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Negotiating the Boundaries between Religion and Science in the Abbasid Empire

  • Dietrich Jung
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Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations

Abstract

This article argues against the still deeply intrenched assumption that the origin of modernity lies exclusively in the so-called West. It puts a theoretical framework of global modernity into the context of multiple secularities, and empirically illustrates this framework through its application to the life and work of the Islamic thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111). In his Deliverance from Error, Ghazali provides an autobiographical account of his epistemological skepticism and his search for truth. I interpret Ghazali’s text as a premodern boundary negotiation between religion and science within the historical context of the so-called Islamic Golden Age of Science. Taking Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation as my language of observation, I translate Ghazali’s thought into a testimony to the emergence of modern epistemic differentiations between systems of scientific and religious communications.

Abstract

This article argues against the still deeply intrenched assumption that the origin of modernity lies exclusively in the so-called West. It puts a theoretical framework of global modernity into the context of multiple secularities, and empirically illustrates this framework through its application to the life and work of the Islamic thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111). In his Deliverance from Error, Ghazali provides an autobiographical account of his epistemological skepticism and his search for truth. I interpret Ghazali’s text as a premodern boundary negotiation between religion and science within the historical context of the so-called Islamic Golden Age of Science. Taking Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation as my language of observation, I translate Ghazali’s thought into a testimony to the emergence of modern epistemic differentiations between systems of scientific and religious communications.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I Premodern Boundary Negotiations: Self-Distinctions of the Religious Sphere
  5. Dynamics of Differentiation from Charlemagne to Dante. Medieval Christian Debates on Religion and Politics beyond the Model of a “Separation of Church and State” 15
  6. Secularity and Differentiation in Late Antiquity. The Case of Augustine of Hippo 51
  7. Monasticism, Differentiation and Secularization: Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘Monastic Movement’ in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 79
  8. Negotiating the Boundaries between Religion and Science in the Abbasid Empire 105
  9. Religious and Secular in Premodern Islam and Christianity 125
  10. Part II Colonial Boundaries: Religion, Culture, and “Middle Things”
  11. King, Messiah, and Culture in the Making of Zulu Secularity 157
  12. The “Middle Things”. Differentiating between the Religious Spheres in Indian and African Mission Contexts in the Nineteenth Century 189
  13. Beyond Non-Catholic/Catholic (Luong/Giao) Separation: Missionary Expansion and Divergent Manifestations of Religious Differentiation in Colonial Vietnam 213
  14. Part III Competing Epistemes: Lessons Learned From Asia
  15. The Autonomy of Science vis-a-vis Religion: Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome as a Theoretical Counter-Narrative to the Western Master Narrative of Functional Differentiation 239
  16. Global Translations: Conceptualizing Differentiations Between ‘Religion’ and ‘Science’ in Thailand and the Philippines in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 271
  17. Demarcating Religion: On the Varying Ways of Conceptualizing Social Differentiation in Japanese History 301
  18. Rethinking the Place of Religion and Worldviews in Differentiation Theory: A Historical Comparison between Chinese and European Societies 329
  19. Part IV Programmatic Proposals: Differentiation Theory and the Sociology of Religion and Secularity
  20. The Fragmentation of the Sacred: An Alternative Narrative of Western Modernity 359
  21. Rigid Differentiation Theory and Flexible Sociology of Religion? 379
  22. After Autonomy. Relationships between Art and Religion in Nineteenth Century Germany and their Implications for Differentiation Theory 407
  23. Beyond Normative Binaries: Neutral Zones as Precursors and Starting Points of Secularity 437
  24. The Authors 467
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111386645-005

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I Premodern Boundary Negotiations: Self-Distinctions of the Religious Sphere
  5. Dynamics of Differentiation from Charlemagne to Dante. Medieval Christian Debates on Religion and Politics beyond the Model of a “Separation of Church and State” 15
  6. Secularity and Differentiation in Late Antiquity. The Case of Augustine of Hippo 51
  7. Monasticism, Differentiation and Secularization: Talcott Parsons and the Catholic ‘Monastic Movement’ in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 79
  8. Negotiating the Boundaries between Religion and Science in the Abbasid Empire 105
  9. Religious and Secular in Premodern Islam and Christianity 125
  10. Part II Colonial Boundaries: Religion, Culture, and “Middle Things”
  11. King, Messiah, and Culture in the Making of Zulu Secularity 157
  12. The “Middle Things”. Differentiating between the Religious Spheres in Indian and African Mission Contexts in the Nineteenth Century 189
  13. Beyond Non-Catholic/Catholic (Luong/Giao) Separation: Missionary Expansion and Divergent Manifestations of Religious Differentiation in Colonial Vietnam 213
  14. Part III Competing Epistemes: Lessons Learned From Asia
  15. The Autonomy of Science vis-a-vis Religion: Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome as a Theoretical Counter-Narrative to the Western Master Narrative of Functional Differentiation 239
  16. Global Translations: Conceptualizing Differentiations Between ‘Religion’ and ‘Science’ in Thailand and the Philippines in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 271
  17. Demarcating Religion: On the Varying Ways of Conceptualizing Social Differentiation in Japanese History 301
  18. Rethinking the Place of Religion and Worldviews in Differentiation Theory: A Historical Comparison between Chinese and European Societies 329
  19. Part IV Programmatic Proposals: Differentiation Theory and the Sociology of Religion and Secularity
  20. The Fragmentation of the Sacred: An Alternative Narrative of Western Modernity 359
  21. Rigid Differentiation Theory and Flexible Sociology of Religion? 379
  22. After Autonomy. Relationships between Art and Religion in Nineteenth Century Germany and their Implications for Differentiation Theory 407
  23. Beyond Normative Binaries: Neutral Zones as Precursors and Starting Points of Secularity 437
  24. The Authors 467
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Heruntergeladen am 19.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111386645-005/html?lang=de
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