The Approach of Islamic Studies In Mapping Richard C. Martin

Abstract

Kajian ini berfokus pada pemetaan pendekatan studi Islam dalam salah satu karya Richard C. Martin yang disunting berjudul Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies. Penelitian ini mengambil bentuk deskriptif-analitis yang dimulai dengan mengungkap latar belakang penulisan hingga evolusi sejarah studi agama. Melalui penelitian ini, beberapa kesimpulan yang dapat dikemukakan terkait dengan kecemasan akademik Martin, yang diakuinya dilatarbelakangi oleh kelemahan antara pendekatan teologis yang mempertahankan pemahaman normatif agama, dan sudut pandang sejarah agama yang menekankan pada deskripsi analitis dan membutuhkan jarak bagi para penelitinya. Sementara terkait dengan evolusi studi sejarah agama, ia menilai perkembangan studi independen setelah studi sejarah, antropologi, sosiologi, teologi dan studi timur, dan oleh karena itu, perkembangan studi tersebut cukup berpengaruh dalam cara sejarawan agama bekerja. Pengembangan lebih lanjut dianggap perlu untuk memisahkan studi agama dari disiplin lain. This study focuses on the mapping of the Islamic studies approach in one of Richard C. Martin's edited works entitled Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies. This study takes a descriptive-analytical form which begins by revealing the background of writing to the historical evolution of religious studies. Through this study, several conclusions that can be presented are related to Martin's academic anxiety, which he admits is motivated by a weakness between the theological approach which maintains a normative understanding of religions, and the history of religion point of view which emphasizes analytical descriptions and requires distance for the researchers.While related to the evolution of the study of the history of religion, he assessed the development of independent studies after historical studies, anthropology, sociology, theology and the study of the east, and therefore, developments in these studies were quite influential in the way historians of religions worked. further developments are deemed necessary to separate religious studies from other disciplines.