ABSTRACT
Sociological studies of Islam and science in the West have developed in the past two decades. This response is positioned in the light of one such study (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/ptr/projects/science-british-muslim-religious-leadership.aspx). It argues that Malik’s work is part of emerging transatlantic networks of learning and authority in Islam and science discourses. It suggests that Muslim leadership is now shifting in favour of informed engagement with science/religion topics, and that Malik’s book both exemplifies this shift, but also addresses an urgent need for scholarship that brings Islamic theological principles into dialogue with modern scientific topics.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a Twelver Shīʿī defence of human evolution. It was written in dialogue with Shoaib Ahmed Malik's, Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghāzālī and the Modern Evolution Paradigm. It synthesises classical Twelver Shīʿī exegesis, hadith, doctrines, and philosophy with contemporary exegesis and scientific thought. Rather than taking the approach of scientific exegesis, it focuses on the origins of the human being in the immaterial realm, and is one of the few Islamic defences of evolution to be hadith-based. It also considers the possible role of hadith as cultural memory.
ABSTRACT
Digital technology has changed individual and communal lives radically, resulting in the emergence of online-based churches. Concerns regarding the nature of online-based churches call for a theological investigation. This article critically examines ongoing debates and argues that: An online-based church should be construed and welcomed from the perspective of theocentrism. As of now, it is worthy to embrace church online rather than an online church until the issues of immersion in worship and gatherings of church members, and problems of online sacraments are resolved. This article highlights the problems surrounding online-based churches, and elaborates ecclesiology in the digital era.