<![CDATA[The distinction between secularization and secularism is central to understanding Nurcholish Madjid’s project of Islamic renewal in Indonesia. This study clarifies the relationship between secularization, tawhid (monotheism), and Islamic rationality. Using a qualitative library-based approach, it analyzes Madjid’s primary works and relevant scholarly literature through document analysis and thematic content analysis, focusing on tawhid, desacralization, rationality, and ijtihad. The findings demonstrate that secularization functions as a theological-intellectual process of desacralizing worldly institutions, traditions, and political authority without rejecting religious belief. Grounded in tawhid, this process distinguishes God’s absolute transcendence from the contingent nature of worldly arrangements, opening space for critical reasoning, intellectual autonomy, and contextual interpretation of Islamic teachings. The study’s theoretical contribution is an analytical framework linking tawhid, worldly desacralization, and rationality as interdependent dimensions of Islamic renewal. This framework establishes secularization not as a movement toward secularism, but as an internal resource for Islamic rationalization. It thus demonstrates how theological commitment can underpin critical inquiry and intellectual freedom, offering a conceptual basis for examining the relationship between Islam, rationality, and modernity in Indonesia.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
