Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology A Critical Re-evaluation (by Joseph J. Kaminski)

Abstract

Scholarship on Liberalism and Islam appears to be neither scarce nor soon to be. However, Joseph J. Kaminski’s Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology: A Critical Re-evaluation diverges from this extensive literature in its substantiveness. The work attempts an ontological analysis of the issue, whereas the bulk of other work is rather “stylistic” (9), as the literature review in the Introduction puts succinctly. Kaminski undertakes this research through “a rigorous critical analysis and deep investigation of the basic categories and constructs that comprise” (3) the relevant phenomena. To this end, unlike usual discussions of the matter, he employs a comparative political theory approach, which enables him to scrutinize Islam and Liberalism as two comprehensive doctrines.