Critical hermeneutic elements in Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid's religious discourse analysis

In this thesis, I tried to examine the role of hermeneutics in general and more specifically critical hermeneutic concepts, discourse and thinking in the analysis and criticism of Islamic scholar Ebu Zeyd towards the contemporary religious discourses. He wanted to analyze the current political, cultural and social structures and religious-intellectual discourses of Islamic society by using intellectual disciplines and tools such as discourse analysis, hermeneutics, linguistics and semiology. He aimed to carry out all these intellectual activities at a level that could meet epistemological and methodological requirements. In his works, he bases his intellectual and political position on the rational, reformer and liberal wing of the idea of renewal and reform, which began with Afghan and Abduh. His most important contribution to the reformist religious discourse is that he has provided an epistemological depth and new perspectives equipped with the contemporary social scientific disciplines. This thesis argues that Ebu Zeyd's hermeneutic understanding should be considered as a flexible and pluralistic hermeneutic understanding. Although the religious-intellectual discourse that he advocates is influenced greatly by objective and philosophical hermeneutical heritage in terms of epistemology and methodology, it is much more in line with the critical hermeneutic understanding as far as its ideology and worldview is concerned. Another claim of this study is that he was also affected by the ontological, epistemological and theological problems of contemporary Islamic thought. As for the weaknesses of Ebu Zeyd's intellectual project, I tried to point out his naïve optimism and essentialist approach to Western thought, as well as the presence of contradictions and tensions in his hermeneutic perception. Keywords: Religious discourse, Neo-revival Discourse, Neo-Modernist Discourse, Discourse Analysis, Historicality, Contemporary Hermeneutical Theories, Critical Hermeneutics