Jon Hoover
Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts
Contact
Biography
I serve as a book review editor for Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Publishers, please send review copies to ICMR Managing Editor, ERI Building, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham,B15 2TT, UK.
Before coming to Nottingham in 2010, I taught Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut. Earlier on, I studied Arabic in Cairo and completed a PhD in Islamic Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Expertise Summary
Islamic Studies, specializing in medieval Islamic theology, the thought of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350), and Christian-Muslim theological interaction.
Teaching Summary
My undergraduate teaching includes the modules 'Introduction to Islam', 'Islamic Theology and Philosophy' and 'Ibn Taymiyya and the Islamic Tradition', as well as supervision of undergraduate… read more
Research Summary
My research concentrates on the theology of Ibn Taymiyya, a prominent fourteenth-century Muslim reformer from Damascus. I am trying to understand Ibn Taymiyya's thought, locate it within the context… read more
Selected Publications
HOOVER, J., 2012. Hanbali Theology. In: SCHMIDTKE, S., ed., The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology Oxford: Oxford University Press. (In Press.)
HOOVER, J., 2012. Ibn Taymiyya. In: THOMAS, D., ed., Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Vol. 4. Leiden: Brill. (In Press.)
HOOVER, J., 2012. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. In: THOMAS, D., ed., Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Vol. 4. Leiden: Brill. (In Press.)
HOOVER, J., 2012. Ibn Taymiyya. Oxford Bibliographies Online.
My undergraduate teaching includes the modules 'Introduction to Islam', 'Islamic Theology and Philosophy' and 'Ibn Taymiyya and the Islamic Tradition', as well as supervision of undergraduate dissertations in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim relations. Our department also offers undergraduate Islamic Studies modules entitled 'History of Muslim-Christian Relations' and 'Islam and Gender'.
At the postgraduate level, I teach an annual MA module called 'Islamic Theology and Reform' and supervise research in Islamic theology, the thought and legacies of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Salafism, and Christian-Muslim relations.
Current Research
My research concentrates on the theology of Ibn Taymiyya, a prominent fourteenth-century Muslim reformer from Damascus. I am trying to understand Ibn Taymiyya's thought, locate it within the context of the wider Islamic tradition, and trace its legacy. Ultimately I hope to characterize what Ibn Taymiyya was trying to accomplish with greater sophistication and explore reasons for the enduring Muslim discussion of his ideas.
My monograph Ibn Taymiyya's Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism (Brill, 2007) explores Ibn Taymiyya's writings on the problem of evil and shows how he stands on the shoulders of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in working out his theodicy. Additionally, the book and two articles on God's action and creativity unravel aspects of Ibn Taymiyya's view of God as acting and creating from eternity. This dynamic vision of God's essence is unusual if not unique in classical Islamic theology. I am currently engaged in research on the question of universal salvation in the thought of Ibn Taymiyya, its appropriation in the writings of his disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350), and the subsequent controversy over their views that continues to the present. I am also working on Ibn Taymiyya's theology of God's attributes.