New KFG Publication I: Florian Zemmin on “The Modern Prophet. Rashīd Riḍā’s Construction of Muḥammad as Religious and Social Reformer”

We would like to draw your attention to the latest article by our Associate Member Florian Zemmin: In his publication on “The Modern Prophet. Rashīd Riḍā’s Construction of Muḥammad as Religious and Social Reformer”, he focuses on the journal al-Manār, published from Cairo between 1898 and 1940, as the mouthpiece of Islamic modernism, that intellectual trend which articulated modernity from within the Islamic discursive tradition. He shows how the editor of al-Manār, Rashīd Riḍā, constructed the figure of the Prophet Muhammad to represent an ideal religious and social reformer.  

With his article, Florian contributes to the volume “The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam. Volume 2, Heirs of the Prophet: Authority and Power”, edited by Rachida Chih, Stefan Reichmuth, and David Jordan.

Zemmin, Florian. “The Modern Prophet: Rashīd Riḍā's Construction of Muḥammad as Religious and Social Reformer.” In The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam. Edited by Rachida Chih, Stefan Reichmuth, and David Jordan, 349-69. Leiden: Brill, 2021.

New KFG Publication II: Sebastian Rimestad on “The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 – A New Era for the Orthodox Church? Interdisciplinary Perspectives”

A new book by our Senior Research Fellow Sebastian Rimestad and Vasilios N. Makrides, Professor of Orthodox Christianity at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Erfurt on The Pan-Orthodox Council 2016 has just been published.

In this volume, 14 authors analyse the Pan-Orthodox Council, that took place in 2016 on the island of Crete, to contextualise its significance for the contemporary Orthodox Church and its relations with the religious and secular environment. The Council was the first official meeting of the entire Orthodoxy since the seventh ecumenical council of 787. Unfortunately, four of the churches decided at the last minute not to participate in the Council, including the largest among them, the Russian Orthodox Church. The remaining church representatives met anyway and tried to give the meeting historical significance.

Sebastian contributes to the volume with a chapter on “The Council and ‘Alternative Orthodoxy’: Who Was not Invited to the Pan-Orthodox Council?”

Makrides, Vasilios N., and Sebastian Rimestad, eds. The Pan-Orthodox Council of 2016 - A New Era for the Orthodox Church? Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Erfurter Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des orthodoxen Christentums 19. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021.