Rahel Fischbach

Between God and History: Politics of Modern Muslim Qur'an Hermeneutics

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ISBN: 9783111335407
Author : Rahel Fischbach
Published: 2025
Publisher: De Gruyter
Number of pages: 175
Language: English
Format: Hardback
Format: 230×155
Description
This book examines the political nature of contemporary Muslim Qur’ān Hermeneutics. In particular, it examines how a historical view of scripture – developed and canonized in a Western academic context – is debated by Muslim thinkers today. I argue that methodological discussions about the Qur’ān are used to negotiate farther-reaching ethical concerns, both societal and political. They hence offer a window into socio-religious change today. Proponents of historical hermeneutics often consider them universally applicable – as a remedy for the partialities of tradition and a vehicle for progress. They interpret any opposition in binary categories: modern-premodern, outsider-insider, objective-subjective. Viewing the Qur’ān as a political object, however, sheds new light on these debates. The author contends that reading the Qur’ān as literature or as a historical document does not merely hinge on method or qur’ānic ontology but also on conceptions of human nature. Dissonances regarding epistemology and human nature lead to different sensibilities vis-à-vis the Qur’ān. Examining in detail debates over historical Qur’ān hermeneutics is meant to discern ways for a rapprochement between Western academic and Islamic qur’ānic studies.

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