An Unfortunate Response: Iqbal on Gutas​

This rejoinder is a further contribution to the debate begun by M. Iqbal and D. Gutas on the differing perspectives and methodological assumptions of faith-based and secular approaches to the study of the history of science in religious cultures. While the arguments presented are to some degree ad hominem, they do aim to highlight certain logical inconsistencies in the conceptualization of the role of religion in the study of science and in the revisionist portrayal of Islam as a causal agent that functions independently of its adherents.

Keywords: Normative Islam; polemic; rationalism; history of religions; agency; Qur'an, revelation; exegesis; sociobiology.

Journal of Islam & Science, Vol. 2 (Summer 2004) No. 1

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David C. Reisman

Associate Professor of Arabic-Islamic Thought in the Department of Classics and Mediterranean Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at the University of Illinois, Chicago