Contemporary Sufism Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture

What is Sufism? Contemporary views vary tremendously, even among Sufis themselves. Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture brings to light the religious frameworks that shape the views of Sufism?s friends, adversaries, admirers, and detractors and, in the process, helps readers better understand the diversity of contemporary Sufism, the pressures and cultural openings to which it responds, and the many divergent opinions about contemporary Sufism?s relationship to Islam. The three main themes: piety, politics, and popular culture are explored in relation to the Islamic and Western contexts that shape them, as well as to the historical conditions that frame contemporary debates. This book is split into three parts:

? Sufism and anti-Sufism in contemporary contexts;

? Contemporary Sufism in the West: Poetic influences and popular manifestations;

? Gendering Sufism: Tradition and transformation.

This book will fascinate anyone interested in the challenges of contemporary Sufism as well as its relationship to Islam, gender, and the West. It offers an ideal starting point from which undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and lecturers can explore Sufism today.

Introduction. Chapter 1: Contextualizing the production of knowledge on contemporary Sufism in the West. PART I: SUFISM AND ANTI-SUFISM IN CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS. Chapter 2: Heart or heresy? The historical debate over Sufism’s place in Islam. Chapter 3: Contesting Sufism today: Contemporary Sufi and anti-Sufi responses. PART II: CONTEMPORARY SUFISM IN THE WEST: POETIC INFLUENCES AND POPULAR MANIFESTATIONS. Chapter 4: Sufism in the eyes of the West: Colonialists, Romantics, and Transcendentalists. Chapter 5: The era of Rumi: Contemporary Sufism and popular culture. PART III. GENDERING SUFISM: TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION. Chapter 6: Perfecting the self: Female Sufi saints in Islamic history. Chapter 7: "Women of light": Contemporary female Sufi leaders. Conclusion: Discourses of authenticity and complementary contradictions in contemporary Sufism

Meena Sharify-Funk is Associate Professor and the Chair of the Religion and Culture Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

William Rory Dickson is Assistant Professor of Islamic Religion and Culture at the University of Winnipeg, Canada.

Merin Shobhana Xavier is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College, USA.