1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910794992203321

Autore

Longo F. Dominic

Titolo

Spiritual Grammar : Genre and the Saintly Subject in Islam and Christianity / / F. Dominic Longo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, NY : , : Fordham University Press, , [2017]

©2017

ISBN

0-8232-8369-0

0-8232-7726-7

0-8232-7674-0

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (312 pages)

Collana

Comparative Theology: Thinking Across Traditions ; ; 4

Disciplina

809.93382

Soggetti

Mysticism

Sufism

Grammar - Study and teaching

Language and languages - Religions aspects

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- PREFACE -- Introduction: Genre Trouble -- 1. Arabic, Latin, and the Discipline of Grammar in the Worlds of Qushayrī and Gerson -- 2. Genres and Genders of Gerson -- 3. Gerson’s “Moralized” Primer of Spiritual Grammar -- 4. From the Names of God to the Grammar of Hearts -- 5. Forming Spiritual Fuṣaḥāʾ -- 6. The Fruits of Comparison -- Appendix: Translation of Jean Gerson’s Moralized Grammar -- NOTES -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Spiritual Grammar identifies a genre of religious literature that until now has not been recognized as such. In this surprising and theoretically nuanced study, F. Dominic Longo reveals how grammatical structures of language addressed in two medieval texts published nearly four centuries apart, from distinct religious traditions, offer a metaphor for how the self is embedded in spiritual reality. Reading The Grammar of Hearts (Nahw al-qulūb) by the great Sufi shaykh and Islamic scholar 'Abd al-Karīm al-Qushayrī (d. 1074) and Moralized Grammar (Donatus moralizatus) by Christian theologian Jean Gerson (d. 1429), Longo reveals how both authors use the rules of language and



syntax to advance their pastoral goals. Indeed, grammar provides the two masters with a fresh way of explaining spiritual reality to their pupils and to discipline the souls of their readers in the hopes that their writings would make others adept in the grammar of the heart.