Human Conscience and Muslim-Christian Relations: Modern Egyptian Thinkers on al-damir

by Leirvik; Oddbj°rn

• ISBN13: 9780415385664
• ISBN10: 0415385660
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-11-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

"Human Conscience and Muslim-Christian Relations provides an insight into the notion of conscience and the impact of Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt on the works of Muslim authors. This book is essential reading for scholars with interests in Islam, cultural studies and Ethics."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Some notes on bibliography, abbreviations and transliteration	x
PART I Introduction: horizon and focus, terms and methods	1	(22)
Horizon and focus	3	(6)
Interreligious studies and theology in dialogue	3	(2)
Genesis, focus and organisation of the investigation	5	(4)
Terms, concepts and methods	9	(14)
Terms and concepts	9	(6)
Clues to current debates	15	(3)
Methodological perspectives	18	(5)
PART II Christian conscience and Islamic ethics	23	(42)
The Self and the Other in Christian and European discourses of conscience	25	(14)
Some fundamental ambiguities in the notion of conscience	25	(1)
Conscience in Graeco-Roman literature, and in the New Testament	25	(3)
Conscience in medieval scholasticism, and in Luther	28	(3)
Conscience in Early Modernity	31	(3)
Critique of conscience and globalisation of the concept in the twentieth century	34	(3)
Preliminary conclusion	37	(2)
Islamic ethics: knowing with whom?	39	(26)
Bridging `conscience' and `Islamic ethics'	39	(2)
Islamic ethics as a multi-layered tradition	41	(1)
Qur'anic ethics: exclusive or dialogical?	42	(6)
Some notes on ethics in Hadith, fiqh and classical theology	48	(5)
Philosophical ethics in Islam: universalist humanism?	53	(4)
Sufi ethics and the synthesis of al-Ghazali	57	(4)
Conscience, science and civilization in European Christianity and Islam	61	(2)
Preliminary conclusion	63	(2)
PART III Interlude: the semantics of damir	65	(14)
Conscience in Arabic: the semantics of damir	67	(12)
`Conscience' in modern Arabic	67	(1)
Damir in classical and medieval Arabic, and in medieval/early modern Arabic dictionaries	68	(3)
Damir as moral consciousness -- since when?	71	(2)
Damir in biblical Arabic	73	(4)
Other words and constructs for `Conscience' in modern Arabic	77	(1)
Preliminary conclusion	78	(1)
PART IV Al-damir in modern Egyptian Muslim authors	79	(136)
The notions of al-damir and wijdan in Egyptian reformers and writers	81	(9)
Introduction to Part IV	81	(1)
Damir and the reception of French thought and European philosophy in Egypt	82	(2)
Damir and wijdan among Egyptian reformers, ca. 1900--25	84	(3)
Literary reflections of damir in modern Egyptian essays and fiction, ca. 1950--75	87	(2)
Preliminary conclusion	89	(1)
`Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad (1889--1964): ethico-religious internalisation, human conscience and Islamic apologetics	90	(35)
Biographical and bibliographical introduction	90	(3)
Al-damir in al-'Aqqad's `spiritual portraits'	93	(14)
Conscience, democracy and Islamic authenticity	107	(2)
Revelation, reason and conscience in al-'Aqqad's qur'anic philosophy	109	(8)
Preliminary conclusion and outlook	117	(3)
Al-'Aqqad, internalisation and authenticity -- as seen by `Uthman Amin and Hasan Hanafi	120	(5)
Khalid Muhammad Khalid (1920--96): conscience, human authenticity and Islamic democracy	125	(47)
Biographical and bibliographical introduction	125	(4)
Secularism and European impulses	129	(7)
Visions of true humanity	136	(4)
Al-damir in the history of religions: a continuous quest for human authenticity	140	(15)
Al-damir and the Islamic heritage: narrative, thematic and mystical approaches	155	(4)
From human to Islamic authenticity?	159	(5)
Preliminary conclusion and outlook	164	(3)
Excursus: conscience and Islamic authenticity in Sayyid Qutb	167	(5)
M. Kamil Husayn (1901--77): conscience as the law of inhibition and the voice of God	172	(20)
Biographical and bibliographical introduction	172	(3)
The events of Good Friday as a drama of human conscience	175	(6)
Conscience as a curb and the law of inhibition	181	(3)
The passive virtues of resistance, and the individual's right to say no	184	(2)
Conscience as the voice of God, and one's rightly guided self	186	(1)
The guidance of religion: an inclusivist view	187	(1)
Preliminary conclusion and outlook	188	(4)
Christians and Muslims in Egypt: united or separated by modernity?	192	(18)
Modern Muslim identity in Egypt	192	(4)
Christianity and Islam in modern Egypt	196	(4)
Modern Coptic identity	200	(7)
Late modern identity discourses among Muslims, and the notion of Islamic authenticity	207	(3)
Conclusions to Part IV	210	(5)
PART V Concluding discussions	215	(30)
Wronging the Self, wronging the Other: conscience and ethics in modernity	217	(12)
Conscience and the inward turn forwards	217	(1)
The Christian--Muslim quest for self-improvement: a shared but insufficient moral concern	218	(2)
Conscience, reason and emotion in the modern Self	220	(1)
Being true to the Other -- guided by the golden rule, or by the ethics of closeness?	221	(3)
Wronging Oneself or wronging the Other?	224	(3)
Bad conscience and `the reproaching soul'	227	(2)
Conscience in interreligious dialogue: telling the story of Oneself as Another	229	(13)
The turn to the Other	230	(2)
Islam and the religously Other	232	(3)
Conscience = knowing Oneself as Another?	235	(2)
Telling the story of Oneself as Another -- in diapractice	237	(2)
Conscience and community	239	(3)
Knowing with God: face to face with the Other?	242	(3)
Notes	245	(42)
Bibliography	287	(16)
Arabic (and other foreign) terms	303	(2)
Name index	305	(3)
Subject index	308