The Rhetoric of Sobriety by Kathryn M Kueny
Why does Islam condemn wine and other alcoholic beverages? The complexity behind this simple question is examined in The Rhetoric of Sobriety. Drawing on an array of revelatory, legal, historical, and exegetical materials (both Sunni and Shi'ite) from the early Islamic period, and contrasting them with comparable Judaic and Christian works from the same era, the author analyzes the rhetoric used to establish the proper authoritative boundaries that would contain wine's ambiguous nature. How believers chose to identify wine as a marginal substance and assert its prohibition offers a rare glimpse into the underlying intellectual strategies of early Muslim thought to resolve conflict, create meaning, structure the world, govern human behavior, and convey the divine message. Ultimately, this examination reveals some of the ways in which the early Islamic community created its identity, and asserted it over other confessional groups with similar convictions."The author's approach in comparing the various forms of discourse on the issue of wine is original and compellingShe shows that wine is more than a prohibited or taboo object; how it is represented in the various forms of Islamic discourse says much about wine as an ambiguous issue for early Islam." — Daniel Martin Varisco, Hofstra University
Kathryn Kueny is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Lawrence University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780791450543 |
| ISBN 10 | 0791450546 |
| Title | The Rhetoric of Sobriety |
| Author | Kathryn M Kueny |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | State University of New York Press |
| Year published | 2001-08-09 |
| Number of pages | 199 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |