A Reading of Azmi Bishara’s Project: Religion and Religiosity – a Prolegomena to Volume One of Religion and Secularism

Abstract

In his landmark texts, Azmi Bishara calls for the development of a new epistemological and methodological standpoint in Arab research into religion and types of religiosity, urging this as an alternative to the secularist Arab tendency to ignore or disregard these topics. The study of religion and religiosity ultimately connects with the study of secularism and secularization in Azmi Bishara's The Transition from the Study of Religion and Religiosity to the Study of Secularism , in the fifth and final chapter of the first volume. He concludes his prolegomenon – a book in its own right – with a summary of his starting point before proceeding to the second volume of his project: The Intellectual Process of Secularization and Secularism. This project examines Bishara's thinking and explores its ramifications.