Unsaying God

Reviews / Votes

Kars's book is extremely informative and it makes an excellent contribution to the scholarly literature in this field. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * J . Jaeger, CHOICE * Unsaying God is an illuminating survey of the 'via negativa' in Islam with a special emphasis on thirteenth- century Sufism. This fascinating book presents the various apophatic approaches of philosophers, theologians, mystics, savants of esoteric knowledge, and traditionalists. The book's in-depth discussions ponder key themes like 'oneness', 'thingness,' and 'the negation of all discursive possibilities, including this very negation itself.' Unsaying God is thought-provoking, extremely informative, and a pleasure to read. * Livnat Holtzman, author of Anthropomorphism in Islam: The Challenge of Traditionalism 700-1350 * Unsaying God is an innovative, theoretically-informed attempt to understand Islamic thought through the prism of negative discourses about the nature of the divine. It is the first serious attempt to analyze apophatic discourses ranging across philosophy, mysticism, and theology in Islam. Kars's work, a major contribution to the study of Islam, will prove to be essential reading for those seeking to locate Islamic studies in wider debates on the study of religion and literature, not least on the theme of apophasis. * Sajjad H. Rizvi, Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History, University of Exeter * At once historical and phenomenological, Aydogan Kars's Unsaying God unveils the great subtlety with which pre-modern Muslims of various intellectual and spiritual persuasions articulated their experience of the divine, both within and without the confines of language. As such, this book represents a timely intervention in an age where God-talk is often reduced to simplistic binaries by its supporters and detractors alike * Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Spirit: The Mystical Theology of 'Ayn al-Qudat *