Approaches To Islam In Religious Studies

Based on a symposium on the theme 'Islam and the History of Religions,' this important work features thoughtful essays on the study of Islam. Based on a symposium on the theme @Islam and the History of Religions’, this important work features thoughtful essays on the study of Islam by Richard C. Martin, William A. Graham, Earle H. Waugh, Frederick M. Denny, William R. Roff, Marilyn R. Waldman, Richard M. Eaton, Charles J. Adams, Andrew Rippin, Azim Nanji, Muhammad Abdul-Rauf, and Fazlur Rahman. On its publication in 1985, this text influenced the transition of Islamic studies from Orientalism and area studies to religious studies; it is now republished in the Oneworld Classics in religious Studies series. In essays organized around five themes in religious studies, the scholars in this volume call for an increase I the attention given to Islam as part of religious studies and for greater clarity in our understanding both of Islam and of religion in terms of Islam. They urge creative adaptation and application of history of religious methods to different fiels of Islamic religious data, including textual, social-historical, and ritual-symbolical. Constructuve criticism of long-accepted approaches to the study of Islam and attempts to apply the methods of other disciplines to Islamic religious data are here presented in the interest of bringing about change and improvement in the study of Islam as a religion.