Abstract
Drawing upon the subtlety of distinction between biography and bio-graph, this paper argues that the Genesis-narrative, both in terms of the Biblical and the Qur’nic versions, is Adam’s transcendent-bio-graph which may be examined as a journey-narrative in the nexus of certain notions of the phenomenological hermeneutics. Biography, as a literature genre, is a way or methodology pertains to the general writings concerning the histories of individual lives. Contrastively, bio-graph is not a science or methodology instead an account of life as a narrative either an all encompassing -graph of human bio or simply a description of a slice of lifeworld. In any case it is a narrative-within-narrative that either in semantic or semiotic terms elucidates the meanings either of the narrative it is a slice of or the lifeworld it may refer to. Therefore, bio-graph is essentially a journey-narrative concerning an act of transcendence in the nexus either of another narrative or the lifeworld. In this context, the Genesis-narrative is taken here as a bio-graph of Adam’s act of bipartite transcendence: first, from the Heavenly lifeworld down to this worldliness; and second, from here again up to the Heavens. This paper argues that along with the similitude there is an immense difference between the Biblical and the Qur’anic depictions of the transcendent-bio-graph of Adam’s. And the difference lies not in the overall -graph of Adam’s bio rather in the minutiae of the narrative which gives colour to this argument of the phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Religious Commonalities and Differences
KEYWORDS
Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Genesis, Bible, Qur’an, Transcendent, Biograph, Journey, Narative
