Eric Walberg on Qur’an as Epic Enchanter

Eric Walberg‘s new article “The Qur’an as Epic Enchanter” opens with the observation:

“Northrop Frye used literary criticism to show how the Bible articulates spiritual vision as a unity. The Quran does this in spades.”

He adds:

“More than just good theology, it’s a dramatic epic, right up there with Shahnameh, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Homer’s Odyssey. But it’s not just a linear plotline. It is episodic, like musical variations, improvisations.”

I emailed Eric:

“I hope to write a commentary on the Qur’an’s dialogism. It’s a symphony in which the voices of heroes (prophets and their followers), villains (Shaytan, Pharaoh etc.), and the people in-between are wittingly or unwittingly magnifying the voice of God; and the different and often overlapping levels of who is speaking to whom — God thorugh Jibreel through the prophet(s) through the Muslim community including the reciter(s) — give it richness and complexity.”

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