Muslim Identities - An Introduction to Islam Second Edition - Aaron W. Hughes
Religious Studies and the Academic Study of Islam
Muslim Identities - An Introduction to Islam Second Edition - Aaron W. Hughes
Aaron W. Hughes [+]
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
Description
The opening chapter highlights the approach taken in this book: critical religious studies, while, at the same time, aware that what follows must account for Muslim belief, practice, and theology. This means understanding basic concepts in the study of religion, such as “insider v. outsider” and “critic v. caretaker.” Such a distinctions allow for an appreciation that Muslim identities, like all identities, are actively constructed by social groups in distinct contexts. This active construction then functions as the leitmotif that links up the following chapters.