The Islamic World’s encounter with Modernity was and is at the same time an encounter with a powerful and expanding West. As Western countries industrialized during the Nineteenth century they also competed for hegemonic influence around the globe in the process spreading a secular theology sometimes referred to as Modernity. This theology, which entails the separation of the religious from the political, challenged the totalizing scope of Islamic doctrine. In rejection of the West, some groups...

The Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475-1564 CE) is best known as a painter and a sculptor. His two most famous works are the fresco The Creation of Adam (1510-11) and his marble statue of David (1501-04). But few people know that he was also an accomplished poet. Two of his poems reveal his Christian-based philosophy on art.

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