A few years ago, this issue was just a gleam in the eyes of the board of this Journal. After I joined the Editorial Board, discussions commenced in earnest about how the Journal might bring authentic Islamic thought to American and other English-speaking scholars in an academic environment used to hearing about Islam through secondary sources. I (naively) volunteered to guest-edit an issue of modem, groundbreaking Islamic thinking and invited the contributions of distinguished writers from around the Muslim world including the United States, and the volume in your hand reflects these efforts.