Morality and revelation in Islamic thought and beyond : a new problem of evil /
If God commanded you to do something contrary to your moral conscience, how would you respond? Many believers of different faiths face a similar challenge today. While they take Scripture to be the word of God, they find Scriptural passages that seem incompatible with their modern moral sensibilitie...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Oxford University Press,
[2024].
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| Summary: | If God commanded you to do something contrary to your moral conscience, how would you respond? Many believers of different faiths face a similar challenge today. While they take Scripture to be the word of God, they find Scriptural passages that seem incompatible with their modern moral sensibilities. Let's call this the problem of divinely prescribed evil. The first part of the book demonstrates how Islamic thinkers of various historical traditions (including the Asharites, the Mutazilites and the Greek-influenced Philosophers, falāsifa) adhered to a Scripture-first view. Scripture takes precedence over our independent moral judgments. By appealing to hidden moral facts known only to God or the prophet, a Scripture-first approach views moral reasoning with skepticism, at least when it conflicts with Scripture. An Ethics-first view, however, places our independent moral judgments before Scripture. The second part of the book offers two Ethics-first solutions, with some roots in the Islamic tradition, to the problem of divinely prescribed evil. Each argues that our own moral reasoning is reliable in the face of skeptical arguments presented by Scripture-first views and shows how a theist can maintain their belief in Scripture's divinity while relying on their own moral judgments. |
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| Physical Description: | xii, 239 pages ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197686232 0197686230 |