Includes bibliographical references (p. [370]-389) and index.

Cultural tensions, modernity, globalization, and conflict -- The predicament : the exposure to cultural modernity, and the need for an accommodation. Religious reform and cultural change in Islamic civilization -- Issue areas of the predicament I : modernity and knowledge. Torn between reason and Islamization -- Issue areas of the predicament II : cultural modernity and law. The contemporary reinvention of shari'a for the shari'atization of Islam -- Issue areas of the predicament III : Islam, the principle of subjectivity, and individual human rights -- Islam's predicament as a source of conflict. Cultural-religious tensions and identity politics -- Cultural change and religious reform I : The challenge of secularization in the shadow of de-secularization -- Cultural change and religious reform II : pluralism of religions vs. Islamic supremacism -- Authenticity and cultural legacy : a plea for the revival of the heritage of Islamic rationalism : falsafa/rational philosophy vs. fiqh-orthodoxy -- Case studies I : the failed cultural transformation in Egypt. A model for the Islamic world? -- Case studies II : the gulf beyond the age of oil. The envisioned cultural project for the future -- Conclusions and future prospects : cultural modernity and the Islamic dream of semi-modernity.