Ibn Taymiyya's contextual biblical hermeneutics in Al-Jawāb al-Ṣaḥīḥ (The Correct Response)
Publication Date
July 23, 2019
Creator
Abstract
This thesis analyses how the renowned Ḥanbalī scholar Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) interprets quotations from the Bible in his voluminous al-Jawāb al-Ṣaḥīḥ li-man baddala dīn al-Masīḥ (The Correct Response to Those who Changed the Religion of Christ). Ibn Taymiyya wrote Jawāb to refute the anonymous Christian Letter from the people of Cyprus. The thesis also investigates the use of biblical quotations in the works of five major Muslim authors of refutations of Christianity, al-Ṭabarī’s (d. 865), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064), Pseudo-Ghazālī (active around 1200), al-Qarāfī (d. 1285), and al-Dimashqī (d. 1327) as a backdrop against which to assess the extent to which Ibn Taymiyya’s biblical hermeneutics is similar to and different from mainstream Muslim biblical scholarship.
The key conclusion of this thesis is that for biblical interpretation, Ibn Taymiyya employs a contextual theory of meaning that is inspired by the hermeneutics of Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) and qur’ānic exegesis (tafsīr), and guided by his wider theological principles. Ibn Taymiyya’s contextual biblical hermeneutics clearly distinguishes him from the other five Muslim scholars who use a theory of literal-nonliteral meaning for biblical interpretation.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Humanities
eprints ID
55855
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ZEYNEP YUCEDOGRU PHD THESIS COPY TO BE SUBMITTED 08012019.pdf
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