The Umayyad period. The beginnings of sectarianism ; The Khārijites ; The Shīʻtes ; The Murjiʼites and other moderates -- The first wave of Hellenism 750-950. The historical background ; The translators and the first philosophers ; The expansion of Shīʻism ; The Muʻtazilites ; The consolidation of Sunnism ; Al-Ashʻarī -- The second wave of Hellenism 950-1258. The historical background ;The flowering of philosophy ; The vicissitudes of Shīʻism ; The progress of Sunnite theology ; Al-Ghazālī ; Sunnite theology (...) from 1100 to 1250 ; Theology and philosophy in the Islamic west -- The period of darkness. The historical background ; The sclerosis of philosophical theology ; The vitality of the Ḥanbalites ; The transformation of Shīʻism -- The new dawn. The prospect for theology. (shrink)

Originally published in 1967, this Companion is designed to help readers of the Qur’an by giving them necessary background information. An account is given of ideas peculiar to the Qur’an, and the main variant interpretations are noted. A full index of Qur’anic proper names and an index of words commented on has been provided. Based on A J Arberry’s translation, this Companion can be used with other translations, or indeed with the original text, since the verses are numbered.

This is the standard general account in English of Islamic philosophy and theology. It takes the reader from the religio-political sects of the Kharijites and the Shiites through to the assimilation of Greek thought in the medieval period, and onto the early modern period. Watt concludes with an analysis of Western influences on modern Islamic theology.

In this volume, originally published in 1983, W Montgomery Watt looks at the meeting of Christianity and Islam, how they see and have seen each other, and considers how they can aid each other in dealing with the problems of the world today. He emphasizes those beliefs which Christianity and Islam have in common, and shows how they may be justified intellectually.

A study of the struggle and achievement of al-Ghazālī, which examines his life and thought as a whole within the context of the time in which he lived. al-Ghazālī has been acclaimed as the greatest Muslim after Muḥammad, and is certainly one of the greatest. His outlook, too, closer than that of many Muslims to the outlook of modern Europe and America, and will be more easily comprehended today.

Although Dirār b. ʿAmr is the most important mutakallim of the second century, he is unfortunately one of the unjustified names in the history of kalām. Dirâr is a mutakallim whose name is rarely mentioned in theological publications published in both Turkish and foreign languages until recently, and his importance and position are still not noticed. As a matter of fact, Josef van Ess and W. Montgomery Watt, who are famous orientalists, discovered this tragic fact and tried to (...) make up for this deficiency to some extent with their studies. Dirâr wrote a refutation of Aristotle's theory of substance and accident, opened a new way with his understanding of existence based on accidents and led Ash'ari with the theory of kasb and Ebu'l-Huzayl al-‘Allaf with his kalām accumulation. Undoubtedly, one of the things that makes Dirār important is that he had views that went beyond his time and caused him to contradict his contemporaries as early as the second century in terms of the history of Islamic thought. Considering the list of works that have not survived, except for one, in such a period when the mainstream sects were not yet formed and they were on the eve of their formation, Dirār was generally in a critical dialogue with the Islamic and non-Islamic movements he encountered and knew. For this reason, it is almost impossible to place him in any religious sect mentioned in his period. Because he often preferred to follow his own ideas rather than the opinions of others on many issues. Naturally, this makes it difficult to place Dirār in a certain school and frees him from all kinds of bonds. Yes, in the sources we come across many allegations, accusations and slanders that Dirār is a Cahmi/Jabri, he is a Mu‘tazili, he is an innovator with malignant ideas, he is an infidel to put a bounty on his head. Understanding the reasons for these depends on getting to know Dirār, understanding his ideas, and determining his position. If we say in the context of our study, the position of Dirār is actually a state of non-position, and we think that the concept that best expresses this situation in a new interpretation is "nawābit". In the light of our analysis, we see that, with the exception of a name, nawābit is used as a concept with a negative content and connotation in both theology and philosophy. The exceptional person is the famous philosopher Ibn Bājja (Avempace) from Andalusia, the contemporary of Ibn Rushd (Averroes). While Mu‘tazili mutakallims use nawābit to humiliate groups such as Ahl-i hadith and Hashviyye, which adopt the narration-oriented line that puts reason and acumen to the second place, Al-Fārābī also uses the fault types and the sick characters in his virtuous city that he has constructed to describe. Ibn Bājja, on the other hand, considers the people called nawābit within his project to be equivalent to the "mutawahhid" (alone human) whose "precaution" he aims; this usage which corresponds with the context of the concept in the study. Because, in our study, nawābit is not considered as an identity, but as a representation of a character. (shrink)

Makalede İlâhî vahyin insanın ontolojik gerçekliğini göz ardı etmediğini, ontolojik gerçekliği üzerinden insanlara mesaj verdiği konusu ele alınmıştır. Bu durum, rüya ve şeriatlerin farklılığıyla ispat edilmeye, bu fikre temayül gösteren ancak Kur’ân hakkında olumsuz bir argüman olarak kullanan Montgomery Watt gibi müsteşriklere de cevap verilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu yapılırken ilk önce bilinçaltının anlaşılması hususunda bazı örnekler verilmiş sonra rüya sembollerinde baskın olan kültürel unsurlara temas edilmiştir. Rüyalardaki sembollerin şekillenmesinde mantıksal bağı irdeleyen İslam ulemasının açıklamalarına ve rüya tevillerine de yer (...) verilmiştir. Bu yorum ve tevillerden anlaşıldığı kadarıyla insanlarda ortak görülen sembollerin Jung’un arketip, İslam ulemasının ise zihinsel kalıp ve manaların elbisesi dediği bir nevi kültürün kodlarından oluşan bilinçaltı alfabesi tarafından formlaştığı anlaşılmaktadır. Dini değer ve ifadeler Müslüman kültürde en dominant öğeler olduğundan Müslüman yorumcular genelde rüya sembollerini Kur’an ve hadisteki sözler veya bu sembolleri çağrıştıran ifadelerle yorumlamaya çalışmışlardır. Bu mantıktan hareketle tefsirde büyük problem olarak görülen Hz. İbrahim’in, oğlu İsmail’i kurban etme olayı ele alınmış ve nasıl anlaşılmasının gerektiği üzerinde durulmuştur. Bunun, baskın kültür altında sembolleşen bir rüya olduğu ve İsrail Oğullarına ‘Bakar’ kesme emriyle toplumun yanlış algısının değiştirilmesinin amaçlanması gibi çocukların tanrılara kurban edildiği ortamdaki yanlışlığın giderilmesi, kurban ritüelini tebdil edilmesinin amaçlandığı ifade edilmiştir. Daha sonra şeriat-ontolojik gerçeklik ilişkisi irdelenmiş, dinde bütün insanların ortak fıtratının esas alındığı ve bundan dolayı dinin bütün insanlar için değişmeyen bir olgu, şeriatlerin ise kültürün baskın olduğu ve dolayısıyla bir yönüyle ilişki içinde olduğu toplumsal bilinçaltı olduğu vurgulanmıştır. Kur’ân’da, dinin temel prensipleri ve resullerin üzerine birleştikleri kapsamlı şeriat kanunları dile getirilmiştir. Genel hatlarıyla din, Allah’ın varlıkları üzerine yarattığı (insanın tabiatının kolektif değişmezliğine dayalı) ve bütün mahlûkata sevimli geleni, marufu emretmeyi, münkerden nehyi, temiz şeyleri helal eden, zararlı olan şeyleri haramı eden emirleri içermektedir. İslam ulemasına göre bütün semavi dinlerde esas olan Allah’a, meleklerine, resullerine, kitaplarına ve ahiret gününe iman etmek, insanın yaptığı takdirde Müslüman olacağı fiilleri işlemektir. Bu iman da doğal olarak dünyadan yüz çevirmeyi, ahirete yönelmeyi, güzel ahlakı edinmeyi ve kötü ahlaktan da kaçınmayı gerektirir. Ancak şeriatlar ise birbirinden farklılık gösterebilir. Çünkü şeriatlar dinin indiği toplumun hallerini ve maslahatlarını esas aldığından değişiklik arz eder. Şeriatların farklılaşmasında toplumsal bilinçaltının göz ardı edilmediğini göstermek bağlamında Kur’ân’dan örnekler verilmek suretiyle savunulan tez ispat edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Bunlardan birisi, Kur’ân’da Arapların ortak duygularının esas alınması, kültürel bazı unsurların kullanılması, bir diğeri de yabancı isimlerin Arapların ifade ettiği şekliyle, ümmi anlayışa uygun kullanılmasıdır. Ayrıca bu konuda bazı helal yiyeceklerin Yahudilere haram kılınması ve diğer şeriatlerde yer alan bazı farklılıklar üzerinde durulmuştur. Helal yiyeceklerin haram kılınması konusunda Hz. Yakub’un yakalandığı ağır hastalıktan iyileştiği takdirde sevdiği yiyecekleri yememeyi nezretmesi, buna bağlı olarak iyileşince deve eti ve sütünü yiyip içmemesi, daha sonra çocukları ve ümmetinin de bu yiyeceklerden uzak durması sonucunda Tevrat’ta bunların haram kılınması örneği üzerinde durulmuştur. Bu örnek, şeriatlerin farklılaşmasının nedeninin bir şeye karşı tavrın toplumsal bir alışkanlık halini almasının sonucu olduğu ifade edilmiştir. Nitekim teravih namazının Müslümanlarca toplu kılınması ve buna devam edilmesi durumunda farz kılınır endişesiyle evlerinde kılmalarını tavsiye eden Allah Resulünün endişesinin de bunu pekiştirdiği dile getirilmiştir. Diğer şeriatlerde bazı farklılıklar konusunda ise orucun öncekilere farz kılınmasına rağmen keyfiyetinin farklı olması üzerinde durulmuştur. Aynı şekilde namaz, zekât ve haccın semavî dinlerinin hepsinde olmasına rağmen keyfiyetinin değiştiği örneklerle izah edilmiştir. Bu doğrultuda milletlerin yaşam tarzlarının ve kültürünün dolayısıyla toplumsal bilinçaltı şeriatlerin farklılığında gözönüne alındığı ifade edilmiştir. Nitekim İsâ peygambere tabi olanların kendilerine emredilmemekle birlikte Allah’ın rızasını elde etmek için ruhbanlığı kendilerine farz kılmaları ve buna devam etmeleri karşısında Allah’ın buna itibar ederek, ruhbanlıkta bulunanlara ücretlerini verdiğini ifade etmesi de bu durumu pekiştirmektedir. Sonuç olarak din ve dine taalluk eden her şeyin insanlığın ortak fıtratını esas aldığını, şeriatten şeriate değişiklik gösteren unsurların da kültürel ve bir yönüyle toplumsal bilinçaltıyla ilgili olan hususlar olduğu ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. (shrink)

* A selection of key writings on the problem of war and peace* Introduces students to general issues in ethics and moral theology. * Key contributors from around the world.This reader samples a wide range of modern moral and religious discussions on the subject of war and peace. In addition to providing material on pacifism, the just war debate, the nuclear option, genocide, and the concept of a holy war, it introduces students to general issues in ethics and moral theology, (...) using the morality of war as a powerful and pertinent worked example.Contributors include Elizabeth Anscombe, George Bell, Charles Curran, Y. Harkabi, Richard Harries, Stanley Hauerwas, Paul Ramsey, W. Montgomery Watt, Rowan Williams. (shrink)

Health services internationally struggle to ensure health care is “person-centered” (or similar). In part, this is because there are many interpretations of “person-centered care” (and near synonyms), some of which seem unrealistic for some patients or situations and obscure the intrinsic value of patients’ experiences of health care delivery. The general concern behind calls for person-centered care is an ethical one: Patients should be “treated as persons.” We made novel use of insights from the capabilities approach to characterize person-centered care (...) as care that recognizes and cultivates the capabilities associated with the concept of persons. This characterization unifies key features from previous characterisations and can render person-centered care applicable to diverse patients and situations. By tying person-centered care to intrinsically valuable capability outcomes, it incorporates a requirement for responsiveness to individuals and explains why person-centered care is required independently of any contribution it may make to health gain. (shrink)

This volume focuses on the interrelatedness of morality and language. Apart from explicit ethical statements, implicit NT moral language is analysed in three overlapping aspects based on the interpretation of concrete NT texts: an intratextual level (linguistic and analytic philosophical methods: syntactical form, style and logic), an textual and intertextual level (form criticism, discourse analysis) and an extratextual level (speech act analysis; rhetoric; reader-response criticism). With reference to analytical moral philosophy, the contributions address questions such as: Where does the ethical (...) quality of a statement come from? Which linguistic devices are used to express ethics in the NT writings? In which way does the genre of the text influence its ethical meaning? Which pre- and intertexts are part of the ethical statements, in which way does the text refer to them? Which ethical impact did and do texts have on their readers? Which linguistic and rhetorical style is used to meet the addressees? Why do we consider a text powerful or polemic? Can we speak of an implicit ethical subject in the text from a literary perspective? (shrink)

Narrative analysis is well established as a means of examining the subjective experience of those who suffer chronic illness and cancer. In a study of perceptions of the outcomes of treatment of cancer of the colon, we have been struck by the consistency with which patients record three particular observations of their subjective experience: the immediate impact of the cancer diagnosis and a persisting identification as a cancer patient, regardless of the time since treatment and of the presence or absence (...) of persistent or recurrent disease; a state of variable alienation from social familiars, expressed as an inability to communicate the nature of the experience of the illness, its diagnosis and treatment; and a persistent sense of boundedness, an awareness of limits to space, empowerment and available time. These subjectivities were experienced in varying degree by all patients in our study. Individual responses to these experiences were complex and variable. The experiences are best understood under the rubric of a category we call “liminality”. We believe that all cancer patients enter and experience liminality as a process which begins with the first manifestations of their malignancy. An initial acute phase of liminality is marked by disorientation, a sense of loss and of loss of control, and a sense of uncertainty. An adaptive, enduring phase of suspended liminality supervenes, in which each patient constructs and reconstructs meaning for their experience by means of narrative. This phase persists, probably for the rest of the cancer patient’s life. The experience of liminality is firmly grounded in the changing and experiencing body that houses both the disease and the self. Insights into the nature of the experience can be gained from the Existentialist philosophers and from the history of attitudes to death. Understanding liminality helps us to understand what it is that patients with cancer seek from the system to which they turn for help. Its explication should therefore be important for those who provide health care, those who educate health care workers and those concerned to study and use outcomes as administrative and policy making instruments. (shrink)

Should there be a female age limit on public funding for assisted reproductive technology (ART)? The question bears significant economic and sociopolitical implications and has been contentious in many countries. We conceptualise the question as one of justice in resource allocation, using three much-debated substantive principles of justice—the capacity to benefit, personal responsibility, and need—to structure and then explore a complex of arguments. Capacity-to-benefit arguments are not decisive: There are no clear cost-effectiveness grounds to restrict funding to those older women (...) who still bear some capacity to benefit from ART. Personal responsibility arguments are challenged by structural determinants of delayed motherhood. Nor are need arguments decisive: They can speak either for or against a female age limit, depending on the conception of need used. We demonstrate how these principles can differ not only in content but also in the relative importance they are accorded by governments. Wide variation in ART public funding policy might be better understood in this light. We conclude with some inter-country comparison. New Zealand and Swedish policies are uncommonly transparent and thus demonstrate particularly well how the arguments we explore have been put into practice. (shrink)

Before daybreak on 23 November 57 B.C., about 11 weeks after his return from exile, Cicero wrote to Atticus and recorded for him, in diary form, events at Rome between 3 November and the date of writing. Clodius and his gangs were still causing trouble on the streets, interfering with the rebuilding of Cicero's house on the Palatine, and even molesting Cicero himself. Clodius was a candidate for the curule aedileship; if he were elected, he would succeed in evading the (...) accusation for vis which had been brought against him by Milo; he therefore made full use of his gangs to intimidate Rome and thus accelerate the elections. He was supported in this manœuvre by the consul Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos, who planned to hold the comitia by surprise; this plan, however, was being thwarted by the tribune Milo, who was ready to use his power of obnuntiatio to prevent the elections being held. (shrink)

By far the best edition is that of L. D. Reynolds . Other modern editions referred to are those of W. C. Summers ; R. M. Gummere ; F. Préchac et H. Noblot.

It is not my purpose to discuss the authorship of this work; I shall only say that I do not believe it was written by Quintus Cicero. The question of authorship cannot be brought into a discussion of the problems raised by the text, because, even if it were the product of Quintus' pen, it would obviously be unjustified to apply to Quintus the same canons of Latinity as can be applied to his brother.