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.

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