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Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination
This book aims to bring Muslim theology into the present day. Focused on the relationship of the human to the divine and of faith to righteousness, the book presents a new theological vision rooted in the practice of the religious imagination. Rather than a purely academic pursuit, Modern Muslim Theology argues that theology is a creative process and discusses how the Islamic tradition can help contemporary practitioners negotiate their relationships with God, with one another, and with the rest of creation. The book re-conceptualizes key religious ideas, symbols, and rites - like revelation, tradition, and prayer - in order to develop an engaged approach to Islam that simultaneously fosters faith and enacts righteousness in the modern world. The theological framework developed within draws widely from the intellectual and spiritual traditions of Islam that stretch from the religion's prophetic past up to the present. With the aim of making the work of theology accessible to all, Modern Muslim Theology uses vivid narratives and evocative images of famous religious personalities, sacred sites, and aspects of everyday life to explore and define concepts central for a theology of engagement.
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 10, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 29, 2018
Martin Nguyen's monograph offers an imaginative way of understanding and reflecting upon Islamic theology. In so doing, the author presents a methodological hermeneutic that seeks to engage the Muslim reader to think both inside and outside of the box, and to see Islam as a form of thinking and living within the God-man relational context. The book is rich in historical and Scriptural (i.e. Qur'anic) data and presupposes some rudimentary knowledge of Islamic concepts, which makes the flow of thought for non-Muslim readers a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, the book remains faithful to Islam while simultaneously drawing it down to the level of common man and allowing him the freedom to converse with it. Recommended.
August 7, 2024
The book's theme can be summed up in these words, which is call to return to and engage the Quran
The Qur’an, then, is
theology’s
foremost interlocutor.
I have always struggled with the notion of understanding theology, particularly as envisaged in our Islamic faith. I have tried to read works that have spoken of theology from Murtadha Mutahhari (Man and Universe) or even Said Nursi (scattered works), but never been able to engage with them, let alone understand them.
While I was reading, Saqib Iqbal Qureshi's work, Being Muslim Today, Reclaiming the faith from Orthodoxy and Islamophobia, I came across a citation of the work below.
I said to my-self let me give it a shot, and alhamd was ash-shukr I did. I read the introduction and Ustadh Martin spoke of the need of understanding theology or doing theology with respect to how it lends it-self through 'experience'. (I am not sure if this is the same as relational theology).
As I continued reading, I also realized why I wasnt able to connect to the works of Mutahhari and Nursi, for the simple reason that the language that at it engendered was not 'english', not withstanding that they were translations.
It also reminded me of this verse from the Quran,
14.4 - And We did not send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people to state clearly for them, and Allah sends astray [thereby] whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
Where the use of the term language is also explored within the context of 'Modern Theology'.
What also was important to me that it explored to critical works, abu Hamid al-Ghazali's work, Ihya Ulum al-Din, which I translate as Re-vivification of the Religious Sciences (as Seyyed Nasr transalted it), but also the work fo Muhammad Iqbal "Lahori", 'The Re-construction of Religious Thought".
Notice that these two works shared something in common, the "Re-" of Islamic Sciences (i.e. al-Din) and Islamic thought.
The Qur’an, then, is
theology’s
foremost interlocutor.
I have always struggled with the notion of understanding theology, particularly as envisaged in our Islamic faith. I have tried to read works that have spoken of theology from Murtadha Mutahhari (Man and Universe) or even Said Nursi (scattered works), but never been able to engage with them, let alone understand them.
While I was reading, Saqib Iqbal Qureshi's work, Being Muslim Today, Reclaiming the faith from Orthodoxy and Islamophobia, I came across a citation of the work below.
I said to my-self let me give it a shot, and alhamd was ash-shukr I did. I read the introduction and Ustadh Martin spoke of the need of understanding theology or doing theology with respect to how it lends it-self through 'experience'. (I am not sure if this is the same as relational theology).
As I continued reading, I also realized why I wasnt able to connect to the works of Mutahhari and Nursi, for the simple reason that the language that at it engendered was not 'english', not withstanding that they were translations.
It also reminded me of this verse from the Quran,
14.4 - And We did not send any messenger except [speaking] in the language of his people to state clearly for them, and Allah sends astray [thereby] whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
Where the use of the term language is also explored within the context of 'Modern Theology'.
What also was important to me that it explored to critical works, abu Hamid al-Ghazali's work, Ihya Ulum al-Din, which I translate as Re-vivification of the Religious Sciences (as Seyyed Nasr transalted it), but also the work fo Muhammad Iqbal "Lahori", 'The Re-construction of Religious Thought".
Notice that these two works shared something in common, the "Re-" of Islamic Sciences (i.e. al-Din) and Islamic thought.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews