Ship of Fools: Islam & Theological Anthropology

Thread: Islam & Theological Anthropology Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by The Silent Acolyte (# 1158) on :

One of the basic ways to crack open Christianity is to suss out the nature of human beings—theological anthropology.

Is this a reasonable first approach to understanding Islam?

What is the Islamic understanding of the nature of human beings?

Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :

Crickey. Sounds like you should be asking a professor this question.

Or perhaps you could help us out by providing the Christian example first?

What is a Christian theological anthropology? What does that mean?

Having been raised I Muslim, I might venture a guess if I could understand the question in the first place.

Posted by Zach82 (# 3208) on :

Some Christian theologians might start off with the understanding that humans a creatures of God, who therefore find their life in a relationship with him, and who cease to be when they are separated from Him. From here theologians could discuss sin (estrangement from God) and the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection (effecting the reunion of humanity and God). That would be an anthropological starting point for a Christian theology.

Posted by Isaac David (# 4671) on :

Anthropology strikes me as being a very interesting way of approaching any intellectual movement. I can't answer the question about Islam, but I am aware that Orthodox anthropology appears to differ from Western Christian anthropology, and it seems to me that one could derive benefit from studying Marxist or Libertarian anthropology.

Posted by Quinquireme (# 17384) on :

The American scholar Bruce Malina has written some excellent books with an anthropological viewpoint about books in the Bible; I'd particularly recommend "The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology" for its insights into e.g. the notion of honour and shame, kinship, and purity laws.

Posted by Crœsos (# 238) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Isaac David:
Anthropology strikes me as being a very interesting way of approaching any intellectual movement.

It's been said that anthropology is about studying 'Them'. When the same tools are applied to 'Us', it's called "sociology".

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

The question of how anthropology differs from sociology is not easy to answer. Some branches of anthropology study human beings as physical creatures (bones, facial features, hair) and some study language. Sociology studies society and often uses statistical methods. I think many topics might be studied by either.

I think a cultural anthropologist studying Christians might look at a parish and its life and how the faith affects that life. A sociologist might do surveys and produce numerical observations about the wealth, family size, age, etc. of the parishioners.

Posted by Bostonman (# 17108) on :

The last three posts are discussing anthropology-the-social-science rather than anthropology-the-area-of-philosophy-and-theology, in case anyone is confused. The former is the empirical study of people, traditionally distinguished from sociology based on whether those being studied were of European descent or not, more or less. The latter is the philosophical study of people: what makes a human being a human being? How do human beings relate to God?

The OP asks the latter questions of Islam, and is not about Islamic anthropology as a sub-field of the social sciences. Just so everyone's on the same page.

Posted by The Silent Acolyte (# 1158) on :

Thanks Bostonman, for we see that's why it's called theological anthropology. I despaired of guiding this thread back on track. You and Zach82 describe the thing I seek.

However, benighted Westerner that he is, Zach82 only touches briefly the right end of the stick, humans as "creatures of God," and then goes careering immediately off into sin and estrangement.

I would rather linger longer on the state of perfection intended for man¹ by nature, the likeness toward which the Fathers have mankind striving. The original image of created man gives him the faculties of knowledge, desire, pleasure, aggressiveness, freedom, memory, imagination, the bodily senses, all oriented toward God. These faculties have been perverted away from God by idolatrous self-love and issue forth in gluttony, lust, anger, acedia, and all the rest.

What I want is how Islam conceives of man's created nature and of man's end. Does Islam walk an arc similar to the Christian one from Gen. 1:26 to 2 Peter 1:3-4? Or does Islam have some other origin and end for man?

Evensong, I'm surprised that at year—what two, three?—of theological studies you haven't encountered this before; it's pretty bog standard stuff.

¹ We haven't sorted out gender non-specific language, yet. This phrase ought to be "the state of perfection intended for human by nature," but this singular fails, leaving us with man.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:
¹ We haven't sorted out gender non-specific language, yet. This phrase ought to be "the state of perfection intended for human by nature," but this singular fails, leaving us with man.

Humans, humanity, humankind, people, all people...

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:
¹ We haven't sorted out gender non-
specific language, yet. This phrase ought to be
"the state of perfection intended for human
by nature," but this singular fails, leaving
us with man.

Humans, humanity, humankind, people, all
people...

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

the human race

Posted by daisymay (# 1480) on :

And originally he was getting to be a Christian, and helping other people, but when he went to visit some Christians they were against him and nasty and so he became a Muslim. So Christians should be positive for Muslims even when they disagree about everything, eg Jesus as God for us all.

[ 09. July 2013, 11:10: Message edited by: daisymay ]

Posted by Evensong (# 14696) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:

What I want is how Islam conceives of man's created nature and of man's end. Does Islam walk an arc similar to the Christian one from Gen. 1:26 to 2 Peter 1:3-4? Or does Islam have some other origin and end for man?

So a Christian theological anthropology is based on the idea of theosis?

As for the Islamic question - an interesting one. You'd have to break out the Koran methinks.

Perhaps a wee wiki page comparing Adam and Eve in the bible and the koran might be a helpful starting point?

From my experience growing up in a mainly mystical Islam, the whole original sin thing was not there. Islam mirrors Judaism in this regard.

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:

Evensong, I'm surprised that at year—what two, three?—of theological studies you haven't encountered this before; it's pretty bog standard stuff.

Obviously we're a bit backward here then. Good thing it is God's gracious will to reveal things to infants rather than the wise and intelligent huh?

Posted by The Silent Acolyte (# 1158) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Evensong:
So a Christian theological anthropology is based on the idea of theosis?

Well, it's one way to do it, though not the only way. Zach82 and I seem to be going to the same place, as he puts it: "...sin (estrangement from God) and the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection (effecting the reunion of humanity and God)...."

Posted by Isaac David (# 4671) on :

I suspect most people confronted with the word anthropology will assume cultural anthropology is meant, unless they're Wikipedists, in which case they might be aware of Wikipedia's useful disambiguation page on the subject.

I wonder how many people will think of women's apparel?

Posted by Isaac David (# 4671) on :

Here is a link to a Word document entitled A Brief Guide to the Study of Islam: Anthropology and Soteriology, which I found by googling 'islamic philosophical anthropology'. This appears to be more fruitful than 'islamic theological anthropology'. I also came across this blog entry.

Posted by Isaac David (# 4671) on :

Sorry to triple-post, but I've discovered the same article mentioned in my previous post as a web page.

Posted by FCB (# 1495) on :

It is often said that there is no notion of human beings as imago Dei in Islam. I recall, however, coming across the idea in (I think) Al Ghazali. It does seem to be a minor theme at best.

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