Kull Ann: Piety and Politics

Indonesia - the worlds most populous Muslim country - has for many years provided a fertile soil for Islamic reform. Nurcholish Madjid (d. 2005) is by many Indonesians regarded as the first and foremost Muslim representative of the flourishing reform movement. This book is an intellectual biography of Nurcholish Madjid and aims at providing an illuminating picture of this complex man; a reformer of Islamic thinking and education, a public intellectual and role model, and not least, a Sufi. Kull, therefore, provides a presentation of Nurcholish‘s life including religious and scholarly influences, and the Indonesian political, social and religious context. On the basis of this background she analyses Nurcholish‘s ideas and methodology in Islamic interpretation. Kull also elaborates on Nurcholish‘s various activities in order to diffuse his ideas, as well as the positive and negative reactions towards Nurcholish as a private person and Muslim ideologue. This book is of interest not only for scholars and students in the field of Islamic and Indonesian studies, but also for the generally interested reader who wishes to challenge prevailing stereotypes of Muslim ideologues.