On the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology

This is a reasonably good introduction to Islamic theology, but the authors pull no punches: Aristotle’s categories and a rudimentary grasp of Neoplatonic thought are absolute musts, and when I understood everything in an essay it felt like an achievement. It becomes clear after a while that the central points of contention are essentially the same throughout: is there free will? what is the nature of reality, and how did the universe begin? what about God is even knowable? by what means does causation occur? The borders between the theological schools are drawn over these questions. The one I found most interesting was the Muʿtazila, which seems to have largely died out except among the Shiʿa. The book closes with thought since the nineteenth century and new directions today, though the bulk of it covers the ninth through twelfth centuries — the classical era — with only a bit on what came after.