Reviving Kaliim]adid in the Modern Age: The Perpetual Relevance of al-Ghazali and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi

The new kalam (kalam jadid or new dialectics) intellectual movement started by al-Chazali and matured by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi succeeded in putting all the hellenising philosophical and natural sciences within the theological and epistemological ambit of tradition. This historical success provides pertinent lessons for Muslim scholars and intellectuals today to formulate what can be called a kalom al- asr, or the Dialectics of the Age, in order to bring tradition to engage creatively and evaluatively with the challenge and allure of contemporary westernising sciences.