Skip to content
Home/ Philosophy of the Kalam
Philosophy of the Kalam
Save Ask us

Philosophy of the Kalam

by Harry Austryn Wolfson
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780674665804 Harvard University Press
Published
Jan 1976
Language
English
Size
8.75 × 1.7 × 6 in
$249.78
In stock
Most orders arrive within 3 weeks. Shipping policy
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery over $35 · 15-day returns

Condition

Brand New

An unread, unused copy: no writing or highlighting, and no missing or damaged pages. Every book we sell is brand new, including our lowest-priced titles.

About this book

Harry Wolfson was renowned throughout the world for the depth, scope, and wisdom of his monumental volumes on the structure and growth of philosophic systems from Plato to Spinoza. It was not only his extraordinary erudition that commanded respect, his awesome mastery of all the primary sources, Greek, Christian, Judaic, and Muslim; it was also his penetrating insight and his original and groundbreaking interpretations.


In this long-awaited volume, on which he worked for twenty years, Wolfson describes the body of doctrine known as the Kalam. Kalam, an Arabic term meaning "speech" and hence "discussion," was applied to early attempts in Islam to adduce philosophic proofs for religious beliefs. It later came to designate a system of religious philosophy which reached its highest point in the eleventh century; the masters of Kalam, known as Mutakallimum, were in many respects the Muslim equivalent of the Christian Church Fathers. Wolfson studies the Kalam systematically, unfolding its philosophic origins and implications and observing its repercussions in other religions. He scrutinizes the texts of Muslim writers for their treatment of such crucial problems as the attributes of God, the Creation, causality, predestination and free will. In the process he shows how the teachings of the Koran were constantly interwoven with ideas from Greek and Oriental philosophies, Judaism, and Christianity as Islamic thought developed.


As lucidly written and intellectually stimulating as all the author's earlier books, this volume is a fitting capstone to a notable career.

Specifications

PublisherHarvard University Press
PublishedJan 1, 1976
ISBN-100674665805
ISBN-139780674665804
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions8.75 × 1.7 × 6 in
Weight3 lb

Buying from Saanjhi

  • Ships from the USA. Delivery to US addresses only.
  • Free delivery on orders over $35.
  • 15-day returns. Unless we send the wrong book or it arrives damaged, you pay return shipping and a 15% restocking fee.
  • Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Islam - General
See all
Red, White, and Muslim: My Story of Belief
Hasan, Asma Gull
$11.39
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan
$12.08
Islam: The Religion and the People (Paperback)
Lewis, Bernard
$15.54
Bachar Houli: Faith, Football and Family
Houli, Bachar
$18.32
Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy
Gerges, Fawaz A
$14.31
Overcoming Orientalism: Essays in Honor of John L. Esposito
Orientalism is the term applied to scholarship that reduces Islam and Muslims to stereotypes of ignorance and violence in need of foreign control. It has been used to rationalize Europe's colonial domination of most of the Muslim world and continued American-led interventions in the post-colonial period. In the past 30 years it has been represented by claims that a monolithic Islam and equally monolithic West are distinct civilizations, sharing nothing in common and, indeed, involved in an inevitable "clash" from which only one can emerge the winner. Most recently, it has appeared in Alt Right rhetoric. Anti-Muslim sentiment, measured in public opinion polls, hate crime statistics, and legislation, is reaching record levels. <p/>Since John Esposito published his first book nearly 40 years ago, he has been guiding readers beyond such politically charged stereotypes. The essays in this volume highlight the contributions of scholars from a variety of disciplines who, like -- and often inspired by -- John Esposito, recognize the misleading and politically dangerous nature of Orientalist polarizations. They present Islam as a multi-faceted and dynamic tradition embraced by communities in globally interconnected but substantially diverse contexts over the centuries. The contributors follow Esposito's lead, stressing the profound commonalities among religions and replacing Orientalist discourse with holistic analyses of the complex historical phenomena that affect developments in all societies. In addition to chapters focusing on diversity among Muslims and interfaith relations, this collection includes chapters assessing the secular bias at the root of Orientalist scholarship, and contemporary iterations of Orientalism in the form of Islamophobia.
$153.92