Monday, June 25, 2007

The Islamic Roots of Straussianism

It is a commonplace to refer to Muslims, Jews, and Christians as “Peoples of the Book,” but strictly speaking, that phrase really applies only to Muslims, because, for them, all that can be known about Allah is what he has chosen to reveal directly—and then only until that revelation is contradicted by further revelation, as occurs within the Koran itself. By sundering reason and the Word, Islam creates a very modern (and false) opposition between faith and reason. It is no surprise, then, that Jewish political philosopher Leo Strauss arrives at his understanding of the radical opposition between faith and reason through his study of Arab interpreters of Plato and Aristotle.
Scott P. Richert


This kind of latent Averroism is ubiquitous in journalism and prominent in the academy. One can never quite trust Straussians favorable to religion; their theoretical embrace of pious-sounding double-talk is too basic.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't the quote by Scott Richert?

Kevin J. Jones said...

So it is. Crossed wires.