Kalām Jadīd, Islamization, and the Worldview of Islam: Applying the neo-Ghazālian, Attasian Vision

Abstract

The new kalām (kalām jadīd, or new dialectics) intellectual movement initiated by al-Ghazālī and matured by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī succeeded in putting the Hellenizing philosophical and natural sciences firmly within the theological and epistemological ambit of tradition. This historical success provides pertinent lessons for Muslim scholars and intellectuals today to formulate what can be called kalām al-ʿaṣr, or the Dialectics of the Age, in order to bring tradition to engage creatively and evaluatively with the challenge and allure of contemporary secularizing sciences.