Islamic Humanism: From Silence to Extinction A Brief Analysis of Abdulkarim Soroush’s Thesis of Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge - Journal of Islamic Sciences

Islamic Humanism: From Silence to Extinction

A Brief Analysis of Abdulkarim Soroush’s Thesis of Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge

In a number of publications Abdulkarim Soroush has sought to propound and defend a thesis, 'the evolution and devolution of religious knowledge' (EDRK), according to which a religion (such as Islam) may be divine and unchanging, but our understanding of religion remains in a continuous flux and a totally human endeavor; he calls this view "Islamic Humanism". In this essay, I shall argue that the thesis of Islamic humanism collapses in the end into one of the various forms of religious nonrealism that have their origins in the works of some well-known contemporary Christian theologians.

Keywords: Islamic Humanism; Abdulkarim Soroush's evolution and devolution of religious knowledge; religious nonrealism; Islam and modernity; liberal Islam; religious thought.

Journal of Islam & Science, Vol. 3 (Summer 2005) No. 1

Hamid Vahid

Professor of Philosophy and the Head of the Analytic Philosophy Faculty at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences.