The workshop "Allegory and the Plain-sense Meaning of Scripture" aimed to bring together experts in the fields of Quranic and Biblical studies to discuss two seemingly different approaches to the assignment of meaning in Scripture. It focused on the interaction between two hermeneutical approaches: the plain-sense approach and the allegoric one. It highlighted the history of both in the classical period and in the 19th century, and was illustrating the transformations that occurred in the methods of textual interpretation. The presumed polarity between the two approaches has been recently called into question, raising the issue of the self-presentation of modernity as one of complete 'rationality'. Allegory has proved far more resilient, and not without its 'rational' underpinnings.
The scholars presented at the workshop was each dealt with a specific issue relating to the history and the interaction of these approaches in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic intellectual traditions. There were two foci for the workshop: the classical period where the two approaches were formulated, and the 19th century where a radical shift in the relationship of the traditions with these two approaches was witnessed. However, the workshop also questioned if such a view of the history of hermeneutics is validated by closer historical inspection.
The workshop viewed the concept of hermeneutics as encompassing all acts of interpretation above and beyond the scriptural; hence the scope of the workshop was hermeneutical and not scriptural alone. The workshop, in an indirect way, located the role of scriptural texts in cultural transformations. Modernity is despite itself a continuous interaction with the foundational texts of the past.
The workshop was a one-day-long event. There were two panels and one discussion panel. The first panel centered on the classical foundations of the debate around how to read scriptural texts. It presupposed that each tradition has to address the hermeneutical problems encountered when attempting to extract meaning from a canonical text. The second panel had two aims, the first was showing the confrontation of modernity with the allegorical method, the second was emphasizing that modernity is ultimately tied to an allegorical paradigm despite the valorization of the plain-sense approach. Each speaker had a 20 minute period to discuss the topic at hand.
The workshop was held in the framework of the research field "Perspectives on the Qur'an: Negotiating Different Views of a Shared History" of "Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe" (EUME).
Schedule:
9.30 am – 9.40 am
Angelika Neuwirth (Freie Universität, EUME member), Introductory Remarks
9.40 am – 1.30 pm
1st Panel: A History of the Plain-Sense and Allegoric Hermeneutics
Chair: Stefan Wild (Universität Bonn, EUME member)
Walid Saleh (University of Toronto; EUME Fellow 2008/09), Plain-Sense Meaning in the Islamic Religious Tradition
Husain Qutbuddin (Cambridge/Cairo; EUME Fellow 2008/09), Allegoric Meaning in the Islamic Religious Tradition
Michael Marx (Corpus Coranicum, BBAW), Mary in the Qur'an and the Four Meanings of the Gospel
David Kiltz (Corpus Coranicum, BBAW), Premise and Promise. Paradise in Ephrem the Syrian and the Qur'an
Oded Schechter (Princeton University), Is there a Plain-Sense Meaning? Is there a Meaning? A Reading in the Talmud
2.30 pm – 4:30 pm
2nd Panel: 19th Century Transformations
Chair: Walid Saleh
Islam Dayeh (Freie Universität Berlin), The 'Allegorical' and the Advent of Historical-Literary Meaning. Lessons from the Egyptian School
Hannelies Koloska (Freie Universität Berlin), Ornament or Method? Qur'anic Parabolic Speech in Modern Hermeneutical Approaches
Sasha Dehghani (Zentrum für Literaturforschung), Typology and Martyrdom in the Story of Joseph: Some Reflections on the Bab's Primary Tafsir
5 pm – 6 pm
Discussion
Almut Bruckstein (ha'atelier, Berlin), TASWIR. Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam. A Poetic Documentation
Chair: Michael Marx (BBAW, Corpus Coranicum)