Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century

In the introduction, the editors explain that the main motivation for producing this volume is that, in the course of the last century or so, the Muslim world has experienced unprecedented change to its societies and cultures that, in turn, has had a tremendous impact upon its intellectual life. Th...

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Autor principal: Carool Kersten
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2006
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:85c90895826d4b548d82cd30e36b04172021-12-02T17:49:41ZIslamic Thought in the Twentieth Century10.35632/ajis.v23i2.16192690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/85c90895826d4b548d82cd30e36b04172006-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1619https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 In the introduction, the editors explain that the main motivation for producing this volume is that, in the course of the last century or so, the Muslim world has experienced unprecedented change to its societies and cultures that, in turn, has had a tremendous impact upon its intellectual life. The Muslim world’s encounter with modernity has been a source of tension that has turned “Islamic discourse in the twentieth century into a crisis” (p. 3). In devising a framework for what they call the “dialectical relationship” between twentieth-century Islamic thought and modernity, Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer Nafi have resolved to construct their account around three themes: the emergence of new spokespersons, the diversity of twentieth-century Muslim discourse, and the connections and disruptions between Islamic thought and the rest of “the global intellectual arena” (p. 5). With regards to the first theme, the key observation is that a new type of intellectual, one who is not part of the ulama’ class, has taken center stage. The lack of consensus and almost “complete fragmentation” of present-day Islamic thought is attributed to the external challenges that the Muslim world has faced for the last 200 years. In fact, contemporary Islamic thought mirrors the very nature of modernity: the loss of certainty, challenged values, relativism, and an Islamdom – formerly assumed to be invincible – that has been shaken to its inner core. An interesting observation made in this respect is “the blurring of the contours between expressions of Islamic intellectualism and the academic study of Islam” (p. 11). As a result of their encounter with western scholarship, Muslim intellectuals felt increasingly compelled to respond to what they saw as Orientalist distortions. However, as area study experts, social scientists, and specialists from the humanities – among them increasing numbers of Muslim scholars – began to study Islam, it became possible to discern a “meeting of the minds.” ... Carool KerstenInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 23, Iss 2 (2006)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Carool Kersten
Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
description In the introduction, the editors explain that the main motivation for producing this volume is that, in the course of the last century or so, the Muslim world has experienced unprecedented change to its societies and cultures that, in turn, has had a tremendous impact upon its intellectual life. The Muslim world’s encounter with modernity has been a source of tension that has turned “Islamic discourse in the twentieth century into a crisis” (p. 3). In devising a framework for what they call the “dialectical relationship” between twentieth-century Islamic thought and modernity, Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer Nafi have resolved to construct their account around three themes: the emergence of new spokespersons, the diversity of twentieth-century Muslim discourse, and the connections and disruptions between Islamic thought and the rest of “the global intellectual arena” (p. 5). With regards to the first theme, the key observation is that a new type of intellectual, one who is not part of the ulama’ class, has taken center stage. The lack of consensus and almost “complete fragmentation” of present-day Islamic thought is attributed to the external challenges that the Muslim world has faced for the last 200 years. In fact, contemporary Islamic thought mirrors the very nature of modernity: the loss of certainty, challenged values, relativism, and an Islamdom – formerly assumed to be invincible – that has been shaken to its inner core. An interesting observation made in this respect is “the blurring of the contours between expressions of Islamic intellectualism and the academic study of Islam” (p. 11). As a result of their encounter with western scholarship, Muslim intellectuals felt increasingly compelled to respond to what they saw as Orientalist distortions. However, as area study experts, social scientists, and specialists from the humanities – among them increasing numbers of Muslim scholars – began to study Islam, it became possible to discern a “meeting of the minds.” ...
format article
author Carool Kersten
author_facet Carool Kersten
author_sort Carool Kersten
title Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
title_short Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
title_full Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
title_fullStr Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
title_full_unstemmed Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century
title_sort islamic thought in the twentieth century
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2006
url https://doaj.org/article/85c90895826d4b548d82cd30e36b0417
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