A clarion call to restore long-diminished traditions in Islamic thought.
A cogent appeal for an Islamic enlightenment based in Islamic values.
Akyol, author of Islam Without Extremes and The Islamic Jesus, presents a well-prepared argument for “finding Enlightenment values—reason, freedom and tolerance—within the Islamic tradition itself.” The author explains that early Islamic history spawned two broad ethical schools, one of which he characterizes as “ethical objectivism theory,” the other as “divine command theory.” The latter rose to prominence in the form of Ash'arism, a Sunni school of theology that stresses the role of scriptural and clerical authority. Ash’arism, writes Akyol, “won the day not because of its merits, but because of the support of the states that ruled the medieval Muslim world.” The author shows how authoritarian states have dominated Islamic history, using the divine command theory of ethics to uphold their power. According to Akyol, this trend has continued into the modern day, supporting authoritarianism and its attendant lack of freedoms. The author, who has spent much of his career studying and clarifying many aspects of Islam, calls on readers to ponder the early Islamic scholars who championed reason, science, personal liberties, and self-determinism, showing the importance of implementing these values in a modern Islamic enlightenment. Akyol especially highlights the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroes. He also calls on believers to mine the Quran for lessons in peace and personal freedoms that Ash’arism has suppressed through the centuries. “The big remedy we need…is really having ‘no compulsion in religion.’ It is, in other words, giving up coercive power in the name of Islam,” writes the author. “This means no more religious and moral policing, no threats to apostates and ‘innovators,’ no blasphemy laws, no public flogging or stoning, and no violence or intimidation in the family.” An exchange of liberalism for legalism, he maintains, will solve this dilemma.
A clarion call to restore long-diminished traditions in Islamic thought.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-25606-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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