Communication is an essential part of all activities of organizations. However, it is affected by technology. Today, email and social media are popular methods of communication in organizations. Each of the listed methods has advantages and disadvantages which will be discussed in this letter which tries to drive the attention of organizations to the need for a standard and balanced approach toward communication.

This paper aims to introduce a robust framework for forecasting demand, including data preprocessing, data transformation and standardization, feature selection, cross-validation, and regression ensemble framework. Bagging ), boosting and extreme gradient boosting regression ), and stacking are employed as ensemble models. Different machine learning approaches, including support vector regression, extreme learning machine, and multilayer perceptron neural network, are adopted as reference models. In order to maximize the determination coefficient value and reduce the root mean square error, hyperparameters are set using (...) the grid search method. Using a steel industry dataset, all tests are carried out under identical experimental conditions. In this context, STACK1 and STACK2 models provided better performance than other models. The highest accuracies of R2 of 0.97 and 0.97 are obtained using STACK1 and STACK2, respectively. Moreover, the rank according to performances is STACK1, STACK2, XGBR, GBR, RFR, MLP, ELM, and SVR. As it improves the performance of models and reduces the risk of decision-making, the ensemble method can be used to forecast the demand in a steel industry one month ahead. (shrink)

Trust is a key component in delivering quality and respectful care within health care systems. However, a growing lack of confidence in health care, particularly among specific subgroups of the population in the United States, could further widen health disparities. In this essay, we explore one approach to building trust and reaching diverse communities to promote health: engaging community‐based organizations (CBOs) as trusted community messengers. We present case studies of partnerships in health promotion, community education, and outreach that showcase how (...) CBOs’ programs build and leverage trust in health care systems through their workforce, services, and engagement with the community. (shrink)

This inspiring work presents a truly knowledge-based approach to education as an alternative to the current curriculum that is based on consolidating pre-conceived ideas. It demonstrates the advantages of the new curriculum, both in terms of acquiring knowledge and preventing current problems such as technological disasters, global injustice, and environmental destruction. It also shows how it can eliminate plagiarism, low retention in classrooms, non-representative grading, and other common problems. Examples are given from various disciplines, ranging from science and engineering to (...) philosophy and law. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of university teachers regarding plagiarism in Bangladesh. An online questionnaire consisted of 20 knowledge questions, 23 attitude items, and 18 practice questions was created using Google Forms. The link to the questionnaire was sent via email to university teachers. The total correct answers for knowledge and practice questions, and the total attitude score were converted to percentile scores and categorized accordingly as poor ( mean (...) + 1 SD). Bivariate analyses were conducted to compare the total knowledge, attitude and practice scores based on demographic and academic variables. Multiple linear regressions were used to identify the association between knowledge, attitude and practice scores, and other covariates. The findings revealed an average level of knowledge, attitude and practice regarding plagiarism among the majority of university teachers. The knowledge, attitude and practice scores were significantly higher for teachers who attended academic writing workshops compared to those who did not attend such events. Demographic and academic variables did not impact knowledge and attitude scores. However, the number of papers published in the last two years and their indexing in Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus significantly impacted attitude and knowledge scores. The multiple regression analyses showed that the practice score was significantly associated with age, highest education, and knowledge. (shrink)

This research aims to reveal the historical roots and elements of the background for the formation of the Orang Rimba's religion. This study is based on field research with a descriptive approach of religious phenomenon. The research derives some conclusions: the Orang Rimba is monotheist, that is, they are not adherents to dynamism, polytheism, or animism as it has been understood. The history of the Orang Rimba's religion is affected by two elements; namely, Rimba culture and Islamic culture. Evidence suggests (...) that Islam is one element of Orang Rimba's religion as the following: Mantra of Getting Honey, such as Basmallah, Allah, Istighfar, Muhammad and Ya Karim; Orang Rimba Faith in God, the Prophet Muhammad, the Angel and Doomsday; the values of the ceremony of Death: Ratib Laa Ilaha Illallah; and the values of the ceremony Berdekir. It has proved the existence of a new theory about the spread of Islam in the Suku Anak Dalam community since the 14th century and at the same time undermined the old theory of the Orang Rimba's religion that has been misunderstood over the years.CONTRIBUTION: Researchers can use this new theory's findings as reference material on the Orang Rimba's religion. They can also use this theory to compare other views about the Orang Rimba's religion. (shrink)

This article critically addresses recent anthropological and feminist efforts to theorize and analyse Muslim women's participation in and support for the Islamic revival in its various manifestations. Drawing on ethnographic material from research on young Muslims engaged in Islamic youth and student-organizations in Norway, I investigate some of the challenges that researching religious subjectivities and practices pose to feminist theory. In particular, I deal with how to understand women's religious piety in relation to questions of self, agency and resistance. Engaging (...) with Saba Mahmood's work on The Politics of Piety, this article suggests ways of understanding the young women's religious engagement that move beyond the confines of a binary model of subordination and resistance, coercion and choice. Grounding the discussion in ethnographic analysis of how young Muslim women in Norway speak about the ‘self’, I argue that critically revisiting feminist notions of agency, autonomy and desire, is necessary in order to understand the kinds of self-realization that these women aspire to. However, the article argues against positing Muslim conceptions and techniques of the self as ‘the other’ of liberal-secular traditions. Rather, I show how configurations of personhood, ethics and self-realization drawn from Islamic and liberal-secular discursive formations inhabit not only the same cultural and historical space, but also shape individual subjectivities and modes of agency. (shrink)

_The first book length-work on Afa Ajura and translation of his complete poems_ This is the first English translation of and commentary on the collected poems of Alhaj Yūsuf Ṣāliḥ Ajura (1910–2004), a northern Ghanaian orthodox Islamic scholar, poet, and polemicist known as Afa Ajura, or “scholar from Ejura.” The poems, all handwritten in Arabic script, mainly in the Ghanaian language of Dagbani and also Arabic, explore the author’s socio‑religious beliefs. In the accompanying introduction, the translator examines the diverse themes (...) of the poems and how they challenge Tijāniyyah Sufi clerics and traditional practices such as idol worship. (shrink)

Widely regarded as the founder of the Islamic philosophical tradition, and as the single greatest philosophical authority after Aristotle by his successors in the medieval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian communities, Alfarabi was a leading figure in the fields of Aristotelian logic and Platonic political science. The first complete English translation of his commentary on Aristotle's Topics, Alfarabi's Book of Dialectic, or Kitāb al-Jadal, is presented here in a deeply researched edition based on the most complete Arabic manuscript sources. David M. (...) DiPasquale argues that Alfarabi's understanding of the Socratic art of dialectic is the key prism through which to grasp his recovery of an authentic tradition of Greek science on the verge of extinction. He also suggests that the Book of Dialectic is unique to the extent to which it unites Alfarabi's logical and political writings, opening up novel ways of interpreting Alfarabi's influence. (shrink)

Based on a sample of 54 Islamic indices over the period 2007–2014, we investigate the effect of Shariah board members' educational background on Islamic indices' risk and return characteristics via the screening criteria. Using a capital asset pricing model benchmark analysis, we assess the sensitivity of Islamic indices to their conventional peers in terms of beta and derive a measure of return (Jensen's alpha). First, we observe that the higher the number of members in common among the boards, the higher (...) the risk–return profile of Islamic indices. Second, commonalities among board members lead to standardization of the screening criteria and to similar Islamic indices' performance. Third, we show that different betas across providers depend on the screening criteria, while the economic educational background of board members affects performance in terms of Jensen's alpha. Our study aims at contributing to the governance literature related to board composition and its importance as a possible driver of performance. In addition, given the impressive growth that Islamic finance has experienced during the last decade, this topic is of great interest to the asset management industry. (shrink)

: There has been an intensive scholarly debate about the developmentof Indonesia’s post-New Order democracy. Some scholars have laudedIndonesia’s surprisingly successful transition to democratic consolidation,while others have disputed such a notion, arguing that Indonesia’s democraticprocess tends to be stagnant and even regressive. However, the absence ofa progressive civil society as a result of the increasingly dominant positionof oligarchic political elites in the structure of state power and democraticinstitutions, are a number of important factors that encourage the declineof democracy. This article (...) investigates the conditions that drive the role ofmoderate Islamic organizations weredeclining rather than increasing in fighting for a democratic agenda. Referringto the research data obtained through interviews, documentation and casestudies on Nahdlatul Ulama activism - the largest moderate Islamicorganization in a predominantly Muslim country, this article arguesthat the decline of civil Islamic organizations is closely related to socio-politicalfragmentation and the strengthening of the conservative wing within moderateIslamic organizations. At the same time, the decline of the organization whichhad a glorious reputation as a champion of tolerance, pluralism, and democracyin the 1980-1990s had implications for the regression of Indonesian democracymarked by, among other things, the exclusion of religious minority groups suchas Shi’a from the public sphere. (shrink)

This article discusses the term erotology, which was applied to medieval Islamicate ‘ilm al-bah (the science of coitus), as well as other world traditions of sexual knowledge, by European sexologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who contrasted it with their own forms of inquiry into sexual matters in the modern field of sexual science. It argues that the homogenisation and minimisation of all ancient and non-European forms of medical knowledge about sex, even one as substantial as the (...) ‘ilm al-bah tradition, supported a particular story about the origins of sexology's own emergence as a new and unprecedented biomedical and scientific way of knowing, characterised by an opposition assumed between sexuality and religion, by a view of sexual variations as perversions or pathologies, and by a view of Arabs and Muslims as sexually excessive. The article focusses on French, English, German, Austrian, and Italian sources of the 19th century that discussed the history of sexual medicine, relating these accounts to recent attempts to historicise sexology. It considers how forms of colonial hierarchy and exoticist views of non-European cultures impacted the dismissal of ‘ilm al-bah among European sexual scientists and how they may continue to exert an influence on forms of modern historical inquiry that are not attentive to scholarship on medieval Islamicate sexual medicine. (shrink)

The Islamic psychology (IP) community in Europe has recently witnessed a heated debate about the credentials required to participate in the theoretical substantiation of IP and Islamically integrated psychotherapy and counseling. This debate has provided convenient circumstances for Muslim psychologists and Islamic scholars alike to rethink their roles within the flourishing movement. Specifically, the discussions hint toward the importance of adopting a collaborative research methodology for IP, in particular for basic research. The methodology of choice will need to define the (...) necessary qualifications and responsibilities of scholars and psychologists in a collaborative research process (personal collaboration) and evince its capability to appropriately marry knowledge and data, diverging research methods, and perspectives, concepts, and theories from Islamic studies and contemporary psychology (content‐related collaboration). Here, we devise and offer a case illustration of an Islamic Psychology Basic Research Framework (coined the SALAAM Framework). This framework uses the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS) Model of Interdisciplinary Research, developed by the IIS at the University of Amsterdam. Our first aim is to appropriate the IIS model for the IP literature by applying the model's research process phases and technique for the integration of disparate bodies of knowledge—that is, the identification of common ground—to methodological approaches in the contemporary IP literature. Our second aim is to exemplify the devised SALAAM Framework using the relatively unexplored area of Islamic cognitive theories (ICTs), which remain underdeveloped in contemporary psychological literature, primarily because of a lack of commensurability with the nomenclature of contemporary psychology. We thus provide a primer on the potential scope of ICTs. Toward the end of this article, we discuss the potential of the project of interdisciplinary construction of Islamic psychological theory, and the ability of the SALAAM Framework to establish a research program in IP that centers on cognition. We finally offer our reflections on the distinctiveness of Islamic psychologies in comparison to mainstream and Christian psychology. (shrink)

ABSTRACT An important aspect of the nineteenth century debate on the relationship between science and religion concerned the popularity of deterministic views among scientists. An integral part of Comte's positivism, the idea of immutable laws that determined natural and social phenomena became an increasingly prevalent component of scientific perspectives in the Darwinian era. Referring to this tendency as ‘scientific fatalism,’ critics likened it to Calvinist predestination, which transformed the debate into one involving polemics about different branches of Christianity as well. (...) This paper focuses on a neglected aspect of this debate, namely, the role that references to Islam and Turks played in it. ‘Mohammedan fatalism,’ already a common theme in justifications of colonialism, promptly became a tool with which to condemn new scientific views. Comparing French, British, and American writings on the topic, the paper illustrates that while there emerged approaches that praised the fatalism of Muslims while making a case for scientific determinism, most scientists and thinkers resorted to condemning the fatalism of Muslims in order to distinguish their views from it. In this respect, the paper demonstrates how political and religious discourses played a significant part in the shaping of scientific discourse in the Victorian era. (shrink)

This was one of SCSS President Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appear monthly in Crisis and The Wanderer. It argues that a correct reading of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, while stressing interreligious understanding and noting certain common beliefs, in no way precludes a reasonable critique of Islam or criticism of its background and tenets from a Catholic standpoint.

This paper aims to explore the experiences of female leaders considering the interplay of gender, religion, and culture. Drawing on an inductive-qualitative study, the paper examines perceptions regarding the role of religion and cultural norms in women’s ascension into leadership positions in Jordan. The results indicated that Jordanian women leaders adopted an Islamic feminist worldview and did not embrace a liberal nor a socialist/Marxist feminist worldview. Women leaders seemed wanting to claim their religion back from those forces that are reportedly (...) holding their aspirations hostage to monolithic interpretations of religious texts. By constantly referring to their religion, female leaders wanted to be granted spaces of trust and responsibility in leadership positions that they did not see contradictory to the way they understood their faith. The paper provides insights into how women leaders understand prejudicial stereotypes and discrimination in their society, explaining how those are linked to patriarchal socio-cultural traditions emphasizing male control. (shrink)

The stagnant and even underdeveloped condition of Muslims all over the world has raised concerns among scholars. Many are trying to offer solutions to restore Islamic civilization to its peak. Various proposals lead to the reconstruction of philosophical elements, including epistemology and worldview, to more practical ones, such as the Islamization of knowledge. This study tries to compare the concept of worldview and its implications for the Islamization of knowledge from two major contemporary figures. The two are Syed Muhammad Naquib (...) Al-Attas, a mainstream leader of the Islamization of knowledge from Malaysia, and Ayatullah Muhammad Taqie Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, a neo-Sadrian philosopher from Persia. This research used a qualitative approach, namely the method of literature study to understand the Islamic worldview from the perspective of the two figures and what the implications are for the Islamization of knowledge. The results of the study revealed they both believe in the importance of a genuine worldview as the basis for the reconstruction of Muslims at the individual level and Islam at the level of civilization. However, they adhere to different ontological and epistemological arguments. In Al-Attas, the commitment to sacred texts as well as the interpretation of classical scholars makes the model of Islamization of knowledge tend to be backward and reactionary towards the West. As for Ayatullah Yazdī, prioritizing reason and demonstration has led to a model of Islamization of science that is critical and open for dialogue toward Western science. (shrink)

There are several primary questions which can lead to asking about the religious urgency related to the mankind’s life. “Is it available for a man to escape from the existence of religion?” “Why does a man need a religion? Why should Islam be born as a religion?” These questions are answered by M. Quraish Shihab based on his commentary. He stated that to have a belief for a man is a nature. While the reason that brings Islam as (...) a fitrah religion is, it is a belief which was brought by the last prophet: Muhammad. The focus of this research is ‘how is the authenticity of the Islamic concept as the fitrah religion according to M. Quraish Shihab?’ This study aimed to analyze the perspective of M. Quraish Shihab as a fitrah religion based on the Qur’an, which points out to take any information about the authenticity of the concept of Islam as a fitrah religion. This research implements library research which applied hermeneutics method. The theory of Fazlur Rahman is used here, which strengthens to the double movement theory on tracking either the authenticity of the message or moral ideal as what outlined in Tafsir Al-Mishbah. Based on the research, it is concluded that the authentic meaning of the concept of Islam as a fitrah religion according to the Quraish Shihab is an exclusive belief and a positive behavior. All prophets are Muslims, but all humans alive after Prophet Muhammad should embrace Islam as part of their submission form to Allah by voluntary and peaceful ways. Non-Muslims should be persuasively introduced to Islam. Because do not embrace Islam not only ignoring fitrah but also denying Muhammad as the last prophet. Nevertheless, M. Quraish Shihab considers it’s important for Muslims to respect other religions in order to maintain social justice by living in peace, mutual understanding and cooperation without sacrificing their faith. (shrink)

J. Andrew Kirk’s book examines – and eventually agrees with – Samuel Huntington’s controversial claim that a dangerous ‘Clash of Civilisations’ today poisons the Western-and-Islamic relationship. Kirk then suggests ways for improving these relations, highlighting Islam’s need to reform itself through a re-embrace of its more eirenic, prophetic Meccan phase. While there is much that is admirable here, the review below suggests Kirk’s interpretation of the ‘prophetic’ relationship to government is too one-sidedly Anabaptist.

Gendered Morality offers a textual-critical examination of gender in Islamic metaphysics and virtue ethics. Through a close reading of how masculinity and femininity are constructed, the book argues that the historically contingent nature of gender hierarchy, characterized as Islamic and ethical, is at odds with the overarching goal of Islamic ethics as earthly justice. Because the book moves beyond the typical Qur'anic and jurisprudence-based discourses about women's status, it makes a lasting contribution to our understanding of gender in the ethical (...) philosophy of Islam. (shrink)

This article investigates several discussions of “chemistry,” understood as an analysts’ category referring to theories and practices dealing with the structure and transformation of matter. By reading these texts (a treatise defending kīmiyāʾ by al-Fārābī, the famous passage from Ibn Sīnā’s Shifāʾ on transmutation, Ibn Taymiyyah’s fatwā against kīmiyāʾ, Michael Psellos’s treatise On Making Gold, and the same author’s Accusation against a sitting Patriarch of Constantinople), the article aims to lay the groundwork for integrating the historiography of Byzantine and Arabic (...) alchemy into a wider western Eurasian intellectual history. (shrink)

This article aims at exploring the existing ideas of Angkola’s local wisdom with relevance to the roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam. This research employed the ethnographic method which utilised the data from figurative peoples in Angkola culture, Angkola’s cultural ceremonies, documents, and related media. The collected data were then reduced and analysed from philosophical, cultural, linguistic, and religious point of views to find the relevance. This research found that Dalihan Na Tolu covers triangle family members for Mora, (...) Kahanggi, and Anak Boru. Dalihan Na Tolu consistently enhances humanity in harmony and it keeps warm in touch with the social profile. Angkola language has unique variations in the structure, coda sound, accent, and intonation to avoid saying subject as respect and the symbol of politeness. Dalihan Na Tolu creates and maintains norms in brotherhood and togetherness as an ingrained belief. The devotion poured in a sense of justice for triangle family members. The taste of brotherhood and togetherness is a fact that only humans have to think about expressing responsibility to unite humanity. The manifestation of Dalihan Na Tolu as a local, national, and perhaps international wisdom has faith, charity, and responsibility as the main point of view for humanity in harmony. The human faith in God has to be perfect with relevance for love, humanity and harmony. Charity humanises people. The responsibility unites humanity. Dalihan Na Tolu reflects many important values to learn from living in the society with particular philosophy, culture, langauge, and religion. Contribution: This research describe about roles of philosophy, culture, language, and Islam in Angkola’s local wisdom of “dalihan natolu” in South Tapanuli, Indonesia. This research contributes to providing a comprehensive understanding of how the values in the local wisdom “dalihan natolu” can create social harmonisation. (shrink)

In this paper, T. M. Murray defends a vision of liberal tolerance as grounding the common good. She critiques the discourse that Western liberalism amounts to ‘Islamophobia’ or ‘cultural imperialism’. She argues that liberal academics, in maintaining these narratives, contradict their own vaunted values and tacitly collude with religious hypocrisy and intolerance. She argues for a universal vision of the common good broadly grounded in human flourishing and human nature and linked to the philosophies of Aristotle and J. S. Mill.

Along with inefficiencies of mainstream sciences to find solutions for world problems, and besides the unpleasant difficulties in human lives due to such matters as poverty and economic gap, environmental pollution and climate change, the question raised is whether alternative sciences are contingent, which could preserve mainstream sciences’ potencies and avoid inefficiencies. Along this, religious incentives also seek ways to compromise sciences with divine learnings. To answer this question and benefit from alternative sciences, the contingency of heterodox sciences has to (...) be discussed. The article Starts by an introduction to efforts made towards Islamization of science, then contingency of heterodox sciences is analyzed from the metaphysics of science point of view. The pioneer inquiry in this regard is a less-known essay of Immanuel Kant titled Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. This article touches topics such as the relation of metaphysics to science, the contingency of metaphysics of science, the contingency of different metaphysics, and metaphysical foundations of social sciences. And later explains the contingency conditions of heterodox sciences and some advantages of metaphysical approach to these sciences. (shrink)

With regards to the inefficiencies and uncompromising situations within the humanities and social sciences field in Iran, the challenge of problematizing these sciences is inevitable. So far, numerous research analyzing humanities and social sciences’ problems in the Iranian academic system have been published. Considering the important role of humanities and social sciences in the modern Iranian society, we attempt to suggest a theoretical framework for the problematization of humanities and social sciences in Iran. The exploration of the main challenges facing (...) humanities and social sciences in Iran from the community, academy and administration point of view, sparks three hypotheses. First, humanities and social sciences’ theories and teachings are not applied accurately. Second, the humanities and social sciences’ schools of thought are not chosen properly according to Iranian circumstances. And third, there are metaphysical differences between axioms and presupposition of humanities and social sciences having western origins and those with Islamic-Iranian culture. (shrink)

Relativistic mean field theory with mesons σ, ω, π and ρ mediating interactions and nucleons as basic fermions has been very successful in describing nuclear matter and finite nuclei. However, in heavy-ion collisions, where the c. m. energy of two colliding nucleons will be in the hundreds of GeV region, nucleons are not expected to behave as point-like particles. Analyses of elastic pp and ¯pp scattering data in the relevant c. m. energy range show that the nucleon is a composite (...) object—a topological soliton or Skyrmion embedded in a condensed quark-antiquark ground state. Against this backdrop, we formulate an effective field theory model of nuclear matter based on the gauged linear σ-model where quarks are the basic fermions, but the mesons still mediate the interactions. The model describes the nucleon as a Skyrmion and produces a q¯q ground state analogous to a superconducting ground state. Quarks are quasi-particles in this ground state. When the temperature exceeds a critical value, the scalar field in the ground state vanishes, quarks become massless, and a chiral phase transition occurs leading to chiral symmetry restoration. We explore the possibility of a first order phase transition in this model by introducing suitable self-interactions of the scalar field. Internal structures of the Skyrmions are ignored, and they are treated as point-like fermions. (shrink)

China is moving from a centralized to a market economy to bring about efficiency in its economy and to form a business partnership with the West. With its reform adopting an open-door policy, there may be a need to assure its partners in the western world that appropriate steps would be taken to develop and foster a business culture with which the western countries and the Chinese businesses can work. The present study attempted to find whether there has been a (...) change in business ethical culture, accounting system and practice in the Chinese business between 1978 and the present, and the degree of similarity in the Chinese ethics and guidelines compared to Western ethics and guidelines. The result of the study has been analyzed from an institutional perspective to explore institutional change. The result showed that there is general growing support of Chinese management toward change in business ethical culture and practice. It was observed that there was not much similarity in the documents used for ethical guidance and control with those of the West. The findings of the paper are expected to be relevant to international investors and executives interested in investing or working in China. (shrink)

The nonlinear σ-model with vector mesons introduced as gauge bosons and an interacting chiral quark sector depicts the nucleon as a topological soliton embedded in a chiral condensate. High-energy elastic pp and ¯pp scattering data from CERN ISR and SPS Collider appear to provide strong evidence in favor of this nucleon structure.

In Indonesia, scholars differ on how to deal with religious fundamentalism and intolerance. On the one hand, there are supporters of a militant approach, but on the other hand, there are those who prefer a moderate one. This article aims to analyze Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama/NU and its responses towards the puritanical Wahhabi ideology. The organization is renowned for its contest against fundamentalist Muslim groups in post-New Order Indonesia. Focusing on the local branch of NU in Jember, East (...) Java, this article argues that NU adopts an intolerant approach in dealing with Wahhabi groups and their Islamic da'wah activism. NU’s approach is double-barreled first still within its moderation framework, the second falling out. NU rejects Wahhabi's religious orthodoxy, anti-pluralist, and discriminatory attitude towards different faiths who are lumped together as “infidels.” Yet, its attitude towards Wahhabi right to establish Islamic educational institutions represents authoritarianism. This article analyzes the impact of the local NU’s dualism of weakening intolerance on the one hand and undermining pluralism on the other hand. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:We examine the practice of nepotism in the Arab World and analyze how a rational-legal model of bureaucracy was never able to take hold. We draw upon ideas from institutional theory and related notions of legitimacy to provide an explanation of nepotism’s extraordinary persistence. Then we use arguments to speculate how the appearance of institutional entrepreneurs who are advocates for a new hybrid form of nepotism might begin to colonize a social space created by larger political and economic changes that (...) are sweeping the Arab World. Those entrepreneurs must persuade other members of an extended family that the current practice of nepotism is typically destructive of a firm’s competitive performance. In addition, they will argue that nepotism as currently practiced violates teachings of Islam. This second argument is likely to be particularly effective with an audience that sees Islam as a source of universal notions of justice and fairness. (shrink)

A sample of 871 currently married urban Bangladeshi women was used to assess the impact of mass media family planning programmes on current contraceptive use. The analyses suggested that radio had been playing a significant role in spreading family planning messages among eligible clients; 38% of women with access to a radio had heard of family planning messages while the figures for TV and newspaper were 18·5% and 8·5% respectively. Education, number of living children and current contraceptive use were important (...) predictors of exposure to any mass media family planning messages. There was a negative relationship between breast-feeding and the current use of contraception indicating a low need for contraception among women who were breast-feeding. (shrink)

İslam’ın toplum hayatındaki tezahürlerinin mahiyet ve işlevi hakkındaki tartışmalar neredeyse Hz. Peygamber’in vefatından hemen sonraya kadar uzanır. Kelamın ehl-i hadisi eleştirisinde, Müslüman filozofların kelamcıları eleştirisinde, Gazzâlî’nin (ö. 1111) filozofları eleştirisinde daima İslam’ın “nasıl” anlaşılması gerektiği sorusunu görmek mümkündür. Gazzâlî ve İbn Rüşd (ö. 1198) gibi birbirine muhalif olan iki âlimin dahi kendi dönemlerindeki fukahayı eleştirmede müttefik olmasında yine İslam’ın “nasıl” anlaşılması gerektiği ve toplum hayatında “nasıl” uygulanacağı sorusu görülebilir. Son yüz yıllık dönemde ise bu tartışmalar ve uğraşların zirve yaptığını söyleyebiliriz. (...) Müslümanlar olarak küçük bir köye dönüşen dünyaya kayıtsız kalamayız, kendimizi merkeze aldığımız bir dünya tasavvur edemeyiz. Sosyolojimizin, psikolojimizin, siyaset, ekonomi, eğitim ve kültürümüzün diğer milletler ve din mensupları ile etkileşim halinde olduğu gerçeğini yok sayamayız. Durum böyle olunca maalesef Müslüman ülkelerin birçok alanda yaşamış olduğu sorunlar her geçen gün yüzümüze vurulmaktadır. Konuya vakıa tespiti yaparak başladığımız takdirde incelemesini yapacağımız İslam Işığında Müslümanlığımızla Yüzleşme eserinin önemi daha belirgin olacaktır. (shrink)

AimThe aim of this study was to determine the presence of depressive symptoms and understand the potential factors associated with these symptoms among physicians in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA cross-sectional study using an online survey was conducted in between April 21 and May 10, 2020, among physicians living in Bangladesh. Participants completed a series of demographic questions, COVID-19-related questions, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Descriptive statistics, test statistics were performed to explore the association between physicians’ experience of depression symptoms (...) and other study variables. Stepwise binary logistic regression was followed while conducting the multivariable analysis.ResultA total of 390 physicians completed the survey. Of them, 283 were found to be experiencing depressive symptoms. Predictors which were significantly associated with depressive symptoms were gender, the presence of sleep disturbance, being highly exposed to media coverage about the pandemic, and fear around COVID-19 infection, being assaulted/humiliated by regulatory forces and by the general public, while traveling to and from the hospital and treating patients during the countrywide lockdown.ConclusionThe findings of this study demonstrate that there is a high prevalence of depressive symptom among physicians especially among female physicians in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate, adequate and effective interventions addressing gender specific needs are required amid this ongoing crisis and beyond. (shrink)

The medieval Islamic philosophers held a certain conception of the divine unity that assumes the necessary existent to be both one and simple. The oneness of the necessary existent meant that it is the only necessary existent and its simplicity meant that it admits no composition whatsoever – it is pure essence and its essence is necessary existence. In The Incoherence of the Philosophers al-Ġazālī presents, with elaboration, an exposition of the philosophers' conception of the divine unity, several arguments for (...) its two components, and his critique of these arguments. In this paper I focus on six of the arguments attributed to the philosophers. Following the textual evidence, I reconstruct these arguments and offer two possible interpretations of them. The first interpretation, which I call the many-argument interpretation, sees one of the arguments as employing the simplicity of the necessary existent to establish its oneness and the other five arguments as invoking oneness to establish simplicity. The second interpretation, which I call the one-argument interpretation, doesn't offer a new reading for the first argument but sees the other five arguments as defending the simplicity of the necessary existent based on its basic concept. I argue for the superiority of the one-argument interpretation. Résumé Les philosophes de l'Islam classique ont une doctrine de l'unité divine selon laquelle l'existant nécessaire est à la fois unique et simple. Son unicité signifie qu'il est le seul existant nécessaire, sa simplicité qu'il n'admet aucune sorte de composition; il est pure essence et son essence est existence nécessaire. Dans la Destruction des Philosophes, al-Ġazālī présente avec force détails un exposé de la doctrine de l'unité divine des philosophes, plusieurs arguments en faveur de ses deux composantes, ainsi que sa critique de ces arguments. Je me concentre ici sur six des arguments qu'il attribue aux philosophes. En suivant les données textuelles, je reconstruis ces arguments et en propose deux interprétations possibles. La première, que j'appelle l'interprétation “à arguments multiples”, identifie l'un des arguments comme s'appuyant sur la simplicité de l'existant nécessaire pour établir son unicité, et les cinq autres comme s'appuyant sur son unicité pour établir sa simplicité. La seconde, que j'appelle l'interprétation “à argument unique”, conserve la première lecture du premier argument mais voit dans les cinq autres une défense de la simplicité de l'existant nécessaire fondée sur sa notion fondamentale. J'argumente en faveur de la supériorité de l'interprétation “à argument unique”. (shrink)

RésuméCet article vise à établir que la place centrale d'Avicenne dans l'histoire intellectuelle de l'Islam ne se limite pas aux disciplines de la philosophie théorique, mais que cet auteur a eu aussi une influence profonde et forte sur la conception de la philosophie pratique jusqu'aux temps modernes. J'analyserai l'impact de la conception avicénienne de la philosophie pratique en étudiant les différentes classifications de la philosophie pratique proposées par Avicenne tout au long de sa carrière ainsi que les facteurs motivant (...) sa négligence de la philosophie pratique dans ses sommes philosophiques, sur la base de sa conception des relations entre philosophie etšarīʿa. Pour établir ma thèse concernant l'influence de cet auteur sur la conception de la philosophie pratique dans la tradition islamique, j'étudierai des œuvres majeures concernant la classification des sciences ainsi que les commentaires et gloses relatifs aux deux sommes philosophiques les plus importantes et les plus largement diffusées dans la tradition philosophique post-avicénienne, que sont lesHidāyat al-ḥikmad'al-Abharī's et lesḤikmat al-ʿaynd'al-Kātibī's. (shrink)

This article suggests that the historical figuration of Islam as well as the discourse of secularization has played a fundamental role in the constitution of Islam’s externality to Europe. The historical figuration of Islam as Europe’s enemy is haunting Europe. The European secularist anxiety today, which insists on the separation between the domains of the private and the public needs to be understood against the backdrop of this history. If Islam’s inability to separate the religious and (...) the political was historically the dominant motif through which Islam was registered as the arch-enemy, the post-secular, post-Enlightenment period registers Islam as an enemy through a cultural gesture. Derrida’s understanding of spectrality and the concept autoimmunity are deployed to suggest that Islam as a specter haunting Europe undermines the sovereign constitution of a self-identical Europe, but this haunting needs to be seen as Europe’s chance for a self-destructive conservation of Europe. European identity has to be rethought and renewed differently and this rethinking requires that we attend to the present as well as the past and future of Europe, which requires the opening of Europe to otherness and responsibility to the other. Such a rethinking of Europe’s history necessitates thinking about colonialism as well the living embodiments of this colonial legacy today, which are the immigrants. (shrink)

This study highlights various totalitarian and undemocratic practices in which Bangladesh’s current Awami League-led coalition regime engages. It shows that since its inception in early 2009, the regime has tried to mobilize and manipulate public support from within through—among other means—creating the discourse of “war crimes” and to obtain international support through the discourse of “Islamism” and terrorism. Although “a secular plan” to combat and replace “Islamism” may soothe the nerves of many in the international community, its deployment in Bangladesh (...) has paradoxically produced a dangerous culture of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, infringements on freedom of speech and the stifling of dissenting voices, and the interception of opposition programs and the torture of opposition leaders and activists. The regime has also made a mockery of the law and the country’s judicial system. Many commentators believe that the country’s law courts are now simply an extension of the regime’s political clout. In these circumstances, political repression continues unabated, and victims of persecution are left with inadequate legal recourse. In the name of combating “Islamic terrorism,” Bangladesh’s ruling regime has resorted to a reign of terror that is in many respects tantamount to what we know as fascism. (shrink)

The Old Testament furnishes its readers with two pictures of Christ’s coming: his coming to earth as a servant in glorious apparel and his coming to earth as a king in glorious apparel. This has brought about bewilderment both to the Jews who expected only the kingly and glorious Christ and the 21st century Christian who are being misled by some preachers and teachers of the Gospel of Christ. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to unearth two forms of (...) Christ’s second coming: a secret coming – as a thief in the night, and public, universal coming, when every eye shall see him. Therefore through lexicosemantics analysis which reveals, its root-words and word-stems and the various possible semantic categories created by the human mind, this paper claims that the secret coming of Christ is what is called the rapture and the public coming is called the παρουσία. It conveys the idea that Christ’s return will be a definite and decisive action on his part. He will come himself, as surely as he came in the incarnation. (shrink)

This book is a rather mediocre and unimaginative summary of the major themes of Avicenna's metaphysics. Chahine makes the attempt to situate him against the background of antique and medieval philosophy, but the ideas themselves are never given a contextual treatment. One does not see what was truly original and significant in Avicenna's philosophy; one is left frustrated by the succession of scholastic lieux communs and only seldom gratified by a beautiful quote. There is a certain amount of information on (...) the ideas of other Islamic thinkers influencing Avicenna or influenced by him, but this cannot compensate for the lack of a really penetrating analysis—M. J. V. (shrink)

Education, Religion and Society celebrates the career of Professor John Hull of the University of Birmingham, UK, the internationally renowned religious educationist who has also achieved worldwide fame for his brilliant writings on his experience, mid-career, of total blindness. In his outstanding career he has been a leading figure in the transformation of religious education in English and Welsh state schools from Christian instruction to multi-faith religious education and was the co-founder of the International Seminar on Religious Education and values. (...) John Hull has also made major contributions to the theology of disability and the theological critique of the "money culture." This volume brings together leading international scholars to honour John Hull's contribution, with a focus on furthering scholarship in the areas where he has been active as a thinker. The book offers a critical appreciation of his contribution to religious education and practical theology, and goes on to explore the continuing debate about the role of religious education in promoting international understanding, intercultural education and human rights education. A possible basis for integrating Islamic education into Western education is suggested and the contribution of the philosophy of religion to pluralistic religious education is outlined. The contributors also deal with issues relating to indoctrination, racism and relationship in Christian religious aspects, and examines aspects of the the theology of social exclusion and disability. (shrink)

Mustafa Sabri Efendi, Osmanlı Devleti’nin siyasi kayıplar yaşadığı dönemin sonlarında Şeyhülislamlık yapmış, Cumhuriyet’in ilanı sürecinde yaşamıştır. Batı’daki bilimsel gelişmelerle birlikte İslam düşüncesinde duraklamanın tecrübe edildiği dönemde, geleneksel ilmî mirası ve bu ilimlerin metotlarını savunmuş bir isimdir. Bu hassasiyetle modern bilimsel yöntemleri savunan çoğu İslam düşünürüne eleştiriler yöneltmiştir. O, bu dönemde düşünce akımlarının etkisiyle gelişen inanç problemleri karşısında geleneksel yöntem ve bilgi birikiminin etkinliğini gündeme getirmiştir. Mustafa Sabri, İslam’ın temel kaynaklarından biri olan sünnet ve bunun kayıt altına alındığı rivayetleri içeren muteber (...) hadis kaynaklarının metot ve sıhhat açısından son derece güvenilir olduğunu ve itikadî konularda belirleyici olduğunu vurgulamıştır. Mustafa Sabri’nin sünnet tasavvurunu göstermesi açısından onun nüzûl-i Îsâ konusundaki görüşleri önemli bir örnektir. O, nüzûl-i Îsâ hadisesi hakkındaki yaklaşımını, Mahmut Şeltut’a yönelik itirazlarıyla ortaya koymaktadır. O, bu hadisenin Hz. Peygamber’in gayba ilişkin verdiği haberlerden biri olması ve kıyamet alametlerinden sayılması noktasında, sünnetin kaynaklığını öne çıkarmaktadır. Nüzûl-i Îsâ’nın gerçekleşme imkânını günümüzde sıhhati açısından problemli kabul edilen rivayetler, sahabe, tabiûn ve sonraki İslam âlimlerinin ortaya koyduğu yaklaşım ve hadis kaynaklarına duyduğu itimat üzerinden inşa etmektedir. Mustafa Sabri bu anlamda geleneksel birikimi öne çıkaran bir sünnet tasavvuru ortaya koymaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmamız Mustafa Sabri’nin nüzûl-i Îsâ çerçevesinde sünnetin kaynaklığına ilişkin yaklaşımını ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. (shrink)

This study investigates potential differences in attitudes towards corporate social responsibility between Saudis and Muslims from other predominately Islamic countries. We propose that Saudi Arabia’s unique rentier-state welfare and higher education systems account for these distinctions. In evaluating our propositions, we replicate Brammer et al. :229–243, 2007) survey on attitudes towards CSR using a sample of Saudi undergraduate and graduate business students and compare the results against data from subjects in other majority Muslim countries. In addition, this work examines possible (...) differences within the Saudi sample with respect to sex and academic level. Our results indicate that our Saudi subjects maintain higher expectations for corporations’ social responsibility within their supply chain than the Brammer et al.’s sample. In contrast, Muslims in the Brammer et al.’s sample hold higher expectations for corporations in supporting societal development and poverty alleviation in comparison to the Saudi sample. We also find within the Saudi sample that females and subjects at higher academic levels are more inclined to hold corporations responsible for social issues related to CSR than males and subjects in lower academic levels. We examine these findings, explore their implications, and propose areas for future research. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology ed. by John HartDannis M. MattesonThe Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology Edited by John Hart OXFORD: JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD, 2017. 560 pp. $195.00If ecology is the study of "relationships in a place," as John Hart reminds readers in the preface of the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology, it is fitting that this volume centers (...) its thrust relationally (xxiv). Throughout its pages, a diverse community of authors explores the relationships among religious and spiritual traditions, human life, and care for the Earth. Defining religion as a language with which to grapple with meanings assigned to cultural values (xxi), this volume turns to the meanings that humans have historically placed on their relationship to the Earth within spiritual and religious frameworks. It further ponders how our religions and spiritual traditions reflect a relationship to the Earth that is conscious of the status of our planet's health today. Offering insights from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Eastern and Western Christianity, and indigenous perspectives, the authors reflect on new and old insights from within their tradition that speak to specific ecological issues. The volume is split into four parts, flowing thematically from conceptual and descriptive, to concrete visions for practical steps toward healing the Earth. [End Page 199]Part 1 describes the various ways religious and spiritual traditions enhance ecological consciousness. Seyyed Hossein Nasr shows how the Qur'an depicts the created order as a reflection of God's face, suggesting that we are literally defacing the face of God in our industrial recklessness. David Mevorach Seidenberg presents a Jewish eco-theology, which decenters the human as the pinnacle of creation. In part 2, the authors further draw out the socioecological implications of religious teachings. Melanie Harris argues that religious communities must open their eyes to the link between structural violence against black women to structural violence against the Earth. She maintains that this analysis is key to finding solutions for ecological reparations. When Harris argues that social justice is Earth justice, she is claiming that the dismantling of both white supremacy and colonial ecology go hand in hand.Part 3, titled "Ecological Commitment," highlights the specific contexts in which the relationship between religion and ecology are embedded. Myrna Perez Sheldon and Naomi Oreskes trace the entanglement of evangelical identity with the politics of scientific doubt. In response, they suggest a new framework for evangelical participation in environmental restoration that moves beyond a political identity that is chained to right-wing doubt about climate change. In asking how "Korean Christianity can become more Nature-conscious, Nature-related, and Nature-integrated," Yong Bum Park points to Chondogyo, a Korean indigenous religion (333). This tradition is shown to take seriously the ecological crisis as a "crisis of consciousness and conduct," encouraging religious people to foster a socioecological vision of restoration (333).Part 4, which provides examples of concrete visions and projects on the ground, ends with John Hart's reimagining of the Earth as a "common commons." The notion that the Earth is a sacred "common commons" of "interdependent, integral, evolving relational community" requires conversion in light of how religious people relate to the Earth today (437). According to this commons ethic, land should be "commonized and communalized" rather than rendered private property (476).I highly recommend this volume for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses that are exploring the intersection of religion and ecology, especially courses focusing on religious ethics. Though the breadth of this work might strike the reader as boundless, herein lies its strength, especially for teachers of Christian ethics. This resource broadens the conversation recently highlighted by Pope Francis in Laudato Si' beyond the Christian perspective on ecology. The Companion models interreligious dialogue, opening to the diverse ways many different religious and spiritual traditions demand action for environmental restoration. [End Page 200]Dannis M. MattesonLoyola University ChicagoCopyright © 2018 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

Concerns that cash payments to people who inject drugs (PWID) to reimburse research participation will facilitate illicit drug purchases have led some ethical authorities to mandate department store/supermarket vouchers as research reimbursement. To examine the relative efficacy of the two forms of reimbursement in engaging PWID in research, clients of two public opioid substitution therapy clinics were invited to participate in a 20–30 min, anonymous and confidential interview about alcohol consumption on two separate occasions, 4 months apart. Under the crossover (...) design, at Time 1, clients of Clinic 1 were offered $A20 cash as reimbursement, while clients of Clinic 2 were offered an $A20 voucher; at Time 2, the form of reimbursement was reversed. Using clinic records to determine the denominator (number of clients dosed), we found that compared with clients offered a voucher, a significantly higher proportion of clients who were offered cash participated in the survey (58% (139/241) vs 74% (186/252); χ2=14.27; p=0.0002). At first participation, respondents most commonly reported planning to purchase food/drinks/groceries (68%), cigarettes (21%) and transport/fuel (11%) with their payments, with those reimbursed in cash more likely to report planning to fund transport/fuel (19% vs 1%; p<.01) and less likely to report planning to purchase food/drinks/groceries (62% vs 76%; p=0.02). Just three out of 155 cash participants reported planning to purchase illicit drugs with their payment. Results demonstrate that modest cash payments enhanced recruitment of this group, an important consideration given the challenges of delineating the parameters of a population defined by illegal activity, seemingly without promoting excessive additional drug use. (shrink)

By the end of World War II, religion appeared to be on the decline throughout the United States and Europe. Recent world events had cast doubt on the relevance of religious belief, and modernizing trends made religious rituals look out of place. It was in this atmosphere that the careers of Scholem, Eliade, and Corbin--the twentieth century's legendary scholars in the respective fields of Judaism, History of Religions, and Islam--converged and ultimately revolutionized how people thought about religion. Between 1949 (...) and 1978, all three lectured to Carl Jung's famous Eranos circle in Ascona, Switzerland, where each in his own way came to identify the symbolism of mystical experience as a central element of his monotheistic tradition. In this, the first book ever to compare the paths taken by these thinkers, Steven Wasserstrom explores how they overturned traditional approaches to studying religion by de-emphasizing law, ritual, and social history and by extolling the role of myth and mysticism. The most controversial aspect of their theory of religion, Wasserstrom argues, is that it minimized the binding character of moral law associated with monotheism.The author focuses on the lectures delivered by Scholem, Eliade, and Corbin to the Eranos participants, but also shows how these scholars generated broader interest in their ideas through radio talks, poetry, novels, short stories, autobiographies, and interviews. He analyzes their conception of religion from a broadly integrated, comparative perspective, sets their distinctive thinking into historical and intellectual context, and interprets the striking success of their approaches. (shrink)

Despite the recent wave of scholarship on intersectionality, as well as a surge in feminist scholarship on Islam in German feminist studies, feminist research has yet to adequately engage with the role of religion in intersectionality. In this article the author draws on the work of the Aktionsbündnis muslimischer Frauen in Germany to explore the possibility for incorporating religion and faith into intersectional frameworks, which requires attention to women of color theorizing in German feminisms, recognition of ways in which (...) religions and forms of secularism have been racialized, and recognition of affective attachment to faith. (shrink)

Azerbaijanis living in the Republic of Azerbaijan and practicing Islam are part of the Muslim world. After gaining independence, our country restored and developed our national-cultural and religious traditions. The great services of the great leader Heydar Aliyev are undeniable in our successes in the field of strengthening these values. As a result of his policies and recommendations, our young people are loyal to their national roots and moral values. These are important factors for Azerbaijani youth to succeed in (...) life and live in peace and tranquility. Also, one of the main directions of Heydar Aliyev's policy was to effectively use universal, worldly values, to combine them with our national-spiritual, religious values and to enrich the spirituality of our people as a whole. His main goal in this way was to properly promote tolerance, our national culture and religious values to the youth of Azerbaijan. Thus, the people of Azerbaijan, besides belonging to the Islamic civilization, also live universal, tolerant and multicultural values. Azerbaijan, which takes the path of democratic, legal and secular state-building and steps confidently towards a bright future in this direction, stands out in the Islamic world for its uniqueness. All this, the preservation of national and moral values, instilling them in the young generation was of special importance, which the National leader duly performed. In order to prevent drug addiction, criminality, immorality, boredom, and moral and spiritual laziness, which have become the scourge of the times, the teaching and propagation of Islam is extremely important, and the work being done in this field in Azerbaijan is a continuation of Heydar Aliyev's policy. The salvation of faith and beliefs, the education of perfect, healthy moral, brave, truth-loving, and fair young people depends on the correct teaching of the Islamic religion, which Heydar Aliyev tried and achieved to some extent during his time in power. (shrink)

The Bush administration's military war on terrorism is a blunt, ineffective, and unjust response to the threat posed to innocent civilians by terrorism. Decentralized terrorist networks can only be effectively fought by international cooperation among police and intelligence agencies representing diverse nation‐states, including ones with predominantly Islamic populations. The Bush administration's allegations of a global Islamist terrorist threat to the national interests of the United States misread the decentralized and complex nature of Islamist politics. Undoubtedly there exists a “combat fundamentalist” (...) element within Islamism. But the threat posed to U.S. citizens by Islamist terrorism neither necessitates nor justifies as a response massive military invasions of other nations. Not only does the Bush administration's war on alleged “terrorist states” violate the doctrine of just war, but in addition these wars arise from a new, unilateral, imperial foreign‐policy doctrine of “preventive wars.” Such a doctrine will isolate the United States from international institutions and long‐standing allies. The weakening of these institutions and alliances will only weaken the ability of the international community to deter terrorism. (shrink)

The question of bias in methodology and terminology is a problem that faces researchers east, west, north and south; however, it faces Third World intellectuals with special keenness. For although they write in a cultural environment that has its own specific conceptual and cultural paradigms, they nevertheless encounter a foreign paradigm which attempts to impose itself upon their society and upon their very imagination and thoughts. When the term “developmental psychology” for instance is used in the West Arab scholars also (...) say “developmental psychology”, when “applied psychology” is mentioned they hurry to use the same term etc. Why not establish a new science with its own mechanisms, methodologies and points of reference to deal with epistemological biases and open up the gate of ijtihad with respect to them? This collection of papers aims to discover some of the biases latent in our terminology, methodologies, research tools, and conceptual principles, and to propose alternative ones marked by a greater degree of independence and neutrality. This is not to belittle the human value of the West’s creative contributions but to emphasize the danger of making it the ultimate point of reference and then trying to continuously play “catch up” with it. (shrink)

This massive volume is a collection of essays on the concept of God in ancient cultures, the Christian tradition, and a selected number of contemporary thinkers, philosophers and otherwise. It also contains a series of studies on specific problems concerning the relationship between God, man, and the world. Among the ancient religious beliefs discussed in the volume, those have been selected by the editor which play a more important role on the contemporary scene, as far as the knowledge of God (...) is concerned. Thus a prominent place is assigned to Asiatic religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, even though the actual influence of some of them has diminished considerably in recent years because of open antireligious policies by the governments of certain countries and a growing secularistic mentality among the people of certain others. The concept of God among the native Africans and in Islam, one of the largest religious bodies in the world, is the subject of two distinct essays, while Judaism is featured in two articles dealing with God in the Biblical-Rabbinic tradition and God in the witness of Israel's election, respectively. (shrink)