Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism

Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism. By Jeffry R. Halverson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Pp. vii + 188. $75.

The narrative of the history of Islamic theology accepted by most scholars is seriously flawed, according to Jeffry R. Halverson. Halverson describes the "flawed narrative" as stating that "the 'triumph' of Ash'arism in Sunni Islam" imposed "anti-rational authoritarian control over the shari'ah" and erroneously identified Ash'arism with creedal literalism" (p. 146). This book is the presentation of Halverson's refutation of this basic narrative as applied to both medieval and modem Islamic history.

The general theme of the book is that the advocates of strict textual literalism, identified as "Äthans," opposed the rationalism involved in theology (Ulm al-kaläm) and were victorious by the fifteenth century. The result was "the virtual demise of kalam [theology]," which meant "the demise of the rational discourse" that had created the foundations of the early theological intellectual enterprise (p. 2). A consequence of this development was an emphasis on creedal statements of faith "free from the perplexing proofs that characterized theological treatises" (p. 39). Halverson argues that this Athari victory set the ideological foundations for modem and contemporary Islamist movements.

Major erroneous elements in the standard historical narrative, according to Halverson, are the identification of the theological tradition of Abu 1-Hasan al-Ashcan with the Athari victory and the assumption that Ashcarism and Mätundism, the second major theological tradition, are fundamentally similar while, in Halverson's view, Ashcarism is distinct from both Atharism and Mätundism. In Halverson's view a revival of...