Theological Origins of Modernity

notes to pages 291–293 361
greatest work, Th e Incoherence of the Incoherence, was a defense of Aristotelianism
against Ghazali’s attack in his Incoherence of the Philosophers. For a general introduction
to Islamic philosophy see Th e History of Islamic Philosophy, ed. Seyyed
Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (New York: Routledge, 1996).
3. Th ere is some speculation that Ghazali directly or indirectly may have had an
impact on Ockham’s thought. It is certain that he had an impact on later nominalist
thinkers. It is obvious that the debate between the realists and the nominalist
parallels the debate between the Mu’tazilites and the Ash’arites. Th e impact of
Mu’talzilite thought on scholastic realism is indisputable. It would not be surprising
if nominalist thought was similarly indebted to earlier Islamic thinking. For
a brief but excellent introduction to this question see Charles Burnett, “Islamic
Philosophy: Transmission into Western Europe,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, ed. E. Craig (London: Routledge, 1998), 21–25.
4. On the similarities of philosophical and theological problems faced by Christianity
and Islam, see Harry Wolfson, Th e Philosophy of Kalam (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1976).
5. I do not mean to assert that there is no possibility for the development of humanism
within Islam. For a fuller discussion of the way humanism develops in
the Islamic world, see Lenn E. Goodman, Islamic Humanism (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003). My goal here is rather to briefl y highlight the theological/
metaphysical diff erences between Christianity and Islam to help us understand
the power of the ideas behind radical Islam, to allow us a greater purchase on our
own concealed theological commitments, and to enable us to begin to discern
the kinship between Islam and Christianity. I also hope that this comparison will
highlight the theological elements that underpin, empower, and at times divinize
Western humanism.
6. For a generally sympathetic account of Qutb, see Roxanne Euben, Th e Enemy
in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism
( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999). On Mawdudi, see Seyyed Vali Reza
Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996).