Conceptualizing Islam: Current Approaches

Edited By Frank Peter, Paula Schrode, Ricarda Stegmann

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: July 20, 2026

Hardcover: 322 Pages

ISBN: 9781032194738

What does it mean to study “Islam” as an academic object? Conceptualizing Islam: Current Approaches, brings together contemporary perspectives on one of the central questions in the academic study of Islam.” What does it mean to study “Islam” as an academic object?” the volume examines how scholars conceptualize Islam and how these approaches have developed within the study of religion.
Academic debates about how to conceptualize Islam have become increasingly diverse in recent decades. At the same time, Islam has acquired greater visibility in political and social debates, making questions about how it is defined, studied, and represented particularly important. The book explores these developments while encouraging readers to examine the assumptions and categories through which Islam has traditionally been understood.
The volume brings together contributions from scholars working across different disciplines and theoretical traditions. Its chapters engage with subjects including colonialism, conceptual history, postcolonial approaches, Muslim publics, Islam in Europe, sectarianism, racialization, anthropology, discourse theory, and Islamic orthodoxy.
A major concern of the book is the relationship between concepts of Islam and the historical contexts in which they emerge. Several chapters examine how colonial knowledge, European intellectual traditions, and modern political categories have shaped the ways Islam and Muslims have been studied.
The book is not limited to theoretical discussion. Its later chapters demonstrate how different conceptual approaches can be applied to concrete research, including Muslim perspectives on inheritance law in Switzerland, patterns of Islamic orthodoxy, contemporary Sufi practices, charisma and revelation, and the study of Islam through the “discursive tradition” framework. In this way, the volume connects methodological debates with actual research practices in Islamic and religious studies.

About Editors:

Frank Peter is a Research Fellow at the FAU Centre for Islam and Law in Europe in Erlangen, Germany.
His research focuses on Islam in contemporary France, with particular attention to digital Islam and secularism.
His broader interests include the anthropology of Islam, political religion, Orientalism, and Islamophobia.
He is also the author of Secularism without Religion: Islam and the Governing of Muslims in France.

Paula Schrode is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bayreuth.
She specializes in contemporary Islam and the study of religious practices and processes.
Her current research explores the transnational entanglements of Turkish Islam.
She is particularly interested in the activities of Turkish religious NGOs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ricarda Stegmann is a Lecturer and Senior Researcher in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Her research focuses on Islam in Europe and contemporary Sufism worldwide.
Her work also draws on discourse theory, colonial history, Orientalism, and postcolonial studies.
She is particularly interested in Islamic identity constructions in Europe and North Africa.