Is There a Church in Islam?

Abstract

Each religion constitutes a distinct system. Failure to recognize this once led many observers of Islam into error, and scholars have therefore tended to move towards purely Islamic categories. Universal categories, however, are needed in order for scholars to transcend boundaries between scholarly disciplines and to communicate effectively with the wider public. This is also true with respect to issues such as 'church' and 'mosque' in current debates on authority within Islam, and more precisely, on institutional authority.