Norman Anderson and the Christian mission to modernise Islam / Todd M. Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Todd M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anderson, J. N. D. (James Norman Dalrymple), 1908-1994.

Anderson, J. N. D.

Missionaries--Biography.

Missionaries.

Christianity and other religions--Islam--20th century.

Christianity and other religions.

Islamic law.

Islam.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 452 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Norman Anderson and the Christian mission to modernize Islam

Place of Publication:

London, England : Oxford University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Western Christians in the twentieth century viewed Islam through a lens of social and political concerns that would have appeared novel to their medieval and early-modern predecessors. Concerns about the predicament of secular 'modernity' infused Christian discourse with distinct assumptions that shaped engagement with Islam in fundamentally new ways. J. N. D. (Norman) Anderson (1908-94), a highly influential British Christian scholar of Islam, embodied this new orientation in his commitment to 'modernize' Islam. Anderson's engagement with Islam as a missionary, intelligence agent, scholar of Islamic law and advisor to various Muslim governments, spanned multiple decades and continents. As well as shaping Western understandings of Islamic law and its application, he was involved in debates about the end of the British Empire and the transformation of Christian missions following formal decolonization. Because of Anderson's location at the intersection of so many different debates concerning Islam, his life provides unique insights into the ways in which Christians reconfigured their response to Islam in the last century. Given Christianity's continued influence on British and American ideas about Islam, this study provides crucial insight into the persistent focus on 'modernizing' and 'secularizing' Islam today.

Contents:

Cambridge legal studies and Anderson's sense of the 'modern'

Inter-war evangelicalism, Cambridge student missionary enthusiasm and Anderson's mission to evangelise Egypt

Covert operations and nation-building in North Africa during World War II

Nationalism, Protestant 'modernity' and the reform of Islamic law

Christian missions and Islam in the 1950s

'Disinterested' scholarship, Arab nationalism and the study of Islamic law in Britain

Nationalism and Islamic legal reform in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nationalism and Islamic legal reform in Asia and East Africa

Christian missions and Islam in the 1960s and 1970s

The waning of 'secular' nationalism in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 385-433) and index.

ISBN:

9780190697624

0190697628

OCLC:

975367798