Roundtable on Normativity in Islamic Studies

Normative Readings of the Qur'an: From the Premodern Middle East to the Modern West

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8201515
AutoresElliott Bazzano (Le Moyne College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Páginaslfv103
Fecha de publicación2016-01-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jaarel/lfv103
OpenAlexW2402467814
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas37

This article explores the variety of normative claims that both Muslims and non-Muslims have held about the Qur'an by asking two key questions: (1) What separates normative and non-normative approaches to scholarship? (2) What separates study of a tradition from contribution to that tradition? By surveying a multiplicity of scholars—spanning two millennia and disparate geographical regions—this article argues that objectivity is scarcely if ever possible in Qur'anic studies scholarship and that scholars of the Qur'an, Muslim or not, almost always have a normative agenda, whether implicit or explicit. Because the epistemological boundaries between insiders and outsiders are often fluid, recognizing the similarities between so-called insider and outsider approaches to Qur'anic exegesis across the centuries contributes to debates about normative scholarship by helping us to reimagine boundaries of identity, authority, and the struggle for normativity in religious studies scholarship.

Epistemology · Insider · Islam · Normative · Objectivity (philosophy) · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Theology · Education and Islamic Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development