Abduh, Muhammad
Philosophy with The VALiens: The Nature of Modernity by Muhammad Abduh
Modernity, or the modern age, is usually defined as post-traditional, post-medieval historical
period (Heidegger 1938, 66-67), marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism,
industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions
and forms of surveillance (Barker 2004, 444). From conceptual understanding, modernity relates
to modern era and to modernism, but forms a distinct idea. Whereas the enlightenment refers to
specific movement in western philosophy, modernity tends to refer only to social relations
associated with the rise of capitalism. Modernity may also refer to certain intellectual cultures,
particularly the movement associated with secularization and post-industrial life, such as
Marxism, existentialism, and some formal establishment of social science.
Modernity denotes the renunciation of the past, favoring a new beginning, and a reinterpretation
of historical origin. Central to modernity is the emancipation from religion, especially the
hegemony of Christianity, and subsequent call for secularization. The idea of modernity has
many ramifications in politics, sociology, culture, philosophy, science, and art.
The distinction between modernity and modernism, modern, and modernization begin to arise in
the nineteenth century (Delanty 2007) with such attempt to define its precise meaning and nature
in modern time.
John F. Wilson defined “modern” as “a correlative term: it implies what is new as opposed to
what is ancient, what is innovative as opposed to what is traditional or handed down.” (Wilson
1987, 18). Modern, therefore, must be viewed as a relative term historically (e.g. what one
considered to be modern sculpture of architecture in 1900 was much different than the modern
expressions of art in 1990). (Berry, 1990, 7). Richard Bendix describe ‘modern society’ as “the
social conditions of the present, or of recent times including the present, as contrasted with those
of an earlier period.” (Richard Bendix 1968, 275). Modern, in one way, is an innovative present
age as contrasted to modernization, which is a “programmatic remaking of the political and
economic aspects of society in support of the new” (John Wilson, 10), which shows that the
process of modernization remakes or reforms the traditional character of political and economic
institutions of a given culture based on the affirmation of new discoveries or innovations. Wilson
reserves modernization to politics and economics, and prefer to coin modernism with religious
tradition. Peter Berger defined modernization as: “the growth and diffusion of a set of
institutions rooted in the transformation of the economy by means of technology”. (Peter Berger
1974, 9).
Modernism, in its widest definition, is modern thought, character and practiced. Specifically, it
describes the modernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated
cultural movements, arising from far-reaching changes to Western societies in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. The development of modern industrial societies, the rapid growth of cities
and the eruption of World War I, were major factors that shaped modernism. Some experts
define modernism as “a socially progressive trend of thought that affirms the power of human
beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical
experimentation, scientific knowledge or technology” (Bermann 1988, 16).
Many traditionalists consider modernism as potentially pose greater challenge to religious
heritage than modernization. Robert Bellah sees modernism as “an explicit and self conscious
commitment to the modern in intellectual and cultural matters” (or at least support of the claims
of the new as against its critics and detractors). (Robert Bellah 1970, 72-3). According to him,
modernism involves a conscientious effort on the part of the participant to enlighten a particular
religious tradition by accommodating or adapting to the cultural or intellectual innovations of the
day.
Modernism in Christianity refers to the progressive theological thought which developed in the
nineteenth and twentieth century. (M.G. Reardon 1987, 14). The work of Christian modernists,w. lsuch as Alfred Loisy, Ernst Troeltsch, William Bousset and others reflected the progressive spirit of Christian modernist thought since nineteenth century. The same period witness the emergent of Muslim modernists of high standing such as Sir Sayyid Ahmad khan, Ameer Ali, Muhammad Iqbal, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Shaykh Muhammad Abduh and Muhammad Rashid Rida.
Modernist movement constitutes radical new direction in approaching art, architecture, music,
literature, culture, letters, design, and technology especially in the late 20th century which stress
on freedom of expression, experimentation, radicalism and revolutionary concept and ideas.
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