Advanced Islamic Theology and Contemporary Thought Program

This project creates opportunities within a leading US Muslim higher education institution for research, scholarship and teaching that buttress a constructive approach to systematic theology for engaging important questions and issues of the contemporary world. A highly-qualified Resident Scholar and project team will design an advanced curriculum grounded in mainstream classical Sunni theology (kalam) that will enable students to grapple directly with contemporary philosophical questions and scientific propositions, broaching the nature of divinity and divine action, the nature of the soul/spirit, the place of reason, epistemologies and related topics. Over a two-year period, the scholar will develop three semester-long graduate courses for a new theology concentration/track within our Master’s degree, enabling highly-motivated and prepared students to earn a Certificate in Advanced Islamic Theology. Furthermore, the Resident Scholar and project team will develop and administer a Summer Institute in 2021 for additional learners, to amplify the dissemination of content, tools and resources that inculcate skills for refreshed theological discourse. The institute will encapsulate content from the new courses developed in the graduate program, and include guest scholars who will can shed light of selected topics. Such a project will help generate a new cadre of thinkers and scholars in the North American context who can be competent interlocutors in broader philosophical and theological conversations. At present, there is very little integration or cross-pollination in theology/philosophy addressing post-modern conditions and questions, and the students and thinkers who will benefit from this advanced reconstruction of theological discourse will be able to enrich the collective intellectual climate through their writings, lectures and engagements with others beyond traditional Muslim scholarly circles.