Book 162

In Muhammad 'Abduh and his Interlocutors: Conceptualizing Religion in a Globalizing World, Ammeke Kateman offers an account of Muhammad 'Abduh's Islamic Reformism in a context in which ideas increasingly crossed familiar geographical, religious and cultural frontiers. Presenting an alternative to the inadequate perspective of "Westernization", Kateman situates the ideas of Muhammad 'Abduh (Egypt, 1849-1905) on Islam and religion amongst those of his interlocutors within a global intellectual field.



Ammeke Kateman's approach documents the surprising pluralism of 'Abduh's interlocutors, the diversity in their shared conceptualizations of religion and the creativity of 'Abduh's own interpretation. In this way, the conceptualizations of 'Abduh and his contemporaries also shed light on the diversified global genealogy of the modern concept of religion.