On the Revival of the Philosophical Theology of Falsafa in Reformist-Modernist Discourse

The article discusses the understudied issue of the reformist-modernist reception of falsafa, the main philosophical theology school of classical Islam. Falsafa greatest representatives include the peripatetics al-Farabi (d. 950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna; d. 1037), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes; d. 1198). The revival of their ideas, many of which were ahead of their time and were traditionally considered heterodox (sometimes even heretical), is exemplified by the work of the founders of modernist theology of the 19th–20th centuries, primarily Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838/1839–1897) and Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905). They focused on developing a discourse more open to confessional and religious diversity (both within Islam and on a global scale), scientific rationality, and spiritual and cultural progress. In addition to the re-actua­lization of the universalist-pluralist attitude as the basis of the inclusivist concept of dialogue, the continuity with Falsafi theology can be traced below along lines related to the theses on eternalist creationism, natural prophetism, and soteriological presentism.