Intended Meaning
The author holds that the renewal of knowledge can only occur through an epistemic break and with new tools suited to the twenty-first century. Relying only on the tools of the past hinders the formation of a new and different understanding.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: methodological
- Argument movement: a call for an epistemic break and for new tools for the twenty-first century.
- Central terms: knowledge, break, new tools, twenty-first century, renewal.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It makes epistemic renewal conditional on changing the tools rather than repeating the old, linking renaissance to a methodological transition rather than mere partial improvements, and serving the idea of a break with stagnation.
Reading Aids
- Muhammad Shahrur: Religion and Power
- The Method of Contemporary Reading
- Renaissance Requires a Break with Epistemic Tyranny
Basis
- Supporting text: “The need remains for an epistemic break and new tools suited to the twenty-first century.”
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of interpretation: the formulation above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is cited word for word.
Function in the Book
Its function here is methodological; it defines the mode of reading or reasoning that the book follows.
Related To
Editorial Note
This atom is suitable as an entry point to Shahrur’s method of updating reading.