Tafsir Studies and the Conundrum of Normativity

Pieter Coppens

doi:10.1163/22117954-bja10041

Abstract

Abstract Tafsir studies, due to its focus on reception history and tradition rather than on the origins of Islam, may be a locus of fruitful cooperation between the new field of Islamic theology and ‘regular’ Islamic studies that transcends the problematic dichotomy of insider/outsider perspectives. Redefining normativity as negotiating the future of Islam’s discursive tradition, arguably a shared concern of Islamic theologians and Islamicists, although their motivations differ, may be a way to further neutralise the conundrum of normativity in Islamic studies. I argue that ‘historically and sociologically informed normativity’ is the way forward for Islamic theology, and will make the field relevant beyond its own disciplinary boundaries.

Highlights

One may argue that the relation between ‘descriptive’ and ‘prescriptive’ approaches – or ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, ‘emic’ and ‘etic’, ‘normative’ and ‘objective’ – in the study of Islam at universities in the Global North is going through a reverse development from that which took place in the study of Christianity
Its normativity is legitimate for two reasons: 1) non-religious engagement cannot escape normativity and engagement with the future of Islam’s discursive tradition; in a theological framework this may sometimes be more explicit, but that is no ground for placing it outside academic boundaries; 2) when firmly rooted in the study of the past and present of the discursive tradition, normative theological studies produce knowledge that is relevant for non-theological scholars of Islam and that is methodologically and epistemologically accessible and verifiable to them
I can only agree with Hughes that the manipulation of historical data and apologetics should have no place in the study of religion – or in any study whatsoever, I may add, whether academic or non-academic

Summary

Introduction

One may argue that the relation between ‘descriptive’ and ‘prescriptive’ approaches – or ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, ‘emic’ and ‘etic’, ‘normative’ and ‘objective’ – in the study of Islam at universities in the Global North is going through a reverse development from that which took place in the study of Christianity.

Results

Conclusion