Creation and Contemplation

The Cosmology of the Qur'¿n and Its Late Antique Background
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-3-11-162728-1
Verlag: De Gruyter

Buch, Englisch, Band 47, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 446 g

Reihe: Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East

In Creation and Contemplation, Julien Decharneux explores the connections between the cosmology of the Qur’an and various cosmological traditions of Late Antiquity, with a focus on Syriac Christianity. The first part of the book studies how, in exhorting its audience to contemplate the world, the Qur’an carries on a tradition of natural contemplation that had developed throughout Late Antiquity in the Christian world. In this regard, the analysis suggests particularly striking connections with the mystical and ascetic literature of the Church of the East, which was in effervescence at the time of the emergence of Islam. The second part argues that the Qur’anic cosmological discourse is built so as to serve the overarching theological message of the text, namely God’s absolute unity. Despite the allusive, and sometimes obscure, way in which the Qur’an talks about the world’s coming into being and its maintenance in existence, the text betrays its authors’ acquaintance with cosmological debates of Late Antiquity. In studying the Qur’an through the prism of Late Antiquity, this book contributes to our understanding of the emergence of Islam and its relationship with other religious traditions of the time. Winner of the 2022 Marie-Antoinette Van Huele Prize and the 2023 Richard Kreglinger Prize (both Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Free University of Brussels.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Decharneux, Julien

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Koran, Heilige Texte & Traditionsliteratur
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Geschichte des Islam

Über Autor(innen)

Julien Decharneux, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgien.

Julien Decharneux, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.