Teaching Islam

by Wheeler, Brannon M.

• ISBN13: 9780195152241
• ISBN10: 0195152247
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Despite the importance of Islam in global affairs and the role of IslamicStudies in Religious Studies, little attention has been given to the basicquestions of how Islam should be taught. This volume brings together a number ofleading scholars of Islamic Studies with rich experience in teaching Islam in adiversity of undergraduate settings, from large public universities to smallprivate colleges. Topics addressed include Islamic law, the Quran, Sufism, womenin Islam, Islam in America, and teaching about Islam through Arabic literatureand the use of new information technology. Along with providing practicalinformation about structuring courses and assignments, the contributors examinethe place of Islamic Studies in the larger theoretical framework of ReligiousStudies and liberal arts curricula.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xv
Note on Conventions and Transliterations	xxi
Part One THEORETICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL FRAMES FOR PRESENTING ISLAM IN THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES CLASSROOM
What Can't Be Left Out: The Essentials of Teaching Islam as a Religion	3	(19)
Brannon M. Wheeler
On the ``Introduction to Islam''	22	(24)
A. Kevin Reinhart
Recent Critical Scholarship and the Teaching of Islam	46	(15)
Keith Lewinstein
Islamicate Civilization: The View from Asia	61	(16)
Bruce B. Lawrence
Part Two DIMENSIONS OF MUSLIM FAITH, COMMUNITY, AND ORDER
The Essential Shari'ah: Teaching Islamic Law in the Religious Studies Classroom	77	(17)
Jonathan E. Brockopp
Disparity and Context: Teaching Quranic Studies in North America	94	(14)
Jane Dammen Mcauliffe
Between Orientalism and Fundamentalism: Problematizing the Teaching of Sufism	108	(16)
Carl W. Ernst
Engendering and Experience: Teaching a Course on Women in Islam	124	(21)
Zayn Kassam
Part Three CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ISLAM AS A RELIGION
The Wedding of Zein: Islam through a Modern Novel	145	(23)
Michael A. Sells
Teaching about Muslims in America	168	(13)
Marica K. Hermansen
Incorporating Information Technology into Courses on Islamic Civilization	181	(10)
Corinne Blake
Teaching Religion in the Twenty-First Century	191	(26)
Tazim R. Kassam
Index	217