Jacques Waardenburg – författare

Der vorliegende Band enthält ca. zwanzig Aufsätze, in acht Themenbereiche gruppiert, über unterschiedliche Aspekte des Islam in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Der erste Themenbereich, "Die Anfänge", befasst sich mit der Vermittlung von vorislamischen Vorstellungen und vorislamischer Vernunft in den Islam. Sie bilden wesentliche Bestandteile der Botschaft des Korans. In den folgenden zwei Abschnitten geht es um den Islam als Religion mit ihren besonderen Zeichen und Symbolen; hier werden auch die Interpretationsregeln des Islam und seine strukturellen Ausprägungen diskutiert. Der vierte und der fünfte Abschnitt behandeln die Ethik im Islam, einschließlich muslimischer Identität und Menschenrechte, und bestimmte soziale Funktionen des Islam. Der sechste Abschnitt stellt Reformbewegungen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts vor, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Entwicklungen in Saudi-Arabien und der "puritanischen" Eigenschaftengegenwärtiger islamischer Erweckungsbewegungen. Abschließend werden in den letzten beiden Abschnitten aktuelle Fragen diskutiert: Islamisierungsprozesse und -politik, die Ideologisierung des Islam und die politische Instrumentalisierung der islamischen Religion. Das Buch verdeutlicht Verbindungen zwischen religiösen, sozialen und politischen Aspekten des Islam in seinen verschiedenen Kontexten. In der Einleitung zeichnet der Autor zudem wichtige Entwicklungen in der Islamwissenschaft seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nach.

Jacques Waardenburg writes about relations between Muslims and adherents of other religions. After illuminating various aspects of Islam from an outside point of view in his volume "Islam" (published in 2002 by de Gruyter) his second volume changes the perspective: The author shows how Muslims perceived non-Muslims - particularly Christianity and "the West", but also Judaism and Asian religions - in many centuries of religious dialogue and tensions. The main focus is on Muslim minorities in Western countries and on religious dialogues of which he provides first-hand knowledge through his participation in several important dialogue meetings.

After 50 years of research and personal involvement, Waardenburg aims at a mutual understanding and reconciliation of Islam and other religions, particularly Christianity, both on an international level as well as on a more local level where "old" and "new", Christian and Muslim Europeans live together.

Waardenburg’s magisterial essay traces the rise and development of the academic study of religion from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, outlining the establishment of the discipline, its connections with other fields, religion as a subject of research, and perspectives on a phenomenological study of religion. Futhermore a second part comprises an anthology of texts from 41 scholars whose work was programmatic in the evolution of the academic study of religion. Each chapter presents a particular approach, theory, and method relevant to the study of religion. The pieces selected for this volume were taken from the discipline of religious studies as well as from related fields, such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology, to name a few.

Waardenburg’s magisterial essay traces the rise and development of the academic study of religion from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, outlining the establishment of the discipline, its connections with other fields, religion as a subject of research, and perspectives on a phenomenological study of religion. Futhermore a second part comprises an anthology of texts from 41 scholars whose work was programmatic in the evolution of the academic study of religion. Each chapter presents a particular approach, theory, and method relevant to the study of religion. The pieces selected for this volume were taken from the discipline of religious studies as well as from related fields, such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology, to name a few.

This book deals with Islamic studies and with the question how the scholarly study of religion can contribute to the study of Islam. The author advocates studying Islamic phenomena as signs and symbols interpreted and applied in diverse ways in existing traditions.

He stresses the role of Muslims as actors in the ongoing debate about the articulation of Islamic ways of life and construction of Islam as a religion. A careful study of this debate should steer clear of political, religious, and ideological interests. Research in this area by Muslims and non-Muslim scholars alike should address the question of what Muslims have made of their Islam in specific circumstances.

Current political contexts have created an unhealthy climate for pursuing an “open” approach to Islam based on reading, observing, listening and reflecting. Yet, precisely nowadays we need to look anew at ways of Muslim thinking and acting that refer to Islam and to avoid certain schemes of interpreting Muslim realities that are no longer adequate for present-day Muslim life situations.

Muslim recourses to Islam can be studied as human constructions of value and meaning, and relations between Muslims and others can be seen in terms of human interaction, without blame always falling on Islam as such.