Based on the synergistic theoretical foundation of EQaB (see theoretical framework), the second subproject is entitled “Education in Late Antiquity and the Axial Age: From the Bible to the Qur’an”.

 

For some time now, the Qur’an has been studied as a text of Late Antiquity (Neuwirth 2010; 2017; Fowden 1993; Brown 1971). Eschewing the problematic view that the Qur’an is only a derivative of Jewish or Christian sources, such an approach stresses the Qur’anic text as an original, complex piece that displays both continuity and breaks with various traditions, whether they be Biblical, Near Eastern, or syncretist. Education is at the very centre of Late Antique religious tendencies, exemplified by the ascetic and pious practices of Christian monasticism (Bell 1968). Considering the lack of interest in the Qur’an’s educational qualities, it is not surprising that its potential Late Antique influences have not been studied (cf. Christiansen 2021). EQaB’s second subproject (SP2) not only remedies this, but also advances the study of religion and education surrounding the Qur’an by examining the educational normativities of Biblical texts, e.g., Jesus’ teaching activities in the Gospels and pedagogical strategies in apocalyptic literature, based on Bellah’s theoretical notion of an Axial Age (Byrskog 1994; Dillon 1995; Riesner 2019; Stuckenbruck 2020). The individual outcome of SP2 is two articles in e.g., History of Religions.

 

SP2 constitutes the EQaB’s dimension of width and is managed by Postdoc Rachel Dryden.

 

Bell, Richard. 1968. The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment. London: Routledge.
Brown, Peter. 1971. The World of Late Antiquity: From Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad. London: Thames and Hudson.
Byrskog, Samuel. 1994. Jesus the Only Teacher: Didactic Authority and Transmission in Ancient Israel, Ancient Judaism and the Matthean Community. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Christiansen, Johanne Louise. 2021. The Exceptional Qur’an: Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric in Islam’s Holy Book. Piscataway: Gorgias Press.
Dillon, J. T. 1995. Jesus as a Teacher: A Multidisciplinary Case Study. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fowden, Garth. 1993. Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Neuwirth, Angelika. 2010. Der Koran als Text der Spätantike: Ein europäischer Zugang. Berlin: Verlag der Weltreligionen.
———. 2017. ‘Locating the Qurʾan and Early Islam in the “Epistemic Space” of Late Antiquity’. In Islam and Its Past: Jahilliyya, Late Antiquity, and the Qurʾan, edited by Carol Bakhos and Michael Cook, 165–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Riesner, Rainer. 2019. ‘From the Messianic Teacher to the Gospels of Jesus Christ.’ In Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus, edited by Tom Holmén and Stanley E. Porter, 405–46. Leiden: Brill.
Stuckenbruck, Loren T. 2020. ‘The Function of Teaching Authority in the Dead Sea Documents and Matthew’s Gospel’. In Matthew within Judaism: Israel and the Nations in the First Gospel, edited by Anders Runesson and Daniel M. Gurtner, 257–82. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.