Beyond Foundationalism
New Horizons in Muslim Analytical Theology
The project examines meta-epistemology, the justification of knowledge, in the kalām tradition, including foundationalism and its alternatives, and will put it into conversation with contemporary analytic philosophy and theology.
We explore the following questions: how do historical and contemporary Sunnī kalām epistemologies approach the question of foundations? To what extent is recent theistic philosophical theology a useful model for Muslim theologians? And which contemporary philosophical approaches to meta-epistemology are most fruitful in advancing a philosophical theology responsive to the particularities of the Muslim tradition?
The aim is to gauge the adequacy of the dominant Muslim theological approach to epistemology as well as to assist the development of contemporary philosophical theology, or kalām jadīd, on this important question.
PROJECT LEADER: Dr Ramon Harvey
Dr Harvey is the Aziz Foundation Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Ebrahim College in London and lectures on the BA in Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College. He received his MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from SOAS, University of London. His research interests are in Qur’anic studies, Islamic theology and ethics, working from both historical and constructive theological angles. He is currently engaged in a long-term project to develop contemporary Muslim philosophical theology, or kalām jadīd, drawing especially on the Māturīdī school. Ramon’s first book, The Qur’an and the Just Society (2018), and his second one, Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology (2021), are published by Edinburgh University Press. He is also the editor of a new series for the press: Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology.
Shahanaz Begum
Project Officer
Shahanaz is currently studying for a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, with a focus on Islamic legal theory. Prior to this, Shahanaz completed her MA in Islamic Studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She undertook further studies after studying at Ebrahim College, a Muslim seminary based in London, where she completed the traditional Alimiyyah programme. Shahanaz has also worked in public policy and strategy delivering on agendas such as community cohesion, and gender and faith equality in both a local and a national context. She continues to take an active role through various voluntary activities, as well as teaching in a community context.
Safaruk Chowdhury
Project Researcher
Safaruk studied Philosophy at Kings College London completing it with the accompanying Associate of Kings College (AKC) award. He then travelled to Cairo studying the traditional Islamic Studies curricula at al-Azhar University. He returned to the UK to complete His MA at the School of Oriental and African studies with distinction. His doctoral dissertation was on the eminent Sufi hagiographer and theoretician Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 412/1021) published as A Sufi Apologist of Nishapur: The Life and Thought of Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2019). Safaruk’s research interests in addition to Sufism at the moment are in paraconsistent logic, metaphysics, ethics and epistemology with keen interest in how these subjects were all utilised for clarifying and explicating Islamic theological doctrine – especially within kalam theology. His forthcoming book is entitled Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil (New York and Cairo: AUC Press) which is the first work in Islamic studies to treat the topic within the analytic theology approach.
Dr Ramon Harvey
Project Leader
Dr Harvey is the Aziz Foundation Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Ebrahim College in London and lectures on the BA in Islamic Studies at Cambridge Muslim College. He received his MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from SOAS, University of London. His research interests are in Qur’anic studies, Islamic theology and ethics, working from both historical and constructive theological angles. He is currently engaged in a long-term project to develop contemporary Muslim philosophical theology, or kalām jadīd, drawing especially on the Māturīdī school. Ramon’s first book, The Qur’an and the Just Society (2018), and his second one, Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology (2021), are published by Edinburgh University Press. He is also the editor of a new series for the press: Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology.
EVENTS:
The project will organise three main events: two workshops and one international symposium.
The first workshop will bring together historians working on the kalām tradition and related subjects, such as Islamic philosophy, as well as traditionally trained Muslim theologians, to discuss premodern approaches to epistemology.
The second workshop will also engage scholars of the Christian and Jewish theological traditions on the question.
The international symposium will continue the deliberations of the two workshops and broaden the conversation into the field of contemporary analytic philosophy.
PUBLICATIONS:
During the project, Dr Harvey will produce a monograph that significantly touches on the project’s theme, as well as a relevant journal article.
Dr Chowdhury will produce a monograph focused on the project’s theme, as well as two relevant journal articles.
Additionally, Dr Harvey and Dr Chowdhury will edit a collected volume with chapters drawn from the project’s events.
LINKS:
The project can be followed on Twitter: [twitter link]