What Is Islam?: The Importance of Being Islamic

Description

"A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, [this work] reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent"--Front jacket flap. Part one. Questions. What is Islam? Chapter 1. Six Questions about Islam -- Part two. Conceptualizations. Chapter 2. Islam as Law, islams-not-Islam, Islamic and Islamicate, Religion and Culture, Culture and Civilization Chapter 3. Religion and Secular, Sacred and Profane, Theocentric and Anthropocentric, Total Social Fact, Family Resemblance Chapter 4. Culture, Meaning, Symbol System, Core and Nucleus, Whatever-Muslims-Say-It-Is, Discursive Tradition, Orthodoxy, Process -- Part three. Re-Conceptualizations. Chapter 5. Hermeneutical Engagement, Pre-Text, Text, and Con-Text, Meaning-Making for the Self, Spatiality of Revelation, Hierarchy, Exteriority-Interiority, Public and Private, Language and Vocabulary, Ambivalence and Ambiguity, Metaphor and Paradox Chapter 6. Applications and Implications : Coherent Contradiction, Exploration, Diffusion, Form and Meaning, Modern The Importance of Being Islamic.