The Idea
This methodology assumes that understanding tradition cannot be achieved from a single standpoint. It returns to the past to deconstruct its layers, then returns to the present to test what this past has become in contemporary consciousness. It therefore neither glorifies the old nor breaks with it; instead, it subjects it to a dual examination that combines appropriation and critique at once.
Its Place in the Book’s Argument
The position of this claim is important because it clarifies how the book seeks to move beyond the binary between sanctification and rejection. In this perspective, fundamentalist thought is not addressed through direct condemnation alone, but by uncovering the process of its formation within religious and social memory. The progressive-retrogressive methodology here gives the book a way to read tradition as living historical material, not as a rigid trace or an infallible reference.
Why It Matters
Its importance lies in the fact that it reveals the features of Arkoun’s reformist project as the book presents it: a project that does not begin by severing ties with the past, but by rearranging it epistemologically. This helps the reader understand why he insists on a shared critique of both tradition and modernity. It also shows that the problem is not the existence of the past, but the way it is present within the present.
Reading Questions
- How can one combine a return to the past with the practice of contemporary critique at the same time?
- What does this methodology add compared with a purely traditional or purely modern reading?