Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an
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Todd Lawson
Abstract
It is remarkable that so little scholarship has been devoted to the rich topic of emotion in the Qurʾan. The most recent guides or companions to the Qurʾan, edited by leaders in the field, barely refer to the topic. Perhaps earlier Christian polemics against Islam which tended to see the revelation of the Qur’an as a function the Prophet’s emotional instability has thus left a doubly negative mark. Here the focus is on emotion as a form of cognition in the Qurʾan: 1) emotions of God, represented by the qur’anic names and attributes, 2) the role of God in the life of the believer and the community, which entails an emotional bond, and 3) the emotions of the prophets. Here the focus is on Joseph whose “imitation of God” is fraught with emotional energy and vitality. The approach adopted is towards the poetics of the text and the way words, images and vignettes may apply to both the unknowable God and, in this case, the comparatively knowable prophet Joseph.
Abstract
It is remarkable that so little scholarship has been devoted to the rich topic of emotion in the Qurʾan. The most recent guides or companions to the Qurʾan, edited by leaders in the field, barely refer to the topic. Perhaps earlier Christian polemics against Islam which tended to see the revelation of the Qur’an as a function the Prophet’s emotional instability has thus left a doubly negative mark. Here the focus is on emotion as a form of cognition in the Qurʾan: 1) emotions of God, represented by the qur’anic names and attributes, 2) the role of God in the life of the believer and the community, which entails an emotional bond, and 3) the emotions of the prophets. Here the focus is on Joseph whose “imitation of God” is fraught with emotional energy and vitality. The approach adopted is towards the poetics of the text and the way words, images and vignettes may apply to both the unknowable God and, in this case, the comparatively knowable prophet Joseph.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
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1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
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2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
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3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
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4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword to the Series V
- Acknowledgments IX
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
-
1 Contemporary Methodological Perspectives on Emotions
- Selected Avenues to Emotion-Oriented Interpretations of Ancient Religious Texts: Review and Outlook 9
- Grasping Religiously Connoted Emotions and Sentiments from a Co-Constructivist Emotion Paradigm 29
- Antisemitism as Cultural Sadism: An Erotohistorical Approach 51
-
2 Grasping Emotions in Ancient Iconography
- Emotions and Ancient Near Eastern Art: Issues and Methods 79
- Emotions and Visual Arts, with a Focus on Greco-Roman Artefacts: A Response to K. Sonik 99
-
3 Grasping Emotions in Religious Authorative Texts of Antiquity
- Emotion Scripts in the Hebrew Bible: A Case of Hate 127
- Grasping Emotions in Psalm 130: Hermeneutics, Methods, and Issues 143
- Prophetic Shockvertising: Methods and Ethics of Shock Effects in Amos 3, Isaiah 20, and Ezekiel 23 177
- „Und sie fürchteten sich sehr …“: Kognitionswissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zur Angst und deren Anwendung auf neutestamentliche Texte 207
- Qur’anic Plot and the Practice of Emotional Virtue, with the Example of Al-Aʿrāf (Q. 7) 229
- Divine Attributes and Human Emotions: Joseph’s Sentimental Education in Sura 12 of the Qur'an 253
-
4 Grasping Emotions from Philosophical and Systematic-Theological Perspectives
- Kontrollieren oder Kultivieren der Emotionen? Aristoteles’ Konzeption der Emotionen 273
- Sprache und Gefühl: Überlegungen zur theologischen Hermeneutik 289
- Mimesis, Gefühl und Ratio: Anthropologische Mehrdimensionalität und religiöse Tradition: Eine Response zu R. Barth 303
- List of Authors 313
