The Flowering of Muslim Theology

218 Pages·2006·2.665 MB·English

by  Josef van Ess, Jane Marie Todd

!?he-
FLOWERING
MUS ElM
THEOLOGY

FLOWERING
THE OF
MUSLIM THEOLOGY
Josef van Ess
Translated by Jane Marie Todd
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
2006
Copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows
of Harvard College
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed in the United States of America
Originally published as Premices de Ia tbeologie musulmane,
© Editions Albin Michel S.A., 2002
This book was published with the support of the
French Ministry of Culture-National Book Center I
Cet ouvrage a ete publ ie avec !'assistance du Ministere
charge de !a culture-Centre National du Livre.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ess,] osef van.
(Prernices de !a theologie musulmane. English]
The flowering of Muslim theology I Josef van Ess;
translated by Jane Marie Todd.
p.cm.
"This book began as a series of four lectures given by Josef van Ess
at the lnstitut du monde arabe, Paris, in 1998."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-02208-4
1. Islam-Theology. 2. Islam-Doctrines. I. Title.
BP166.E7713 2006
299.2-dc22 2005052792
CONTENTS
Note to the English-Language
Edition Vll
Introduction I
I Theology in Its Own Eyes:
Division and Heresy in Islam 9
Ill
2 Theology and the Koran:
The Mi'raj and the Debate on
Anthropomorphism 45
3 Theology and Science:
Mu'tazilite Atomism 79
4 ·Theology and Human Reality:
Historical Images and
Political Ideas II7
CONTENTS
5 Theology and Its Principles:
Hermeneutics and Epistemology 153
r{otes 193
Index 209
vi
NOTE TO THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE
EDITION
THIS BOOK BEGAN as a series of four lectures given
by Josef van Ess at the Institut du monde arabe, Paris,
in 1998. These lectures constitute the first four chap
ters; the author added a fifth chapter and an intro
duction for publication as the book Primices de la
thiologie musulmane (2002). In a way; this book is an
introduction in French to van Ess's masterwork, Tbe
ologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3· ]ahrhundert Hidschra
(Theology and society in the second and thir1 centu
ries AH).

THE FLOWERING OF
MUSLIM THEOLOGY