Preface
Chapter I: The Koran, the Foundation of Islamic theology
- The Koran in Islamic Faith
- Islam
- Early History of the Koran
- Central Themes of the Koran’s Message
Chapter II: Faith and “Islam”
- Muslim Views on the Origin of Religious Persuasions
- On Islamic History between 632 and 750
- Divine Determination versus Human Determination
- The Kharijites
- The Shiites
- Judgment Postponed
- The Beginnings of Sunnism
Chapter III: The Two Types of Islam’s Theological Literature
- TheĀ Hadith
- TheĀ Kalam
Chapter IV: Early Rationalism
- Arab-Muslim Society
- A Glance at the Early Abbasid Period
- The One God and His Revelation
- Human Actions
- Physics and Metaphysics
- Sunnites and Shiites as Opponents of Rationalist Theology
Chapter V: Rationalism and Tradition
- The Caliphate’s Political Decline
- Early Theological Reflection in Sunnism
- Sufism and Rationalism
- Sunnite Rationalism
- The Asharite School
Chapter VI: Theology and Philosophy
- Exoteric and Esoteric Meaning of the Revelation
- A Glance at the History of the Islamic Mind in the High Middle Ages
- Islamic Philosophy
- Re-establishing All Creatures’ Power of Being
- Islamic Theology in the High and Late Middle Ages
Chapter VII: Islam and Gnosis
- Prophetic Message and Gnostic Weltanschauung
- Gnosis and Early Islamic Theology
- Gnosis within Islam
Chapter VIII: Islamic Orthodoxy
- Sunnism as the Religious Creed of the Majority
- Orthodoxy and the Islamic State
- Shiite Orthodoxy
Chapter IX: Islam as Ideology
- Islam Is Knowledge
- Reform in the Spirit of Orthodoxy
- Islam as Ideology
Epilogue
- Summary
- The Tasks
Chronology
Notes
Recommendations for Further Reading
Glossary of Arabic Terms
Indexes
- Persons
- Concepts and Groups