NEW COURSE: Islam & Modernity (open to the public)

ISLAM & MODERNITY:

a nine-week introductory course

(Sunday, February 14 – Sunday, April 11, 2010)

with Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti

2008-2010 York-Noor Fellow in Islamic Studies

2007-2008 York-Noor Chair of Islamic Studies

Course Location & Meeting Days/Times

Noor Cultural Centre, Sundays, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Contact Noor Cultural Centre for Registration Details

COURSE DESCRIPTION

What is Islam? What is modernity? What does one have to do with the other? What are the principal ways in which Muslim thinkers and activists have responded (and continue to respond) to the challenges presented by modernity and by an international order founded upon secularism and modernism? What has been the experience of different Muslim communities and intellectuals (specifically those in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia) as they have responded to the particular challenges posed by colonization, westernization, modernization, and globalization? In pursuing these and other questions, we will highlight the perspectives of Muslim thinkers, activists, movements, and communities from the current and past three centuries, which have witnessed and continue to witness many kinds of Islamic reform, renewal and revolution in the wake of Western political and cultural domination. We will also explore Muslim voices in Europe and North America and track new trajectories of renewal and reform in the West, where Muslims live as small but increasingly significant minority communities.

PART ONE: THE ENLIGHTENMENT & MODERNITY

♦ February 14

What exactly was the Enlightenment? The “Revolution” of the Enlightenment in Europe and its consequences; Unpacking the Worldviews of Tradition vs. Modernity: a taste of things to come… Contrasting the respective relationships of Tradition and Modernity to Time, Economics, Knowledge…

♦ February 21

The “Discontinuities” [or radical historical changes] brought about by Modernity; The Pace of Change / the Scope of Change / Modern Institutions;

♦ February 28

How does Modernity reshape society and human interaction? “Post-modernity”? Is modernity a quintessentially Western project? Is it the inescapable doom of all traditional ways of life? How?

PART TWO: RELIGION AND MODERNITY

Secularism; Judaism and Christianity in the Modern World

♦ March 7

The challenges and changes Modernity forces upon traditional religion: How the Enlightenment and Modernity have influenced Christian and Jewish Theology and Community Dynamics

PART THREE: ISLAM AND THE MODERN AGE

♦ March 14

While the industrial revolution and the “age of the Enlightenment” were taking off in Europe and America… European Colonialism and the corresponding “Qur’ānic” crisis of the 18th and 19^th Centuries within the Islamic world… Religio-political calls for renewal and reform

Islam and the Nation-State: unique challenges and sticky issues

♦ March 21

Going back to go forward: How do 18^th & 19^th century Muslim thinkers draw upon the classical Islamic tradition to counter the onslaught of European hegemony? How can they be seen to be adapting to Modernity and the Enlightenment? How do they define the fundamental problem for the Islamic world? Who is to blame for the current state of the Islamic world?

♦ March 28

Islam & Nationalism; Islam & Socialism. Are such couplings compatible?

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Islam and Secularism (?); What is the difference between the modern conception of knowledge and the traditional Islamic conception of knowledge? Can there be such a thing as “Islamic” knowledge and/or science?

♦ April 4

Islam and Social Change: should modernity change Islam or should Islam change the modern world? Can we separate the outward form from the inward spirit of the religion? Can Islamic Law adapt? Should it adapt? How can it change if it is Divinely revealed for all cultures and all times? Women and their changing rights/roles within society… must their religious roles also change?

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♦ April 11

Islam and the West: A clash of civilizations? Can Western influence be stopped or even contained? Should it be stopped?

Islam and Democracy: are they compatible? Is Democracy the cure-all for the traditional, Muslim world?

Ethnicity, Nationalism, Pluralism, and Religion: what does Muslim identity mean within a globalized world? Final thoughts and questions...