Tradition and Modernity: Christian and Muslim Perspectives

Author: David Marshall

May 15, 2013

Drawing on the 2010 Building Bridges seminar, Tradition and Modernity focuses on how Christians and Muslims connect their traditions to modernity, looking especially at understandings of history, changing patterns of authority, and approaches to freedom. The volume includes a selection of relevant texts from nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers, from John Henry Newman to Tariq Ramadan, accompanied by illuminating commentaries. 

downloadPDF of the book (provided by Georgetown University Press)

Table of Contents

Introduction | David Marshall

Part I: Surveys

  • Tradition and History in Islam: Primitivism in Islamic Thought and Scripture | Vincent J. Cornell
  • Tradition | Janet Soskice
  • Religious Authority and the Challenges of Modernity | Philip Jenkins
  • Between Traditional and New Forms of Authority in Modern Islam | Recep Senturk
  • Freedoms of Speech and Religion in the Islamic Context | Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim
  • Christianity, Modernity, and Freedom | David Bentley Hart

Part II: Christian and Muslim Thinkers on Tradition and Modernity 

John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

  • Texts​     
  • "Newman on Revelation, Hermeneutics, and Conscience" | Stephen M. Fields

Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905)

  • Texts ​     
  • "Muhammad Abduh: A Sufi-Inspired Modernist?" | Vincent J. Cornell

Sayyid Abul-Ala Mawdudı (1903–1979)

  • Texts ​     
  • "Mawdudı and the Challenges of Modernity" | Abdullah Saeed

Lesslie Newbigin (1909–1998)

  • Texts ​    
  • "Newbigin and the Critique of Modernity" | Paul Weston

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929– )

  • Text​     
  • "MacIntyre on Tradition" | John Milbank

Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933– )

  • Texts ​     
  • "Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Tradition and Modernity" | Joseph E. B. Lumbard

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (1938– )

  • Texts ​     
  • "Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza: A Christian Feminist Responds to Betrayals of the Tradition" | Lucy Gardner

Tariq Ramadan (1962– )

  • Texts ​     
  • "Tariq Ramadan’s Tryst with Modernity: Toward a European Muslim Tradition" | Sajjad Rizvi

Afterword | Rowan Williams

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