Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Interpreting Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Author: Mordechai Z. Cohen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-06-06

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1316546160

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This comparative study traces Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural interpretation from antiquity to modernity, with special emphasis on the pivotal medieval period. It focuses on three areas: responses in the different faith traditions to tensions created by the need to transplant scriptures into new cultural and linguistic contexts; changing conceptions of the literal sense and its importance vis-à-vis non-literal senses, such as the figurative, spiritual, and midrashic; and ways in which classical rhetoric and poetics informed - or were resisted in - interpretation. Concentrating on points of intersection, the authors bring to light previously hidden aspects of methods and approaches in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This volume opens new avenues for interdisciplinary analysis and will benefit scholars and students of biblical studies, religious studies, medieval studies, Islamic studies, Jewish studies, comparative religions, and theory of interpretation.

Holy Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Holy Scriptures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Author: Vroom

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-09-20

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 900466999X

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One of the prime issues that needs to be addressed in dialogical encounter between the three monotheistic faiths of the world is that concerning the authority and interpretation of Holy Writ, since Jews, Christians and Muslims alike consider their Scriptures to be divine revelation. It is incumbent upon each of these religions to apprise itself of the hermeneutical approach employed by the others in ascribing current meaning to ancient scriptural texts. This is not only important as a means for the enhancement of inter-religious understanding but is also of great interest to society at large. What role does the Jewish Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Qu'ran play in the thinking and the lives of contemporary Jews, Christians, and Muslims? How are these Holy Scriptures interpreted in terms of present-day circumstances? How much room do the three religions allow for bringing their basic messages and biblical-theological traditions into rapport with constantly changing social, political and economic conditions? Is the concept of hermeneutical space acceptable to these religions? If so, in what sense and at what level? Is it possible to identify the scopus of a text and then reconstitute it textually, as it were, in light of the social and ethical questions thrown up by new contextual developments? Can interpretive adjustments be made without jeopardizing the core message of the text involved? And do the three monotheistic religions stand open to one another for influence in this regard? Has one or another of them taken hermeneutical cues from the others? Is there room for mutual learning within the hermeneutical space mentioned above or is this a sacred space closed to all influence from other traditions? These are among the central questions raised and dealt with in this interreligious collection of essays, perhaps the only dialogical symposium to date to deal exclusively with the doctrine and hermeneutics of Holy Scripture in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Author: John Pickard

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2021-12-22

Total Pages: 702

ISBN-13: 1399006770

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There has never been a more important time for a study of the social, economic and political origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, three important world religions which share a common root. This book takes as its starting point the idea that gods, angels, miracles and other supernatural phenomena do not exist in the real world and therefore cannot explain the origins of these faiths. It looks instead at the material conditions at appropriate periods in antiquity and the social and economic forces at work, and it examines the historicity of key figures like Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. This is a unique book which draws on the research, knowledge and expertise of hundreds of historians, archaeologists and scholars, to create a synthesis that is completely coherent and at the same time is based on real-world social conditions. It is a book by a non-believer for other non-believers, and it will be a revelatory read, even to those already of an atheist, agnostic or secularist persuasion.

What the Qur'an Meant
What the Qur'an Meant

Author: Garry Wills

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-12-04

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1101981040

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America’s leading religious scholar and public intellectual introduces lay readers to the Qur’an with a measured, powerful reading of the ancient text Garry Wills has spent a lifetime thinking and writing about Christianity. In What the Qur’an Meant, Wills invites readers to join him as he embarks on a timely and necessary reconsideration of the Qur’an, leading us through perplexing passages with insight and erudition. What does the Qur’an actually say about veiling women? Does it justify religious war? There was a time when ordinary Americans did not have to know much about Islam. That is no longer the case. We blundered into the longest war in our history without knowing basic facts about the Islamic civilization with which we were dealing. We are constantly fed false information about Islam—claims that it is essentially a religion of violence, that its sacred book is a handbook for terrorists. There is no way to assess these claims unless we have at least some knowledge of the Qur’an. In this book Wills, as a non-Muslim with an open mind, reads the Qur’an with sympathy but with rigor, trying to discover why other non-Muslims—such as Pope Francis—find it an inspiring book, worthy to guide people down through the centuries. There are many traditions that add to and distort and blunt the actual words of the text. What Wills does resembles the work of art restorers who clean away accumulated layers of dust to find the original meaning. He compares the Qur’an with other sacred books, the Old Testament and the New Testament, to show many parallels between them. There are also parallel difficulties of interpretation, which call for patient exploration—and which offer some thrills of discovery. What the Qur’an Meant is the opening of a conversation on one of the world’s most practiced religions.

Exegetical Crossroads
Exegetical Crossroads

Author: Georges Tamer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-12-18

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 3110564343

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The art of interpreting Holy Scriptures flourished throughout the culturally heterogeneous pre-modern Orient among Jews, Christians and Muslims. Different ways of interpretation developed within each religion not without considering the others. How were the interactions and how productive were they for the further development of these traditions? Have there been blurred spaces of scholarly activity that transcended sectarian borders? What was the role played by mutual influences in profiling the own tradition against the others? These and other related questions are critically treated in the present volume.

Islām and the People of the Book Volumes 1-3
Islām and the People of the Book Volumes 1-3

Author: John Andrew Morrow

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-04-18

Total Pages: 1782

ISBN-13: 1527509672

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Islam and the People of the Book features three dozen scholarly studies on the treaties that the Prophet Muhammad concluded with Jewish, Samaritan, Christian, and Zoroastrian communities, along with translations of Six Covenants of the Prophet in over a dozen languages. The combined effort of over forty-five academics, intellectuals, and translators from around the world, this work powerfully confirms the conclusions drawn by Dr John Andrew Morrow in his critically-acclaimed book on The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World, offers unprecedented insight into the original intent of the Messenger of God, and sheds light on the pluralistic nature of the constitutional state that he created.

The Concept of Just War in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The Concept of Just War in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Author: Georges Tamer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-09-07

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 3110733269

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For Jews, Christians and Muslims, as for all human beings, military conflicts and war remain part of the reality of the world. The authoritative writings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, namely the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Koran, as well as the theological and philosophical traditions based on them, bear witness to this fact. Showing the influence of different historical political situations, various views – sometimes quite similar, sometimes more divergent -- have developed in the three religions to justify the waging of war under certain circumstances. Such views have also been integrated in different ways into legal systems while, in certain cases, theologies have provide legitimation for military expansion and atrocities. The aim of the volume The Concept of Just War in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is to explore the respective understanding of “just war” in each one of these three religions and to make their commonalities and differences discursively visible. In addition, it highlights and explains the significance of the topic to the present time. Can the concepts developed in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions in order to justify war, serve as a foundation for contemporary peace ethics? Or do religious arguments always add fuel to the fire in armed conflict? The contributions in this volume will help provide answers to these and other socially and politically relevant questions.

The Concept of Peace in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The Concept of Peace in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Author: Georges Tamer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 3110682028

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The eighth volume of the series "Key Concepts of Interreligious Discourses" investigates the roots of the concept of "peace" in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and its relevance for the present time. Facing present violent conflicts waged and justified by religious ideas or reasons, peace building prevails in current debates about religion and peace. Here the central question is: How may traditional sources in religions help to put down the weapons and create a society in which everyone can live safely without hostilities and the threat of violence? When we take the Sacred Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam into consideration it becomes obvious that the term "peace" and its equivalents in Hebrew, Greek and Arabic describe, at first, an ideal state based on the "love" / "mercy" of God to his creation. It is a divine gift that brings inward peace to the individuum and outer peace resting upon justice and equality. One main task of Jews, Christian and Muslims in the history is to find out how to bring down this transcendent ideal upon earth. The volume presents the concept of "peace" in its different aspects as anchored in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It unfolds commonalities and differences between the three monotheistic religions as well as the manifold discourses about peace within these three traditions. The book offers fundamental knowledge about the specific understanding of peace in each one of these traditions, their interdependencies and their relationship to secular world views.

Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Author: David L. Weddle

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 0814762816

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An examination of the practice and philosophy of sacrifice in three religious traditions In the book of Genesis, God tests the faith of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice the life of his beloved son, Isaac. Bound by common admiration for Abraham, the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also promote the practice of giving up human and natural goods to attain religious ideals. Each tradition negotiates the moral dilemmas posed by Abraham’s story in different ways, while retaining the willingness to perform sacrifice as an identifying mark of religious commitment. This book considers the way in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims refer to “sacrifice”—not only as ritual offerings, but also as the donation of goods, discipline, suffering, and martyrdom. Weddle highlights objections to sacrifice within these traditions as well, presenting voices of dissent and protest in the name of ethical duty. Sacrifice forfeits concrete goods for abstract benefits, a utopian vision of human community, thereby sparking conflict with those who do not share the same ideals. Weddle places sacrifice in the larger context of the worldviews of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, using this nearly universal religious act as a means of examining similarities of practice and differences of meaning among these important world religions. This book takes the concept of sacrifice across these three religions, and offers a cross-cultural approach to understanding its place in history and deep-rooted traditions.