![]() 53), with specific reference to the Qur'an's use of analogy and metaphor to instruct its audience. In ‘Sign, Analogy, and the Via Negativa: Approaching the Transcendent God of the Qur'an’, Rosalind Ward Gwynne investigates the rhetorical structure of the Qur'an, the ‘signs’ through which it ‘engages the intellect of the hearer or reader, as well as his or her hopes, fears, uncertainties, failings, and virtues’ (p. Fudge uses Assia Djebar's Loin de Médine and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses as examples of how this ‘authority relationship’ between Qur'an and literature are discussed in the modern novel. Returning to the Qur'an, Bruce Fudge's article ‘Qur'an, Canon, and Literature’ looks at ‘scriptural influence/authority as it is manifested in literature’ (p. She addresses the tensions inherent in reading the text as a description of the spiritual union between Christ and his human worshippers which bridges the gap between the spiritual and material worlds, and the implications these readings had for an understanding of the function and meaning of metaphor in this text. Given that its erotic content and imagery could be seen as antithetical to Puritan sensibilities, Cheney discusses how both of these commentators read the Song of Songs as a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. After this somewhat creaky start, Jessie Cheney's (very short) ‘If the Words Be Well Understood’ addresses the theological reaction of two seventeenth-century Puritan commentators (Richard Sibbes and John Cotton) to the Song of Songs. 26, et al), and talks about ‘Americans and Muslims’ as two distinct groups (!) (p. Although the author is clearly pitching this piece at a non-specialist audience, it suffers from an apologist stance and oversimplistic approach: for example, Afridi posits a monolithic ‘Islam’, divides the world into ‘Muslims and non-Muslims’ (p. Her ‘Contemporary Readings of the Qur'an: Cruel/Compassionate?’ is predominantly a condemnation of ‘literalist’ readings of Qur'anic verses pertaining to jihād. Afridi's discussion of Qur'anic ‘tropes’ relating to ‘words such as “infidels,” “the people of the one book,” “killing,” “martyrdom,” “allies,” “unbelievers,” “equality,” and “justice”’ (p. Part one, ‘Poetics’, is introduced by Peter Heath and contains the highest concentration of articles on the Qur'an, which may be a general reflection of current trends within Qur'anic and Islamic studies as compared to those taking place in academic discourse on the literary culture of the Tanakh and New Testament. ![]() ![]() ![]() McDonald (who has written predominantly on vampires and serves as a reader for The Journal of Dracula Studies) and Magda Romanska (Polish theatre).įollowing the notes on contributors, preface and general introduction, the collection is divided into six thematic parts – ‘Poetics’, ‘Negotiating Boundaries: Crossings and Defining the Human and the Divine’, ‘Topographies: Landscape and Body’, ‘Subjectivity’, ‘Gift and Sacrifice’ and ‘Imperialism, Revolution and Community’ – each of which is preceded by a short introduction. Contributors are drawn from various backgrounds, in terms of both disciplinary and geographical areas of study, thus, besides articles by scholars from Qur'anic, Tanakh and New Testament studies, there are also contributions from some perhaps more unexpected sources for example Katherine Lundeen (British Romantic literature), Wendy Lane Belcher (African literature), William Thomas McBride (film, drama and hermeneutics), Beth E. These are based on papers given at meetings held over a three-year period by the Modern Language Association, American Comparative Literature Association, Pacific Ancient and Modern Literary Association, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Forum Lecture series. Intended as a methodologically diverse, comparative collection to be used in undergraduate studies to ‘broaden understanding of all three sacred texts and to find ways that they in turn speak to each other’ (‘Preface’), Sacred Tropes consists of 33 (generally short) essays devoted to the Tanakh, the New Testament and the Qur'an. ![]()
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