"Ideas matter deeply in contemporary Muslim politics. Their urgency and richness are particularly compelling in Indonesia, which is in the throes of one of the most hopeful if contested political transitions in the contemporary Muslim world. In this timely and well-written book, Carool Kersten provides an intellectual history of the ideas and debates among rival Muslim thinkers vying for influence in Indonesia's unfinished democratic transition. His account of debates over secularism, pluralism, liberalism, and Islamic law is without peer, and shows a keen understanding of the relevance of these ideas for political and ethical reform elsewhere in the Muslim world. This superb book should be read by anyone interested in the ideas at stake in Indonesia and the varied contests animating modern Muslim politics everywhere." -- Robert W. Hefner, Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, and author of Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia "Kersten s breakdown of contemporary Islamic intellectual history provides a complex framework for thinking about the formation of Islamic sensibilities in Indonesia. His framework does not solidify stereotypical dichotomies 'traditional/modern' or 'conservative/liberal' which continue to not only haunt the study of Islam in Indonesia, but discussions of Indonesian Islam more broadly.

His work is invaluable in this regard.Kersten s critique of the isms, [secularism, pluralism, and liberalism] in trying to more accurately understand what is at stake in Indonesian debates within and between the reactionary and progressive Muslim intellectual community opens productive possibilities for future research."--Reading Religion.