In recent years, a constellation of philosophers and theologians upset the approach of Islam, testifying to an extremely daring critical spirit. Overview of these Egyptian, Iranian and Turkish thinkers with the historian Constance Arminjon Hachem.
Interview by Youness Bousenna
The refoundation work started by the proponents of a “new theology” in Islam remains relatively unknown in France. Constance Arminjon Hachem looked closely at the intellectual bubbling that this expression designates, used in particular by the thinkers who claimed, which found its origin in the 1990s in Egypt, Iran and, to a lesser extent, in Turkey .
Arabic -speaking and Persian -speaking, this mistress of conferences in contemporary Islam at the Practical School of High Studies (EPHE) is a specialist in the history of Islamic thought and religious institutions of contemporary Islam. She notably published Chiism and State. Clerks with the test of modernity (CNRS Editions, 2013), Human Rights in Islam Shi’ite. Confluences and partition line (Cerf, 2017) and a brief history of political thought in contemporary Islam (Labor and Fides, 2017). His latest work, towards a new theology in Islam (CNRS Editions, 384 pages, 26 euros), comes from his authorization to direct research, supported in 2020 at the Ephe.
traditionally, that covers The field of theology in Islam?
Constance Arminjon Hachem. As in all religious traditions, theology has for God. In Islam, it constitutes one of the disciplines of religious knowledge alongside Koranic exegesis (Tafsîr), learned law (fiqh), foundations of learned law (Usûl al-fiqh), political theology and, finally, knowledge of the Arabic language and rhetoric.
Theology has institutionalized from the ix e denth century. It deals with the reasons and conditions of faith, the content of dogmas, such as that of the uniqueness of God or the divine nature of the Koran, and the relationship between Islam and other religions.
Until the boom of thinkers of “new theology” in the 1990s, contemporary theology had remained relatively motionless since the end of the 18th century e century, fulfilling functions identical to those assumed to previous times: expose dogmas by trying to demonstrate them rationally, while having an apologetic aim. It was in particular a question of refuting the new features – including modern scientific currents, such as Darwinism – and of proving the superiority of Islam over other religions in the face of European and American missionaries.
In what context Has this “new theology” emerged?
The intellectual renewal emerged from the confluence of several trajectories. It is first of all the fruit of long changes within the history of educational institutions in the Muslim world. He first experienced considerable transformations with the creation of universities at the beginning of the XX th century – in Istanbul (Turkey) in 1900, in Cairo (Egypt) in 1925, in Tehran ( Iran) in 1934.
You have 76.81% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.