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A new multi-faith multimedia publication that seeks to understand the ideas that shape the modern world.
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Your gift to Zaytuna College helps Renovatio pull tradition into the public arena of ideas.
authors/scott-crider
Scott F. Crider has published extensively on the works of William Shakespeare and maintains the English Renaissance as one of his major research interests.
article/why-a-metaphor-becomes-matter-for-a-christian-the-rhetorical-poetics-of-john-622-59
Can we use poetics to understand Scripture?
article/orientalists-militants-and-the-meanings-of-jihad
How widespread misuse of the term “jihad” creates confusion and misunderstanding about a core concept in Islam.
authors/asma-afsaruddin
Asma Afsaruddin specializes in the religious and political thought of Islam, Qur’anic hermeneutics, hadith, and gender studies.
authors/mark-damien-delp
Mark Damien Delp’s research interests include logic and the history of Christian philosophy.
authors/hamza-yusuf
Hamza Yusuf is a leading proponent of classical learning in Islam and president of Zaytuna College, a Muslim liberal arts college in Berkeley, California.
authors/faraz-khan
Faraz Khan is a lecturer at Zaytuna College.
authors/mohammed-rustom
Mohammed Rustom's research focuses on Sufism, Islamic philosophy, and Qur’anic exegesis.
authors/robert-p-george
Robert P. George's research interests include natural law, ethics, morality, and public reason.
authors/umeyye-isra-yazicioglu
Umeyye Isra Yazicioglu's areas of expertise include classical and modern Qur’anic interpretation, Islamic theology, Islamic mysticism, and Christian-Muslim relations.
authors/mahan-mirza
Mahan Mirza's research focuses on Islamic studies, Western religions, and history of science.
authors/waleed-el-ansary
Waleed El-Ansary's research centers on the intersection of religion, science, and economics.
authors/omar-qureshi
Omar Qureshi's areas of concentration are Comparative Education and Philosophy of Education.
authors/omid-safi
Omid Safi's research includes Islamic mysticism, contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic history.
authors/charles-upton
Charles Upton is a poet and metaphysician whose written works revolve around mysticism and social action.
article/do-reason-and-revelation-guide-us-to-the-same-good
For Jews, Christians, and Muslims confidence in what reason discloses as moral precepts is enriched by God’s act of revealing to us what He requires of us.
article/hamlets-soliloquy
Hamlet’s downfall did not arise out of a wrong answer to the question he posed, but out of the arrogation to himself of the right to determine his own existence or annihilation.
article/the-world-is-scripture
article/beware-what-comes-within-from-without
Does habitual exposure to digital images destroy the stillness of heart required for seeing God within our soul?
article/finding-the-authentic-self
How do we find authenticity without transcendence?
article/the-great-chain-of-consciousness
Why did many Muslim metaphysicians see the universe and all of its contents as alive?
article/can-materialism-explain-the-mind
Some philosophers believe materialism has now reached an insurmountable quandary in the question of consciousness.
article/can-our-science-and-economics-honor-nature
Our insatiable desire to view nature as a material resource can only be repelled by acknowledging immaterial reality.
article/letter-from-the-editor
It is our contention that, in essence, the foundations of Islam are sound, but the house that harbors this civilization has fallen into deep dereliction. It is in need of renovation, not reformation.
may14
Join us in-person or online here on Sunday, May 14, 6:30 p.m. PST
article/the-matter-of-metaphysics
During the "Golden Age of Islam," philosophy was at the heart of the intellectual Muslim tradition. Its decline coincided with the decline of Islam. Is that a coincidence?
article/justice-and-mercy-on-the-scale
Social justice is a moral objective that resonates widely, but the Qur’an calls on us to not neglect mercy.
authors/ramon-harvey
Ramon Harvey's first book, The Qur'an and the Just Society, will be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2017.
the-art-of-disagreement
An evening of talks and a conversation with Caner Dagli and Zaid Shakir
authors/oludamini-ogunnaike
Oludamini Ogunnaike’s research interests include Islamic philosophy, spirituality, art, and African diasporic religions.
authors/hina-azam
Hina Azam’s specializations include Islamic law, theology, exegesis, hadith, and gender studies.
authors/abdullah-bin-hamid-ali
Abdullah bin Hamid Ali specializes in Islamic law and prophetic tradition.
authors/eva-brann
Eva Brann (d. 2024), a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, is the longest serving tutor at St. John’s College.
authors/caner-k-dagli
Caner K. Dagli is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
authors/zaid-shakir
Zaid Shakir specializes in Islamic spirituality, contemporary Muslim thought, Islamic history and politics, and Shafi’i fiqh.
authors/andrew-f-march
Andrew F. March’s research interests are in the areas of political theory, contemporary philosophical liberalism, Islamic political thought, Islamic law, and comparative political theory.
authors/maria-massi-dakake
Maria Massi Dakake’s research specialties include Islamic intellectual history, Qur’anic studies, Shi’ite and Sufi traditions, and women’s spirituality and religious experience.
article/great-books-and-small-colleges-delp
As Zaytuna's dean of faculty, Mark Delp presents the college's conviction that the gap between faith and reason is a modern invention.
article/great-books-and-small-colleges-brann
Eva Brann, the longest-serving tutor of St. John’s College, asserts that learning how to read could be the practical purpose of liberal education.
article/the-pinocchio-within-us
Despite seeming differences, Pinocchio’s reality may almost be identical to our own, even if our noses do not threaten to grow longer at every misdeed.
article/the-silent-theology-of-islamic-art
To many, Islamic art can speak more profoundly and clearly than even the written word. Is it wiser then for Muslims to show, not to tell?
article/where-islam-and-nationalism-collide
Islam contains teachings that clearly argue against the most important elements of nationalism.
article/wisdom-in-pieces
Science, philosophy, and art have been blown apart, and our conversations have devolved into chaos. How do we begin to learn the art of disagreement?
article/rules-of-engagement
In religious dialogue, are virtue and good manners ultimately as important as, or perhaps more important than, the eloquence of words and the rigor of arguments?
the-silent-theology-of-islamic-art-event
Join us on Sunday, December 17, 2017, for a lively, on-stage conversation with a scholar, a calligrapher, and a designer
article/beyond-racism
In the absence of a critical assessment of the reality of race and racism in the history of Islam, Muslims remain susceptible to accepting broad generalizations of a colorblind Islamic history.
article/notes-on-nationalism
The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself, but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.
article/pluralism-in-a-monoculture-of-conformity
Despite the diversity of our countless creeds, colors, and cultures, our society has been subsumed into a monoculture of ersatz arts, entertainment, and consumerism. How can we recapture humanity’s once extraordinary individuality?
article/among-the-disbelievers
How does the “radical other”—the unbeliever, and not merely the wayward Abrahamic cousin—figure in Islamic discourses on toleration and coercion?
authors/george-orwell
George Orwell was an English twentieth century novelist, journalist, and social critic.
authors/martin-nguyen
Martin Nguyen's research expertise includes modern Muslim theology, classical Islamic theology, scriptural commentaries of the Qu'ran, and Islam in America.
article/could-the-kaaba-represent-tradition
Invoking the Kaaba allows us to discern how tradition is a thing both of God and of humanity, a reality that is lost in strictly academic definitions of tradition.
march17
Islam and the Question of Pluralism
april5
Learning to Be Human
april23
A Conversation with Sir Roger Scruton
authors/claus-dierksmeier
Claus Dierksmeier researches and publishes on the idea of freedom, political and economic philosophy, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and globalization ethics.
article/other-peoples-truths
Sacred scriptures certainly qualify as Great Books, but can they be read as literature in secular settings?
authors/roger-scruton
Roger Scruton (d. 2020) was a philosopher of politics and aesthetics.
article/sacred-truths-in-a-profane-world
Can an alliance of religious believers help humanity emerge from an age of skepticism?
article/from-savagery-to-civilization
Poetry fulfills our humanity because it is the language that most makes human culture.
article/vanquishing-the-monster-within-us
When we resist the dehumanizing forces of war, we can see the sacred in all human beings.
authors/chris-hedges
Chris Hedges is a journalist and Presbyterian minister.
authors/david-bentley-hart
David Bentley Hart is an Orthodox Christian philosophical theologian and cultural commentator.
article/science-and-theology-where-the-consonance-really-lies
If we keep in mind the limits of our methods, the deepest aspirations of the sciences and the most essential affirmations of theology are irresistibly apposite.
article/the-human-in-the-quran
How four Qur’anic aspects of humanity combine to make man a distinctive creation.
authors/cyrus-ali-zargar
Cyrus Ali Zargar's research centers on the literature of medieval Sufism in Arabic and Persian, including love poetry and ethical treatises, the writings of Ibn al-ʿArabī, and early adherents to his worldview, and the development of Sufi terms and symbols.
article/virtue-human-and-divine
Can the measure of human virtue be set by the character—or the names—of God?
authors/sophia-vasalou
Sophia Vasalou’s research focuses on the development of virtue ethics in the Islamic intellectual tradition, with a specialization in Imam al-Ghazālī's work.
article/the-secret-of-the-morality-tale
Only narratives can ensure our ethics take both intention and circumstance into account.
article/an-ethos-for-all
Why a medieval Christian theologian believed humanity, regardless of creed, could unite around a shared ethic.
article/the-status-of-woman-in-america
The woman conserves those deeper moral forces which make for the happiness of homes and the righteousness of the country.
authors/anna-julia-cooper
Anna Julia Cooper (1858–1964) was an author, educator, and public speaker on gender, race and racism, higher education, and spirituality.
article/when-does-a-human-fetus-become-human
Scripture and science, taken together, can lead believers to rethink our understanding of when life begins, of the miracle of revelation, and most certainly of abortion.
article/humane-being-conversation
If we let it, the modern world can alter our fiţrah, or the perfection of our natural disposition. But the path to restoring harmony with our natures may be easier than we think.
authors/umar-faruq-abd-allah
Umar Faruq Abd-Allah is an American Muslim theologian, a writer, and a teacher.
sep9
5pm to 7pm, Sunday, September 9, 2018 | Berkeley, California
article/breaking-the-language-barrier
The Han Kitab teaches that the Islam found in the Arabic and Persian books is only one possible way in which the Islamic revelation can be expressed.
article/the-wisdom-of-lamentation
The Book of Job doesn’t simply preach patience to one who suffers. Job’s speech—and his silence—dismantles platitudes and invites us to find resolution in an experience of God.
article/using-the-brain-you-gave-me
Words may be the way that we learn and understand, but, shows Augustine through a dialog with his son, God is the only real teacher.
authors/garry-wills
Garry Wills is a cultural historian and professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, specializing in American studies and cultural history.
article/the-listening-of-the-soul
Speaking distinguishes the human, but the soul’s capacity to listen helps us fulfill our human potential.
article/can-we-all-treat-blasphemy-as-taboo
Should Muslims accept a moral perspective about blasphemy that’s grounded in liberal ethics?
article/self-addressed-speech
Speech may be for communication, but when the soul speaks to itself, who is communicating with whom?
article/of-cannons-and-canons
Colonialism universalized modern Western education. As we wrestle with this often bitter legacy, why do calls to “diversify” what we read fall short?
article/language-is-not-mechanical-and-neither-are-you
Modern philosophers and scientists are committed to the idea of world as machine, and yet they cannot explain language without the immaterial mind.