Sa ̔d ibn Mansur ibn Kammuna al-Baghdadi. Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice. Translated with Introduction, Summary, and Commentary by Y. Tzvi Langermann. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. Pp. 208. $85.00. ISBN: 978-0-300-20369-1.

One of the interesting developments engendered by the challenge of modernity to tradition is a growing sense of common cause among the world’s major religions as they confront this latest and perhaps greatest threat to their existence. Humanity’s spiritual and metaphysical systems, embattled on a variety of fronts by the inroads of science, democracy, utilitarianism, and egalitarianism, have deployed similar methods in order to strike back: critiques of the theory of evolution; “scientific” proofs of the existence of God; denunciations of the moral relativism purportedly generated by positivism; and arguments to the effect that genuine feminism is to be found in scripture, or that democracy must be tempered by theocracy, or that ingesting forbidden foodstuffs is medically unhealthy. Western knowledge has become both nemesis and touchstone in the eyes of today’s faithful. Though it may not look possible at the moment, the common challenge faced today by the adherents of the various traditional faiths may soon become a unifying factor.