gsiss

 - forum on religion & civilization

outline of a seminar

dr. mona abul fadl - 1998©

First Questions

Religion and Civilization?

• What is Religion?
• How are Civilization and Religion connected?
• Is a civilizational perspective that ignores religion viable? ... valid?
• What can a religious perspective offer?
• What can a civilizational perspective contribute to the religious?
•  

Weights and Measures:

al-mizan

• Identity and Difference: What do civilizations share in common? In what way do they differ?
• How do we distinguish between civilizations? Are all civilizations the same? In what respects are they similar and where do they differ?
• Where do we go for criteria to arbitrate and judge?
•  

Agency and Responsibility

• Is there room for human agency in a civilizational / religious perspective?
• What do we mean by the ‘moral dimension’ in civilization?
• Is morality subject to the precept of the One and the Many?
  [what role is there for the paradigm here?]
•  

... A Science of Culture?

• Is the human factor limited to value-judgements?
• What influences human action?
• What role can religion play in shaping human action?
• In what way do philosophy, science, and religion overlap?
  [..Again, what role for the ‘paradigm’]
•  

Key Concepts

• Civilization as a field of collective witness? [‘ummat al shahada’]
• madinat al Shuhud al Hadari
• Religion as a source of ultimate values?
  cognitive - affective - symbolic
• al Deen al Qayyim
• Humankind as a privileged species?
• al Khilafa fi al ard ( Vicegerency)
• The Here-and-Now: Life-world as an arena for trial and tribulation, challenge and opportunity
• Amanah - Fitna -Ibtila’ - al sabq
• The Hereafter: the vistas of human agency and responsibility; the condition for ultimacy in value
• yawm al din - al akhirah - aljaza wa’l hisab - al raj’aa (the ultimate return)

Sources of Knowledge

• Observation and Revelation
  [reason and the senses]
• Mediated directly through the empirical world - History- Archaeology- Nature
• ... And indirectly in the revealed Word:
  God, prophethood, scripture
  

Consonances & Resonances

• A field of correspondences between
  .... the Seen and the Unseen
• 
  
  

...Creation and Revelation

Codes and Keys

• the architecture of the
  Book and .... the Universe
  
  

.... Affinities

• A moral ecology is embedded in the universe and informs the culture of life
• A Quantum Biology ?
  
  
• the elements for a of civilization draw on textured affinities

At the Source:

• The relation between

Reason and Revelation

• The meaning of
  Guidance
  

The Phenomenon of the Qur’an

• How to navigate a Universe
  
• The challenge calls
  for renewing

‘ilm al tafsir wa’l bayan

• The New Science
  
  ........ a Categorical Imperative?

Wajib al Wujub

...the imperative of al wujub

• ... Where all human perspectives
  point us to the Beyond...
  and Multiplicity
  points to Unity...
  we need to start at the Beginning,
  that we may identify the End...

Methodological Compatibility!

• With the Qur’anic universe as key
  on this journey
  of discovery and construction ...
  plotting a navigational chart
  is the condition
  for using that key

A Qur’anic Hermeneutics ?

Note: **

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