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Review
'… a reader-friendly volume faithful to the Cambridge series' promise to 'provide an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject for new readers and non-specialists'.' The Muslim World Book Review
'Tim Winter (University of Cambridge) has brought together fifteen essays on classical Islamic theology at an opportune time, given sentiment today, alerting us to developments in critical understanding of the early period of Islam (in this book, between the seventh century and the sixteenth), and showing us how key theological issues were teased out by various scholars and schools. In doing this, the companion succeeds in mediating what is often a marginalized area of Islamic studies for the ordinary reader …' Reference Reviews
'Tim Winter (University of Cambridge) has brought together fifteen essays on classical Islamic theology at an opportune time, given sentiment today, alerting us to developments in critical understanding of the early period of Islam (in this book, between the seventh century and the sixteenth), and showing us how key theological issues were teased out by various scholars and schools. In doing this, the companion succeeds in mediating what is often a marginalized area of Islamic studies for the ordinary reader …' Reference Reviews
Product Description
This series of critical reflections on the evolution and major themes of pre-modern Muslim theology begins with the revelation of the Koran, and extends to the beginnings of modernity in the eighteenth century. The significance of Islamic theology reflects the immense importance of Islam in the history of monotheism, to which it has brought a unique approach and style, and a range of solutions which are of abiding interest. Devoting especial attention to questions of rationality, scriptural fidelity, and the construction of 'orthodoxy', this volume introduces key Muslim theories of revelation, creation, ethics, scriptural interpretation, law, mysticism, and eschatology. Throughout the treatment is firmly set in the historical, social and political context in which Islam's distinctive understanding of God evolved. Despite its importance, Islamic theology has been neglected in recent scholarship, and this book provides a unique, scholarly but accessible introduction.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Editor, T J Winter is a believing Muslim, a convert to Islam indeed! However, he does not allow that to interfere with his job as a scholar and manages to bring together a good collection of insightful, neatly written essays. Mr. Winter's introductory essay is outstanding, it serves as a good starting point to figure out what "theology" means in an Islamic context. The term rightly arouses the fury of the hardcore dogma police, they say Allah (swt), in his majesty and prescience, set out all knowledge in the Holy Qur'an. Therefore idle conjecture of fallible men have no place as part of the religious discourse of the pious.
Ignaz Goldziher (the godfather of Western Islamology) once said that Prophets are not theologians, their utterings are sourced from the sudden feverish sparks of spiritual yearning. Accordingly, Prophets do not need an army of theologians and intellectuals to come along afterwards and clean up, clarifying concepts, creating dogmas and reconciling seeming 'contradictions' that Muhammad would have had no qualms with. Theologians often serve as somewhat pathetic apologists who would earn the contempt of the strident no-nonsense founders of religions, especially those in 7th Century Arabia; no-nonsense warriors with a surprisingly candid love of captured booty and slave girls. Muhammad hated theology, the tafsir to Surah Ikhlas aptly shows his sheer contempt for specualative reasoning about God which he felt had lead the Christians astray. Muhammad opted for the simple formula of God's unspeakable transendence.
Allowing the above, human beings are rational in the end, they want their religion to make sense, at least on a basic level. Poeple hate the cacophonous clutter of ad-hoc 'inspiration.' They want neat conceptual boundaries. This need is no different in Islam, as demonstrated by the essay by Khalid Blankmanship (chapter 1 of this book). Mr. Blankmanship shows how the early sects struggled with stuff like free-will and pre-determination, whether an evil act renders one a 'kafir' or whether ultimate judgments are deferred until the hearafter. These topics beging to form cleavages that slowly emerge through the centuries. In the end there is a hotch-potch of sects, groups and sub-groups, which to this day are often at each other's throats.
I have to say, some of the essays in this book are just pious rubbish written by starry-eyed believers, but the majority are very good, eminently readable stuff. I would highly recommend this to non-religious people interested in a serious book about Islam.
Ignaz Goldziher (the godfather of Western Islamology) once said that Prophets are not theologians, their utterings are sourced from the sudden feverish sparks of spiritual yearning. Accordingly, Prophets do not need an army of theologians and intellectuals to come along afterwards and clean up, clarifying concepts, creating dogmas and reconciling seeming 'contradictions' that Muhammad would have had no qualms with. Theologians often serve as somewhat pathetic apologists who would earn the contempt of the strident no-nonsense founders of religions, especially those in 7th Century Arabia; no-nonsense warriors with a surprisingly candid love of captured booty and slave girls. Muhammad hated theology, the tafsir to Surah Ikhlas aptly shows his sheer contempt for specualative reasoning about God which he felt had lead the Christians astray. Muhammad opted for the simple formula of God's unspeakable transendence.
Allowing the above, human beings are rational in the end, they want their religion to make sense, at least on a basic level. Poeple hate the cacophonous clutter of ad-hoc 'inspiration.' They want neat conceptual boundaries. This need is no different in Islam, as demonstrated by the essay by Khalid Blankmanship (chapter 1 of this book). Mr. Blankmanship shows how the early sects struggled with stuff like free-will and pre-determination, whether an evil act renders one a 'kafir' or whether ultimate judgments are deferred until the hearafter. These topics beging to form cleavages that slowly emerge through the centuries. In the end there is a hotch-potch of sects, groups and sub-groups, which to this day are often at each other's throats.
I have to say, some of the essays in this book are just pious rubbish written by starry-eyed believers, but the majority are very good, eminently readable stuff. I would highly recommend this to non-religious people interested in a serious book about Islam.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology
25 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is very interesting reading. The articles are well written, scholarly, and very informative. An important addition to the collection of any student of Islam and/or religion.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
excellent resource
18 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
Good news --- this is the kind of reference book that should be on the shelf of every student, researcher or teacher. They should be used in association with another great textbook, called The Cambridge Companion to the Qur'an and I suppose the publisher is quite good at referring to other works. It's well edited, with a healthy collection of selected chapters. Really good articles are those in part 2 titled themes in which you find good stuff on ethics, revelation, the existence of God and his attributes. Tim Winter's introduction is really helpful as a great overview of the historical perspectives as well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Useful study in Islamic Theology
24 Jan 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology is a useful text for the study of early Islamic theology. This is a book for scholars and not going to be useful for the person with a passing interest in Islam.
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