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[German Version] (Lat. form of Abū aʿAlī al-Ḥusain ibn ʿAbdallāh Ibn Sīnā; c. 980, Afšana near Buḫārā – 1037, Hamadān), a comprehensive scholar, outstanding physician and philosopher, whose thought has exerted lasting influence on later Islamic intellectual history, but also on European scholasticism. Avicenna developed his philosophical doctrines in dialogue with Aristotle, whose works he knew almost entirely in Arabic and paraphrased interpretively in his own writings. He followed in the essentials the neoplatonic (Neoplatonism) interpretations of the Stagirite which were communicated to him through the commentators of Late Antiquity, various pseudepigraphical texts (such as the so-called “theology of Aristotle”), and his immediate Muslim predecessors (Kindī and esp. Fārābī). Avicenna's own contribution, however, consists in the fact that he systematized Aristotelian philosophy and, as far as possible, linked it with Islamic thought. He was able to do this by explaining basic motifs of religion (prophecy, revelation and its interpretation, the fate of persons in the afterlife) philosophically and portraying philosophy itself such that it could be understood – despite its encyclopedic orientation – as the individual's guide on the path to God. This position found expression in over a hundred writings of which only a portion have been published to date. They include essays, controversies, poems and allegorical narratives, but primarily the monumental “Kitāb aš-Šifāh,” “Book of Healing,” a comprehensive system that influenced the Latin Middle Ages as the “Liber Sufficientie,” as well as the “Kitāb al-Išārāt wat-tanbīhāt” (Book of Hints and Advice), which presented the chief doctrines of logic, physics, and metaphysics in a new form and became the most important starting point for t…

[German Version] (c. 1105, Wādī Āš, Spain – 1185, Marrakech), physician and Islamic philosopher. Ibn Ṭufail supported Averroes and became known as the author of the novel Ḥaiy ibn Yaqẓān [The living, son of the wakeful one]. In this novel, Ibn Ṭufail describes the path to recognition of a person named Ḥaiy, who grew up alone on a solitary island from his birth. Ḥaiy deciphers his environment step by step, grasps the laws of logic and of physics, gains insight into the cosmic order, and recognizes the necessity of a creator. Having reached the age of 50, he then devotes himself entirely to the contemplation of God. At this time, Ḥaiy also comes into contact with other persons and enthusiastically informs them of his religious experience. However, their indifference teaches him that most people, in spite of all goodwill, cannot follow his path to knowledge, but remain dependent on symbols and laws (which are mediated by religions of revelation) for their understanding. Statements of this type show that this novel basically belongs to the tradition of Islamic philosophy, notably that of A. al-Fārābī and Avicenna (Islam: III), although Ibn Ṭufail endeavored to find a …

[German Version] The Muʿtazilah was a school of major importance in the development of Islamic theology; it emerged in the first half of the 8th century through the teaching of Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ; in the early 9th century, it rose to become the dominant intellectual school (with political influence). Despite growing opposition, it continued to have a say in theological discussion over the centuries. Its most prominent feature is strict rationalism in addressing questions of physics and metaphysics, a…

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[German Version] I. Science Natural laws express regular connections between natural phenomena, with the ideal aim of potential mathematical modeling. Depending on whether the connection is unconditionally valid, or merely describes probabilities, a distinction can be made between deterministic and statistical natural laws. In classical physics, all natural events are consistently determined by laws of causality; only epistemic chance in relation to the state of the observer’s knowledge is allowed (statistic…

[German Version] I. Bible 1. Old Testament and early Jewish apocalypticism. Predestination refers traditionally to God’s foreordained final determination regarding the eschatological salvation or damnation of each individual. In this sense, it represents a subset of a universal notion of divine predetermination (Determinism and indeterminism: II) taken to its logical individual and soteriological extreme, as is found…

[German Version] I. Philosophy The term skepticism denotes an attitude informed by doubts regarding certain beliefs. In the realm of philosophy, these doubts have to do primarily with the existen…

[German Version] I. Philosophy Neoplatonism takes the system constructed by Plotinus as its starting point. Important representatives are Amelios, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Theodore of Asine, Emperor Julian the Apostate, Plutarch of Athens, Syrian, Proclus,…

[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology – II. Systematic Theology – III. Islamic Theology – IV. Philosophy of Science – V. Physics …

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Islamic Theology I. Philosophy of Religion Philosophy of religion deals with the problem of the question of proofs of God in the broader context of delineating the relationship between faith and reason. A relationship between religion and philosophy has existed since antiquity. Plato's thought can be understood as philosophical commentary on popular Greek religion. This interrelationship led (e.g. in the Leges) to reflection on the nature of the divine and creation (Plato, Tim.) along with impulses …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Human destiny. The human experience of existence holds both positive and negative events. Personal and structural processes involving violence and suffering are constants. The “horizon of justice and righteousness” allows us to surmise that the events that take place in the course of the world are not random but are turbulences on the surface of a fundamental order. Disorientation (anomie) does not destroy the need for security. These turbulences remain a question to which religious ¶ traditions and atheistic projections of Dasein offer ans…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Bible – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity – VI. Islam I. Religious Studies In the context of rational Christian metaphysics, the knowability of God is assumed and God-talk is substantiated in such a way that certain attributes, such as holiness (Sacred and profane: V), eternity, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History of Religions – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Art History I. Religious Studies All cultures have concepts of a hereafter or beyond (“the next world”), although they are extremely diverse. They involve a realm of existence different from the visible earthly world but nevertheless thought of as real. Concepts of the hereafter are part of cosmology and therefore are related to the real world: the hereafter may be localized above or below the earth, in inaccessib…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatics – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam – VIII. Buddhism – IX. Contemporary Art I. Religious Studies 1. Hell as a place of retribution in the afterlife for those who continually transgress the religiously sanctioned rules of their community is not specifically Christian or monotheistic. But it is also not an idea that springs automatically from the question of how the dead exist (Death). Although hell was long viewed as a…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. History of Dogma – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Philosophy of Religion – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam (cf. Present and Future Eschatology, Consistent Eschatology) I. Religious Studies 1. The Problem of Terminology Eschatology (“discourse” or “doctrine” [Gk λόγος/ lógos] concerning the “last things” [Gk ἔσχατα/ éschata]) is a neologism that was introduced in the late 18th century in the con- text of the definition of the “last things,” i.e. of the novissima of medieval theology (death, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Phenomenology Western, Christian connotations of the concept of the soul, imposed on the religio-historical evidence by outside studies, must be generally excluded if the soul is understood as the principle of manifestations of life that are perceptible (or culturally considered to be perceptible), although they are rarely categorized under a common umbrella term. It is therefore reasonable to speak of a multiplicity of souls – for example four among the Ob-Ugrians (Hasenfratz, Einführung, 38–41), five among the Proto-Germanic peoples ( ib…

[German Version] I. Origin and Spread – II. Doctrine – III. Islamic Philosophy – IV. Islamic Art (Architecture and Book Art) – V. Islamic Studies – VI. Christianity and Islam – VII. Judaism and Islam – VIII. Islam in Europe – IX. Islam in North America – X. Political Islamism I. Origin and Spread 1. Muḥammad and his message In 569 ce, Muḥammad was born in Mecca, a city with the shrine of the Kaʿba at its center. Mecca enjoyed good relations with the Sasanian Empire and its Arab vassal princes in Ḥīra, but considered itself politically independen…

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. History of Theology – VI. Creation and Preservation – VII. Religious Education – VIII. Islam – IX. Science – X. Art History I. History of Religion 1. Fundamentals Life, nature, the environment, the passage of time – these are everyday experiences for any society. But reality also includes the danger that this world may be imperiled or perilous. Chaos and death are part …