Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Pieter Coppens
2022-2023
Home institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Country of origin (home institution)
Netherlands
Discipline(s)
History of ideas
Religious sciences
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies
Identity
Religion
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Research
As an associate professor of Islamic intellectual and cultural history, I have published on the history of Qur’an commentary, Sufism, Salafism, eschatology, sensory history, history of emotions, and the history of dying. I have a keen interest in locating paradigm shifts within Islamic thought and culture, through longue durée investigation of specific themes. Such analyses of the past help us to understand the genealogies of Islamic modernity. To that end, I work with premodern and modern Arabic sources -in manuscript, print, and with digital methods. These cover a variety of Islamic intellectual disciplines and literary genres, such as Qur’an commentary, law, Hadith, theology, mysticism (Sufism), and biographical literature.
Teaching
I teach Islamic Philosophy, Islamic History (premodern and modern), Advanced Readings in Arabic, Resilience in Secular Age and contribute to courses on Interreligious Hermeneutics and Relations. I have long taught in the Spiritual Care program as well. You can approach me for tailor-made tutorials in Islamic intellectual and cultural history within the track Exploring a Discipline.
I regularly contribute to VU Pre-University College, a program for high school students, with courses on Islamic Philosophy and Qur'an commentary. I am also a a regular tutor in the Program Imams Netherlands (PIN) at VU, where I teach on the history of Qur'an commentary and its consequences for how Muslims understand the Qur'an today.
Research Project
Who Determines What the Qur’an Means: Hermeneutical Authority in Premodern and Modern Islam
How did the paradigmatic shift in hermeneutical authority between premodern, modern and contemporary Islamic interpretive communities of the Qur’an come about and what was the result for the interpretive practices of the Qur’an?
During my time at NIAS I intend to explain a fascinating paradox in the development of Qur’an interpretation from late 19th century onwards.
In premodern times, hermeneutical authority was structured along relatively clear interpretive rules, with a near-monopoly for religious scholars. These all had their own interpretations, but generally recognized the possible validity of others’ interpretations and relativized their own position.
From the 19th century onwards, due to technological and societal changes, hermeneutical authority and methods became more fragmented. Qur’an interpretation became an accessible field for literati, activists, academics and lay people, who did not necessarily follow traditional methods and had more diverse motivations in interpreting the Qur’an.
I intend to show how this not necessarily led to more ‘tolerant’ understandings of the Qur’an, or recognition of the relativity of one’s own interpretation, but rather to harder truth claims by all these different interpretive communities. I have dubbed this the ‘Mexican stand-off’ of Qur’an interpretation in Islamic modernity, between ‘religious liberals’, who try to bring back the message of the Qur’an to a set of universal values, ‘religious utilitarians’ who look for pragmatic interpretations to make the Qur’anic message fit within the demands of modern times, and neo-traditionalists, who try to uphold the hermeneutical authority of religious scholars according to what they perceive as premodern standards.
Research Interests:
Qur'anic hermeneutics and interpretive authority; Islamic modernity and tradition; Religious pluralism and truth claims