem of evil is concerned with whether the existence of evil in the world undermines belief in the existence of God while the problem of consciousness concerns the nature of consciousness and how it can arise from physical processes in the brain. In this paper, however, I defend the following novel thesis: the problem of evil and the problem of consciousness are versions of the same problem, which I term the “problem of ontological expectation mismatch.” I argue that, by recognizing that they stem from the same root, we can gain a fresh perspective for evaluating existing approaches to both problems in a systematic manner. I conclude my discussion by utilizing this thesis to critically examine panpsychism, a response to the problem of consciousness that has recently gained significant popularity.
Link: https://doi.org/10.69574/aejpr.v2i4.26509
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #Consciousness #God
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Light, Ontology, and Analogy: A Non-Concordist Reading of Qur’an 24:35 in Dialogue with Philosophy and Physics
By Adil Guler, Marmara University
This article develops a structural–analogical framework to investigate conceptual resonances between Qur’an 24:35—the Verse of Light—and contemporary relational models in physics, while maintaining firm epistemic boundaries between theology, philosophy, and empirical science. The Qur’anic metaphors of niche, glass, tree, oil, and layered light depict a graded ontology of manifestation in which being unfolds through ordered relations grounded in a transcendent divine command (amr). By contrast, modern physics—as represented by quantum field theory, loop quantum gravity, and cosmological models—operates entirely within immanent causality, conceiving spacetime and matter as relational, dynamic, and structurally emergent. Despite their distinct registers, both discourses converge structurally around a shared grammar of potentiality, relation, and manifestation. Drawing on classical Islamic metaphysics—especially al-Ghazālī’s Mishkāt al-Anwār—alongside contemporary relational ontologies in physics (Smolin, Rovelli, Markopoulou), the article argues that “real time” functions as an ontological choice that conditions intelligibility, agency, and novelty. The Qur’anic notion of nūr is interpreted not as physical luminosity but as the metaphysical ground of determinability, while the quantum vacuum is treated as a field of latent potential—without suggesting empirical equivalence. Rather than concordism, the comparison highlights a structural resonance (used here as a heuristic notion indicating pattern-level affinity rather than equivalence, correspondence, or empirical verification): both traditions affirm that reality is neither static nor substance-based, but arises through dynamic relational processes grounded—whether transcendently or immanently—in principled order.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11010015
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Physics #Cosmology
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Redefining Reality: An Islamic Metaphysical Critique of AI’s Data-Centric Worldview
By Boumediene Hamzi, The Alan Turing Institute
This essay explores the metaphysical and philosophical implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) through the intersecting insights of René Guénon (ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā), Martin Heidegger, and Ibn al-ʿArabī. It argues that modern AI systems, particularly in their statistical and data-centric forms, are not merely instrumental tools but expressions of a deeper metaphysical worldview-one rooted in quantification, abstraction, and utility. Guénon’s critique of the “reign of quantity” and Heidegger’s notion of Enframing (Gestell) converge in diagnosing the loss of qualitative and sacred dimensions in modern life. While Heidegger’s phenomenology provides a powerful immanent critique of technological reductionism from within the Western philosophical tradition, Guénon’s metaphysical traditionalism articulates a diagnosis of modernity that resonates with Islamic metaphysics, especially as articulated by Ibn al-ʿArabī. The essay includes Heidegger in the argument as a representative of a critique of modern technology issuing from the Western tradition itself, and by emphasizing his shared concerns with Guénon, whose metaphysics resonates with Ibn al-ʿArabī’s metaphysics. Through a comparative metaphysical framework, this paper proposes an Islamic response to AI that avoids both technophilia and technophobia, insisting instead on a spiritually grounded ethic of technology that preserves human’s dignity and mission. Methodologically, the essay restores a prior order often inverted in contemporary AI ethics: ontology (what AI is) grounds epistemology (what it can know), and only then can ethical evaluation be coherent.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2025.2592328
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Tags: #Islam #AI #IbnArabi #Ethics
