The Evolution of the Muslim Reformation Movement of the XX-XXI Centuries

Russian research in the 1960s and 1980s focused on four main areas of public consciousness in Muslim countries: orthodoxy, modernism, reformism, and Renaissance. These trends were distinguished by their terminological diversity and ideological heterogeneity, which made it difficult to adequately understand Islamic ideological processes. Orthodoxy denies social progress based on its belief in the perfection of Islam as the last divine prophecy that does not need to be renewed. Paradoxically, modernists share the thesis of the incompatibility of Islam and progress, on the contrary, they call for the adoption of Western values for social prosperity. Reformers strive for changes within the framework of spiritual traditions, whereas revivalism is extremely ambiguous and can be reactionary or progressive. By the beginning of the 21st century, the reformation movement in Islam was practically divided into two main trends. The archaic version of the trend proceeds from a predominantly formalistic understanding of religion, according to which a return to authentic Islam is identified with a literal return to the historical form of Islamic practice in the first centuries of the Hijrah. The renovation option aims to preserve not the form, but the content adapted to the new conditions. The article focuses on the views of the Egyptian philosopher Nasr Hamid Abu Zayed and the Russian theologian Damir Mukhetdinov. Both are developing the concept of a “renewal theology” aimed at rethinking traditions, taking into account modern realities and a variety of approaches, including exegesis, philosophy and social sciences. The success of this concept depends on the deconstruction of the legalistic (narrow-legal) paradigm and the transition to the ethical-mystical paradigm (“theology of renewal” in the proper sense of the word).