Engaging With Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

Too often interfaith dialogue is generic and unfocused. Often it involves 'liberals' from each tradition coming together to criticize the 'conservatives' in their own traditions. This book provides a model for interfaith dialogue that challenges very directly the 'dialogue industry'. This book involves a Christian theologian in deep conversation with a Muslim theologian. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) was born at the end of the Ottoman Empire and lived through the emergence of an aggressive secular state. He had to think through, in remarkably creative ways, the challenge of faith within a secular environment, the relationship of faith and politics, and the implications and challenge of diversity and difference. His entire project is captured in his magnum opus 'The Risale-i Nur'. In the first eight chapters of this book, we engage closely with the thought of Nursi and tease out insights that Christians can learn from and accommodate. Having established the method, the second section of the book examines the precise implications for the interfaith movement. The problem with the interfaith movement is that it is an act of western cultural imperialism - they are taking the individualist assumptions of modern America and imposing them on the conversation. The problems with John Hick's and Leonard Swidler's approach are exposed. Moving out from Islam, the book then demonstrates how the model of interfaith changes when Christians are in conversation with Hinduism in India. A new set of Dialogue Ten Commandments are suggested. The book concludes with an appeal for a commitment to include and reach the 'conservatives' in the major religious traditions.

Contemporary Islamic theology remains a neglected area in studies on Islam. This work is dedicated to the thought and ideas of Said Nursi (1876–1960), one of the most prominent Muslim theologians of the twentieth century. Nursi inspired a faith movement—the Nur community—that originated in Turkey. It continues to play a key role in the revival of Islam and now numbers several millions of followers worldwide. His legacy and impact deserve therefore to be examined more closely. This volume is the most substantial overview in English of the inspiration of Said Nursi and his masterpiece the Risale-i Nur. In the beginning, the essays provide the reader with Nursi’s historical context and biography. Then Nursi’s theological views, his understanding of society, and ideas on politics are placed under the spotlight. Over the last twenty years, more and more comparative religion specialists in the West have become acquainted with Said Nursi. Nursi studies is now an established discipline, and this volume is a celebration of that reality. As it reveals, Muslims and Christians are grappling with the wisdom of this remarkable, rich thinker.

Contemporary Islamic thinkers are often studied sociologically rather than as theologians. There are many accessible introductions to Christian theologians, but very few such studies of Islamic thinkers. This book, and this series, seeks to change this situation: offering new introductions to influential Islamic thinkers and engaging, at the level of ideas, with the rich depths of contemporary Islamic theology. This book introduces to the English-speaking world the leading modern Islamic thinker Said Nursi (1878-1960) - who has some nine million followers in modern day Turkey and around the world. After an opening chapter that provides an overview of his life, the next four chapters outline the theology of Nursi on God, the Qur'an, the West and Politics. The final section provides an invaluable resource of readings from Nursi's most important writings. Providing an introduction to a major form of Islam which is committed to non-violence, dialogue and constructive relationships with the West, this is the first student textbook to introduce a contemporary Islamic theologian in a systematic way.

This ground-breaking book challenges readers to rethink the dividebetween liberal and orthodox approaches which characterisesChristianity today. Provides an alternative to the liberal / orthodox divide incontemporary Christianity. Defends Christianity’s engagement with non-Christiantraditions. Includes important discussion of theological method. Illustrated with case studies involving human rights,interfaith tolerance, economics, and ethics.

Understanding the Qurʾanic Miracle Stories in the Modern Age explores the ways in which meaningful implications have been drawn from stories of miracles in the Qurʾan. Isra Yazicioglu describes the fascinating medieval Muslim debate over miracles and connects its insights with early and late modern turning points in Western thought and with contemporary Qurʾanic interpretation. Building on an apparent tension within the Qurʾan and analyzing crucial cases of classical and modern Muslim engagement with these miracle stories, she illustrates how an apparent site of conflict between faith and reason, or revelation and science, can lead to fruitful exchange. A distinctive contribution to a new trend in Qurʾanic studies, this volume reveals the presence of insightful Qurʾanic interpretation outside of the traditional line-by-line commentary genre, engaging with the works of Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, and Said Nursi. Scholars of Islam, philosophy, and the intersection of science and religion will especially want to engage with Yazicioglu’s study.

This book gleans classical and contemporary Islamic theology on the central tenets of God in Islam in directly addressing theological challenges facing Islam today. It presents a new theological framework and drives prime essential of Islamic theology in its attempting to prove the existence, oneness, and relatability of God.

What is the Gulen Movement and why is Turkey's President Erdogan so convinced that the organisation and its charismatic leader were behind the failed military coup of 15th July 2016? The Gulen, or Hizmet, movement in Turkey was until recently the country's most powerful and affluent religious organisation. At its head is the exiled Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who leads from a gated compound in the Pocono Mountains of the USA.The movement's central tenet is that Muslims should engage positively with modernity, especially through mastering the sciences. At hundreds of Gulen-run schools and universities, not only in Turkey but also worldwide and particularly in the United States, instructors have cultivated the next generation of Muslim bankers, biologists, software engineers and entrepreneurs. In this groundbreaking study, Caroline Tee, an expert on the Gulen Movement, analyses the complex attitudes of Gulen and his followers towards secular modernity. Considered against the backdrop of Turkish politics, Gulenist engagement with modern science is revealed as a key source of the influence the movement has exerted.

Abbot Timothy Wright proposes sowing a small seed from which might grow a greater respect between the world's two largest religions, Christianity and Islam. Indeed, he believes that the seed has already been planted. Christians give unique value to their revealed Scriptures as the "Word of God." Muslims speak of the Qur'an as God speaking to them. In No Peace without Prayer, Wright presents the case for developing this faith in the Word of God to establish groups of Christians and Muslims dedicated to sharing their respective "Divine Word" in ways that enhance the "other." This is not a tussle for converts but a way into greater mutual understanding-under the eye of the God who communicates this Word-to create a new shared memory. Such is a work of prayer, a prayer that could lead to greater peace. The key word, says Wright, is partnership, arising from their shared belief in the One God, creator of the universe, communicating with the human world and merciful to the repentant.