Religious Autobiography: Al-Munqidh mina al-Ḍalāl as an Example

This study examines the autobiographical nature of Abū Ḥamid Al-Ghazālī’s well-known autobiography, Al-Munqidh mina al-Ḍalāl, or shortly Munqidh, as known in the West. The article places Al-Ghazālī’s autobiography within the tradition of autobiographical writing in classical Arabic, particularly religious and mystical autobiographies. Special focus is given to the notion of ‘conversion’ as it is the main plot and theme of the autobiography. The study also aims to show that this autobiography is better understood in light of modern research which emphasizes that this genre, especially in medieval ages, was not only partially shaped by certain values and purposes in the moment of composition, but also was significantly crafted to achieve specific purposes and values. Keywords: autobiography, religious autobiography, Munqidh, conversion

Deep Breaths and High Impact Aerobics: Reflecting on Teaching Writing in the Key of Katie Geneva Cannon

This tribute by a former doctoral student of Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon reflects on her mentor’s pedagogical strategies and techniques and how they have impacted her own teaching, as well as her approach to research and writing. The short essay describes several of Dr. Cannon’s assignments, including the Personal Ethical Inventory and the Socio-Religious Autobiography, and expresses her gratitude and indebtedness in prioritizing experiences and contributions of Blacks as an essential aspect of graduate theological education.

Deep Breaths and High Impact Aerobics: Reflecting on Teaching Writing in the Key of Katie Geneva Cannon

This tribute by a former doctoral student of Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon reflects on her mentor’s pedagogical strategies and techniques and how they have impacted her own teaching, as well as her approach to research and writing. The short essay describes several of Dr. Cannon’s assignments, including the Personal Ethical Inventory and the Socio-Religious Autobiography, and expresses her gratitude and indebtedness in prioritizing experiences and contributions of Blacks as an essential aspect of graduate theological education.

‘This heaped-up autobiography’: The Role of Religion in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetry

This chapter examines poems from Bishop’s early, middle and late work. It focuses in particular on the way she uses landscapes, animals, other people and objects to characterize her speakers. The chapter argues that Bishop's reason for adopting this strategy can be found in her reading and understanding of a certain religious tradition, particularly various classics of religious autobiography, including those of St Augustine, Kierkegaard and Teresa of Avila, and the religious poetry of Herbert and Hopkins. This leads to a discussion of Baudelaire's role in her work, an aspect that has not been widely discussed in Bishop scholarship so far.

Why I Am a Salafi

Anyone who was not familiar with Michael Muhammad Knight’s oeuvreand picked up his Why I Am a Salafi based upon the title, thinking it wouldbe a straightforward explanation and defense of Salafism, would be quicklydisabused of that impression. Knight begins this memoir/theological exploration/postmodern deconstruction with an extended anecdote abouthis experience of praying at a Los Angeles mosque while coming downfrom a drug-induced hallucination brought on by his intentional consumptionof Amazonian ayahuasca tea, and the book gets stranger from there.This transgressive episode of praying while high becomes a touchstone forKnight in his rethinking of his own Muslimness, the origins of the Islamictradition, and his life-journey through a variety of controversial and eccentriccommunities on the fringes of the American Muslim community.In Knight’s previous body of work—from his 2004 novel The Taqwacores(Soft Skull Press) about punk-rocking, countercultural American Muslimsto his insider-white-man narrative of an esoteric offshoot movement of theNation of Islam in Why I Am a Five Percenter (Penguin, 2011)—he has longcast himself as an experimental Muslim writer challenging established traditionsand organized religion of all kinds. Like some of his other books,Why I Am a Salafi is difficult to categorize. Framed around Knight’s odysseywithin American Islam and the diffuse trends that contributed to thedevelopment of his distinct perspective, it is part religious autobiography,part analysis of the nebulous concept of Salafism, and part therapy session.Indeed, drawing upon his well-established tendency toward bucking trendsand upsetting orthodoxies, Knight quips that in the progressive Muslimcircles he tends to run in, labeling himself a Salafi could itself be a form ofrebellion. “Depending on whom you want to irritate, Salafis could look likethe new punk rock” (29) ...

Chinul’s Excerpts and the Sudden/Gradual Debate in East Asian Buddhism

The introduction offers extended coverage of the history and influence of the Korean Zen master Chinul’s (1158-1210) Excerpts on Zen practice and its treatment of the “sudden/gradual issue” in East Asian Buddhism. The introduction describes how Chinul’s Excerpts serves as his “religious autobiography” and sets the agenda for the entire subsequent history of Korean Buddhist thought and practice. In Chinul’s analysis, enlightenment is actually both sudden and gradual: an initial sudden awakening to the numinous awareness that is inherent in all sentient beings, followed by gradual cultivation that removes the deep-seated habitual proclivities of thought and conduct that continue to manifest themselves even after awakening. Chinul’s preferred approach of “sudden awakening/gradual cultivation” becomes emblematic of the Korean Buddhist tradition. The introduction concludes with a discussion of the mature Korean seminary curriculum and the pivotal role Excerpts plays in that curriculum. Through the evidence marshalled, Chinul’s Excerpts emerges as the single most influential work written within the Korean Buddhist tradition.