Carl W Ernst

Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism Carl W Ernst

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Also avail. in paper. Publisher Marketing: Rethinking Islamic Studies upends scholarly roadblocks in post-Orientalist discourse within contemporary Islamic studies and carves fresh inroads toward a robust new understanding of the discipline, one that includes religious studies and other politically infused fields of inquiry. Editors Carl W. Ernst and Richard C. Martin, along with a distinguished group of scholars, map the trajectory of the study of Islam and offer innovative approaches to the theoretical and methodological frameworks that have traditionally dominated the field. In the volume's first section, the contributors reexamine the underlying notions of modernity in the East and West and allow for the possibility of multiple and incongruent modernities. This opens a discussion of fundamentalism as a manifestation of the tensions of modernity on Muslim cultures. The second section addresses the volatile character of Islamic religious identity as expressed in religious and political movements at national and local levels. In the third section, contributors focus on Muslim communities in Asia and examine the formation of religious models and concepts as they appear in this region. This study concludes with an afterword by accomplished Islamic studies scholar Bruce B. Lawrence reflecting on the evolution of this post-Orientalist approach to Islam and placing the volume within existing and emerging scholarship. Review Citations:

Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2010 pg. 16 (EAN 9781570038938, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Ernst, Carl W Carl W. Ernst is W. R. Kenan Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he maintains the website www.unc.edu/ cernst/islam.htm, which provides up-to-date links to resources for learning about Islam. Ernst is author of "Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond", among other books. Contributor Bio:  Martin, Richard C Richard C. Martin is a professor of Islamic studies and history of religions at Emory University and president of the American Research Center in Egypt. He is the editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World and author of Islamic Studies: A History of Religions Approach.