Defining Islam: A Reader

by McCutcheon; Russell T.

• ISBN13: 9781845530617
• ISBN10: 1845530616
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-08
• Publisher: Acumen Pub Ltd

Summary

Defining Islam: A Reader aims to present original source material and scholarly reflections on how the word Islam is to be used and understood. Ever since a group of people came into existence who called themselves Muslims, questions of what it meant to be a member of that group, who was to be included and who excluded, and what the requirements for membership were, have proven to be both divisive and defining for the community itself. Likewise for scholars, the issue of what constitutes Islam when they talk about the emergence of the religion or when they compare local traditions or when the media debates whether the phrase Muslim terrorist is meaningful or appropriate, is always a central one for debate.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Sources	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Theology
The Epistle of Abu Hanifa to 'Uthman al-Batti	p. 17
Ten Things That Nullify One's Islam	p. 19
The Formation of Muslim Society and its Characteristics	p. 24
The Spread of Islam	p. 30
Social Sciences
Between Text and Practice: Considerations in the Anthropological Study of Islam	p. 37
The Study of Islam in Local Contexts	p. 58
Beyond Ideology and Theology: The Search for the Anthropology of Islam	p. 74
Two Countries, Two Cultures	p. 104
Islamic Movements: One or Many?	p. 118
Islam in Contemporary Southeast Asia: History, Community, Morality	p. 136
Beyond Orientalism? Max Weber and the Displacements of "Essentialism" in the Study of Islam	p. 148
Religion
The Muslim East as It Presents Itself	p. 175
The Special Case of Islam	p. 185
Religion is a Different Matter	p. 195
Official, Popular, and Normative Religion in Islam	p. 201
The Limits of Islamic Orthodoxy	p. 222
Defining Islam in the Throes of Modernity	p. 237
Islam, Europe, the West: Meanings-at-Stake and the Will-to-Power	p. 252
Civilization
The Problem: Unity in Diversity	p. 269
The Dialectic of a Cultural Tradition	p. 288
Conscience in the Construction of Religion: A Critique of Marshall G. S. Hodgson's The Venture of Islam	p. 308
Conversion as a Social Process	p. 323
The Media
Islam and the West	p. 335
Islam and the Western Journalist	p. 358
Glossary	p. 371
Index of Authors	p. 375
Index of Subjects	p. 378
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