The wrath and mercy of God are significant divine attributes in all monotheistic religions. They interpret human experiences of suffering and affliction as well as those of protection and welfare. The idea of divine wrath, however, has also been regarded as an unacceptable naive or "primitive" part of theology, i.e., as an anthropocentric slur upon divine perfection. This implicit or explicit rejection of the God of anger may reflect a concern to stress a God of love and peace, not wrath and violence. In other words, wrath is usually considered God's circumstantial will that stands in the service of God's ultimate will for life and salvation.
The workshop aimed to examine the concepts of wrath and mercy as divine attributes in the Qur'ān in their historical, philological and theological dimensions as well as in their relation to the idea of divine salvific intervention in human history.
The workshop dealt with the various receptions and interpretations of classical Muslim exegesis of the idea of divine wrath. When reading the Qur'ān, can we understand divine wrath as a way of forming or imagining the other/enemy, i.e., those who do not belong to the Muslim community? How does the Qur'ān present the divine salvation of the human in its relation to both wrath and mercy? How does the Qur'ānic discourse elevate the merciful actions of God to become an intrinsic element in the nature of God by the recurrent use of the epithet/name al-Rahman?
Schedule
Wednesday, May 29
10 – 10.30 am
Introduction: Islam Dayeh (Freie Universität Berlin / Zukunftsphilologie)
Angelika Neuwirth (Freie Universität Berlin / Member of EUME):
Short presentation of a joint Eastern-Western reading the Qur’an
10.30 am – 6 pm
Issam Eido (Damascus University / EUME Fellow 2012-13), Forming the Enemy: Wrath and Human Erring
Response: Nora K. Schmid (Freie Universität Berlin / SFB ‚Episteme und Transfer‘)
Samer Rashwani (University of Aleppo / EUME Fellow 2012-13)
“My Mercy embraces all things” (Q 7/156): The Discovery of Mercy in the Qurʾān
Response: Tolou Khademalsharieh (Graduiertenkolleg Islamische Theologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
Esra Gözeler (Ankara University / Affiliated EUME Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung 2012-13)
Experiencing Salvation History: A New Reading of Surat al-Anfāl
Response: Hannelies Koloska (Freie Universität Berlin / Corpus Coranicum, BBAW)
