New Approaches to Human Dignity in the Context of Qur’ānic Anthropology. The Quest for Humanity

In recent years, the challenge of relating one’s own theological concept of man and his destiny to secular topics, such as the inviolability of human dignity, has generated a dynamic discourse about how Islamic anthropology can help cultivate and perfect the individual self and social ‘humanisation’. This anthology brings together contemporary Muslim and non-Muslim approaches to the secular notion of human dignity with reference to the Islamic tradition in general and the anthropology of the Qur’ān in particular. The collection presents approaches to Islamic theological anthropology, across a range of fields, especially with regard to the narrative of Adam and Iblīs, which occurs in all monotheistic traditions. It focuses on the specific ‘grammars’ of anthropological narratives at the levels of the canonical text of the Qur’ān itself (Section I) and the interpretations that focus on its performative discourse (Section II). Further to this, the normative implications of the human images that are derived from the canonical text and its interpretations are discussed in Section III. The dynamic interdependencies between the hermeneutics of the Qur’ān, theological anthropology and legal philosophy, particularly in the European context, are a promising field of research that not only allows a deeper insight into the multiperspectivity and indexicality of theological anthropology, but also has the potential to facilitate the long-overdue discursive cooperation and rapprochement between Muslim and non-Muslim scholarship. Dr Rüdiger Braun is a Research Assistant at the Department of Theology at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His areas of research and teaching interests include Christian-Muslim dialogue, religious ethics, theology of religions and Islamic and Qur’ānic anthropology. Dr Hüseyin I. Çiçek is a Research Assistant in the Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe (EZIRE) at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His areas of research and teaching interests include religion and violence, Turkish studies and religious ethics. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One 10 Section I: Jewish and Religious Studies 50 Chapter Two 51 Chapter Three 70 Chapter Four 141 Chapter Five 158 Section II: Literary Studies and Exegesis 172 Chapter Six 173 Chapter Seven 188 Chapter Eight 230 Section III: Islamic Philosophy/Ethics and Law 246 Chapter Nine 247 Chapter Ten 259 Chapter Eleven 269 Contributors 287