Renovatio: How Do We Know? - Spring 2019

About The Book The Spring 2019 issue of Renovatio ("How Do We Know?") seeks to explore how a broader view of knowledge could change the way we understand our world today. Table of Contents Medina and Athena: Restoring a Lost Legacy The divorce between Athena and Medina explains much of what went wrong in the Muslim world. Hamza Yusuf Why Jews Don’t Proselytize  In an ancient world teeming with competing tribal deities, the monotheism of the Jews was distinctive. Was it merely an accident of history that they didn’t spread their faith?  Reuven Firestone   The Many Sides of Knowledge  If the knowledge we gather is partial and limited, can we truly understand the feelings and experiences of others?  Sarah Barnette   The Soul of Rhetoric in the Age of Amazon  Our digital lives are so mediated by soulless algorithms that it seems absurd to imagine genuine human relationships governing our online interactions.  Scott F. Crider  Must Religious Duty Conflict with Political Order?  To secure the kind of religious freedoms Muslims desire, we must revisit Muslim commitment to religious pluralism and shared obedience to sovereign powers.  Roger Scruton  To See the World for the First Time  Can religious traditions help us see what is most mysterious in what is most ordinary?  Sophia Vasalou  What Islam Gave the Blues  The blues is neither African nor Islamic—rather, it’s an African American creation shaped by some of the most enduring contributions of West African Muslims to American culture.  Sylviane A. Diouf  Can We Live in Harmony with Nature?  The roots of our environmental crisis are often neglected because, were they to be considered, our worldviews and manners of living would necessarily have to change.  Seyyed Hossein Nasr   The Islamic Art of Asking Questions  Muslims of the past always tolerated permanent disagreement even about versions of religious truth. Can modern Muslims recapture this tradition?  John Walbridge  Belief in the Obvious  As truth seekers, we shield ourselves from sophistry through practiced skepticism. But by wielding the weapon of incredulity, could there be another evil that we unwittingly invite?  Joshua Lee Harris  How We Split the World Apart  We often understand philosophy as secular and rational and faith as transcendent and irrational. But are the two really separate?  Eva Brann and Hamza Yusuf  Blessed Opposition  The principle of non-contradiction—that the same thing cannot both be and not be—is routinely denied in modern thought, but this rejection never confronts its real authority.  Mark Damien Delp