Offers an unprecedented theological investigation into al-Ja i?’s social empiricism.
While it may seem paradoxical to combine trust in rational religion with distrust of human reason, this is exactly what a group of understudied Muslim theologians proposed. Known as the Epistemists, they pushed for an inclusive epistemology that broadened the scope of knowledge. They argued that humans can acquire rational knowledge without discursive arguments, through an unconscious process of social exposure. In this, the Epistemists presented a radical alternative to other Islamic conceptions of rationalism, with immense promise for modern contexts.
This book reconstructs a worldview prominent among the Epistemists, and explores how it correlates with their rise and fall as a theological trend. It examines the intellectual project of their premier advocate, al-Ja i? (d. 868-9), offering a systematic reading of his oeuvre as an Epistemist, and situates it in the formative ?Abbasid moment of Islamic history.
Acknowledgements
Foreword by James Montgomery
Introduction
- Islamic Rationalism and Its Discontents
- The Afterlife of a Maverick
- The Great Venture
- The Semantics of a Paradigm
- Passions, Beliefs, Actions
- The Intelligent and the Reasonable
- Epistemological Roadmap
- Theological Consequences
Conclusion
Appendix: Notes on a Few Terms and Translations
Bibliography
Hussein Ali Abdulsater is Associate Professor of Arabic Culture and Islamic Studies in the Department of Classics at the University of Notre Dame. His research is concerned with uncovering the historical roots and social contexts of major theological themes in Islam. It also traces the ethical and philosophical aspects of Islamic religious thought as expressed in humanistic disciplines such as historiography and literature.
His publications include:
* A J??i?ian Contribution to Reason in Islam? Revisiting al-Mu??sib?'s M??iyyat al-?aql, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 142:1 (2022), 1-32. * Shi?i Doctrine, Mu?tazili Theology: al-Shar?f al-Murta?? and Imami Discourse (Edinburgh University Press, 2017). * Reason, Grace and the Freedom of Conscience: The Period of Investigation in Classical Islamic Theology, Studia Islamica, 110:2 (2015), 233-262.
