Introduction

Debates about the relationship between Islamic seminaries and institutions of higher education often distinguish these two sectors by reference to their pedagogical and epistemological approaches as being either ‘confessional’ or ‘non-confessional’. This is likely to reflect a discourse and vocabulary that has shaped the world of religious education in schools for many years (Thompson 2004), and to some extent the respective approaches of ‘theology’ and ‘religious studies’ in the academy. Over the last decade or so, this vocabulary seems to have grafted itself onto discussions about the relationship between Islamic seminaries and universities as well, but often with little critique.

Given the changed landscape of advanced teaching and learning about Islam and Muslims in Britain over the last twenty-five years (Scott-Baumann and Cheruvallil-Contractor 2015), this chapter questions whether the terminology ‘confessional’ and ‘non-confessional’ remains helpful (at all – to anyone). Influenced by the way in which the binaries of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ have come to be regarded as problematic in relation to ethnographic social scientific fieldwork (for an example in British Muslim studies, see Abbas 2010), I propose that the assumed binary of confessional/non-confessional presents similar difficulties, and is arguably outdated. Influenced by social scientific perspectives which argue that identities and positionalities (in relation to more or less anything) are contextually dependent, negotiated, socially constructed and performed, I suggest that it may be helpful to move beyond the assumptions that seem to be inherent in the terms ‘confessional’ and ‘non-confessional’.

But this exploration is necessarily interdisciplinary, as well as being informed by social scientific perspectives. It will involve reference to developments in religious studies, philosophy of religion and religious education. Traversing through these various disciplines, I hope to argue that concepts and vocabulary, and people and institutions, are far more complex, untidy and confused than any simplistic notions of ‘confessional’ and ‘non-confessional’ seem to suggest. In the last part of this chapter, I want to present some ideas about enabling criteria and opportunities for supporting partnership between Islamic seminaries and universities in the teaching of the Islamic tradition.