Severus of Antioch at the Crossroad of the Antiochene and Alexandrian Exegetical Tradition

2016 ◽  
pp. 160-182
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tehseen Thaver

Within the broader discipline of Qur'anic exegesis, the sub-genre of the mutashābihāt al-Qurʾān (the ambiguous verses of the Qur'an) is comprised of works dedicated to the identification and explication of those verses that present theological or linguistic challenges. Yet, the approach, style, and objective of the scholars who have written commentaries on the ambiguous verses are far from monolithic. This essay brings into focus the internal diversity of this important exegetical tradition by focusing on the Qur'an commentaries of two major scholars in fourth/eleventh-century Baghdad, al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016) and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025). Al-Raḍī was a prominent Twelver Shīʿī theologian and poet while ʿAbd al-Jabbār was a leading Muʿtazilī theologian during this period; al-Raḍī was also ʿAbd al-Jabbār's student and disciple. Through a close reading of their respective commentaries on two Qur'anic verses, I explore possible interconnections and interactions between Shīʿī and Muʿtazilī traditions of exegesis, and demonstrate that while ʿAbd al-Jabbār mobilised the language of Islamic jurisprudence, al-Raḍī primarily relied on early Islamic poetry and the etymology of the Arabic language. Methodologically, I argue against a conceptual approach that valorises sectarian and theological identity as the primary determinant of hermeneutical desires and sensibilities.


Author(s):  
Brian E. Daley, SJ

The Council of Chalcedon’s definition of the terms in which Nicene orthodoxy should conceive of Christ’s person remained controversial. Leontius of Byzantium argued for the correctness of the Council’s formulation, especially against the arguments of Severus of Antioch, but suggested that more than academic issues were at stake: the debate concerned the lived, permanently dialectical unity between God and humanity. In the mid-seventh century, imperially sponsored efforts to lessen the perceived impact of Chalcedonian language by stressing that Christ’s two natures were activated by “a single, theandric energy,” also remained without effect: largely because of the monk Maximus “the Confessor”, who argued that two complete spheres of activity and two wills remained evident in Christ’s life. Maximus’s position was ratified at the Lateran Synod and at the Third Council of Constantinople. The eighth-century Palestinian monk John of Damascus incorporated these arguments into his own influential synthesis of orthodox theology.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-171
Author(s):  
HAY Kathleen
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-288
Author(s):  
Jeongmo Yoo

This study deals with Andrew Fuller’s (1754–1815) critique of Robert Robinson of Cambridge (1735–1790) with a particular focus on Fuller’s critique of Robinson’s view of the canonicity of the Song of Songs. Fuller’s defence of the canonicity of the Song of Songs and his interpretation of it evidently follows the mainstream Protestant view of the Reformation and the Post-Reformation eras in continuity with the patristic and medieval exegetical tradition. In particular, standing firm with the predominant exegetical tradition of previous centuries, Fuller takes allegory as the main exegetical method to interpret the Song of Songs. Even though Fuller emphatically rejects the use of vain allegory as a human invention, his interpretation of the Song of Songs indicates that if allegory may be able to connect appropriate features in an Old Testament passage with a greater truth revealed in Christ, he allows for the use of allegory to expose the meaning of the text.


2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Nygren

AbstractTitian paintedChrist with the Coinfor Alfonso d’Este around 1516. The painting served as the cover piece for a collection of ancient coins and has been read as a commentary on politics and taxation. Instead, this article reveals how the painting reconfigured Alfonso’s interaction with ancient coins, transforming the everyday activity of the collector into an occasion of spiritual reformation. Reading numismatic antiquarianism against the exegetical tradition that accrued around the Gospel pericope (Matthew 22:21) reveals the painting as the nexus of two regimes of virtue — one Christian, one classical — both of which turn upon coins as manifold objects.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document