Drawing on a combination of pertinent disciplines – history, sociology, psychology and anthropology – the author’s approach subjects every system of belief and non-belief, every tradition of exegesis, theology and jurisprudence to a critique aimed at liberating reason from the grip of dogmatic postulates.
By treating Islam as a religion as well as a time-honoured tradition of thought, Mohammed Arkoun’s work aims at overcoming the limitations of descriptive, narrative and chronological modes in history by recommending that the entire development of Islamic thought – from Quranic to modern-day fundamentalist discourses – be subjected to a critical analysis guided by these categories.
The expected outcome of such a strategy is an emancipated political reason working hand in hand with a creative imagination for a radical re-construction of mind and society in the contemporary Muslim world.
