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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Interfaith relations
PAPERBACK FOR SALE IN AFRICA ONLY Analyses the complexities of
Christian-Muslim conflict that threatens the fragile democracy of
Nigeria, and the implications for global peace and security.
Nigeria: Premium TimesBooks In northern Nigeria, high levels of
ethnic diversity have coincided with acute polarization between
Muslims and Christians, increasingly fuelling violent conflict. The
climate of insecurity threatens northern Nigeria's development,
accentuates the inequalities between it and the rest of the
country, and undermines the attempt to stabilize democracy in the
country. Externally, fears have also been expressed that Islamist
movements in northern Nigeria form part of a wider network
constituting a threat to global peace and security. Refuting a
"clash of civilizations" between Muslims and Christians, the
authors of this new study highlight the multiplicity of Muslim and
Christian groups contending for influence and relevance, and the
doctrinal, political and historical drivers of conflict and
violence between and within them. They analyse some of the region's
most contentious issues: conflict and peacebuilding in Jos; the
Boko Haram insurgency; the informal economy; and the challenges of
legal pluralism posed by the declaration of "full" Sharia law in 12
Muslim-majority states. Finally, they suggest appropriate and
effective policy responses at local, national, and international
levels, discussing the importance of informal institutions as
avenues for peace-building and the complementarities between local
and national dynamics in the search for peace. Abdul Raufu Mustapha
is Associate Professor in African Politics, University of Oxford;
David Ehrhardt is Assistant Professor of International Development
at Leiden University College. Companion volume: Sects &Social
Disorder: Muslim Identities & Conflict in Northern Nigeria
edited by Abdul Raufu Mustapha (James Currey 2014) Nigeria: Premium
Times Books
The call to contemplative Christianity is not an easy one. Those
who answer it set themselves to a sometimes arduous task of
self-reformation through rigorous study and practice, learned
through the teachings of monks and nuns and the writings of ancient
Christian mystics, often in isolation from family and friends.
Those who are dedicated can spend hours every day in meditation,
prayer, liturgy, and study. Why do they come? Indeed, how do they
find their way to the door at all? Based on nearly four years of
research among semi-cloistered Christian monastics and a dispersed
network of non-monastic Christian contemplatives around the United
States, The Monk's Cell shows how religious practitioners in both
settings combined social action and intentional living with
intellectual study and intensive contemplative practices in an
effort to modify their ways of knowing, sensing, and experiencing
the world. Organized by the metaphor of a seeker journeying towards
the inner chambers of a monastic chapel, The Monk's Cell uses
innovative "intersubjective fieldwork" methods to study these
opaque interiorized, often silent communities, in order to show how
practices like solitude, chant, contemplation, attention, and a
paradoxical capacity to combine ritual with intentional "unknowing"
develop and hone a powerful sense of communion with the world.
Breaking new ground in Christian - Jewish dialogue Deep Calls to
Deep uses a new paradigm, one which is marked by "experiential
theology": a theology that addresses and emerges out of day to day
lived experience of practising Christians and Jews. The product of
a unique four year dialogue process - designed, orchestrated and
led by Rabbi Tony Bayfield - the book brings together a diverse
array of important Christian and Jewish scholars to engage in
conversation. Themes discussed include Modern Western culture; how
Christians and Jews should live in a modern Western democracy; how
Christians and Jews cope with their past; the legacy of our shared
Scriptures; the question of religious absolutism; the meaning of
respect; Christian particularism; and the land of Israel
Often Christian interfaith engagement has been viewed through the
lense of theology of religions where the primary questions are
often about the salvific destiny of people of other faiths. 'Faith,
Hope and Love' offers an alternative approach asking how do
Christian interfaith practitioners live out their discipleship in a
multi-faith world? And what, theologically, is being expressed in
their activity? Demonstrating a new and innovative approach to
interfaith engagement, this book argues for theological reflection
on the multi faith reality of our society to focus on the practice
of Christian interfaith engagement, drawing on the methodology of
practical theology to explore the impact of encounter on Christian
self-understanding. It suggests that other faith traditions are no
longer a theological problem to be solved or people to be `saved'
but a potential `means of grace' in which the Christian disciple
learns more about God and grows in their relationship with Christ.
Part 1 Towards a Practical Theology of Interfaith Engagement 1.
Faith, Hope and Love - Pedagogy for Interfaith Engagement 2. Beyond
New Contestations - A Practical Theological Challenge to
Particularists and Pluralists 3. Interfaith Engagement,
Non-Violence and the Way of Salvation Part 2 Challenging
Islamophobia, Affirming Multiculturalism 4. Challenging
Islamophobia - A Practical Theological Reflection 5. Rejoicing in
the Truth - A Practical Theological Affirmation of Multiculturalism
Profound reflection on lament and hope arising out of Africa's
immense suffering. There is no more urgent theological task than to
provide an account of hope in Africa, given its endless cycles of
violence, war, poverty, and displacement. So claims Emmanuel
Katongole, a recognised, innovative theological voice from Africa.
In the midst of suffering, Katongole says, hope takes the form of
"arguing" and "wrestling" with God. Such lament is not merely a cry
of pain-it is a way of mourning, protesting, and appealing to God.
As he unpacks the rich theological and social dimensions of the
practice of lament in Africa, Katongole tells the stories of
courageous Christian activists working for change in East Africa
and invites readers to enter into lament along with them.
Across centuries, the Islamic Middle East hosted large populations
of Christians and Jews in addition to Muslims. Today, this
diversity is mostly absent. In this book, Heather J. Sharkey
examines the history that Muslims, Christians, and Jews once shared
against the shifting backdrop of state policies. Focusing on the
Ottoman Middle East before World War I, Sharkey offers a vivid and
lively analysis of everyday social contacts, dress, music, food,
bathing, and more, as they brought people together or pushed them
apart. Historically, Islamic traditions of statecraft and law,
which the Ottoman Empire maintained and adapted, treated Christians
and Jews as protected subordinates to Muslims while prescribing
limits to social mixing. Sharkey shows how, amid the pivotal
changes of the modern era, efforts to simultaneously preserve and
dismantle these hierarchies heightened tensions along religious
lines and set the stage for the twentieth-century Middle East.
Across centuries, the Islamic Middle East hosted large populations
of Christians and Jews in addition to Muslims. Today, this
diversity is mostly absent. In this book, Heather J. Sharkey
examines the history that Muslims, Christians, and Jews once shared
against the shifting backdrop of state policies. Focusing on the
Ottoman Middle East before World War I, Sharkey offers a vivid and
lively analysis of everyday social contacts, dress, music, food,
bathing, and more, as they brought people together or pushed them
apart. Historically, Islamic traditions of statecraft and law,
which the Ottoman Empire maintained and adapted, treated Christians
and Jews as protected subordinates to Muslims while prescribing
limits to social mixing. Sharkey shows how, amid the pivotal
changes of the modern era, efforts to simultaneously preserve and
dismantle these hierarchies heightened tensions along religious
lines and set the stage for the twentieth-century Middle East.
Today the world is confronted with many religious wars and the
migrations of millions of persons due to these conflicts. There is
a need for informed dialog as to the roots of the conflicts and
ways of addressing these in ways that speak to peoples' minds and
hearts. This is what this book attempts to do from the viewpoint of
major religious and ethical thinkers. The book relies on Bernard
Lonergan's foundational method to address problems systematically
with a view to achieve breakthroughs in our openness to one
another. The book appeals to the teachings of the Buddha, Jesus,
and Mohammad, relying on the mystical and insights of these
religious founders as well as those of dozens of their followers so
as to find commonalities that can build bridges of mercy. A global
secularity ethics plays a leading role in this book's bridging
efforts.
The papers in this volume form a record of the 1993 Parliament of
the World's Religions, which was one of the largest interfaith
gatherings ever held. Representatives from minority, ethnic and
tribal religions took the podium as equals alongside
representatives from the world's largest religious traditions. This
volume contains major addresses and reflections of this parliament,
set in context by an introduction and conclusion by the editors.
Today the world is confronted with many religious wars and the
migrations of millions of persons due to these conflicts. There is
a need for informed dialog as to the roots of the conflicts and
ways of addressing these in ways that speak to peoples' minds and
hearts. This is what this book attempts to do from the viewpoint of
major religious and ethical thinkers. The book relies on Bernard
Lonergan's foundational method to address problems systematically
with a view to achieve breakthroughs in our openness to one
another. The book appeals to the teachings of the Buddha, Jesus,
and Mohammad, relying on the mystical and insights of these
religious founders as well as those of dozens of their followers so
as to find commonalities that can build bridges of mercy. A global
secularity ethics plays a leading role in this book's bridging
efforts.
This title helps Jews understand Islam - a reasoned and candid
view. Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States, Israel, and
Europe are tenuous. Jews and Muslims struggle to understand one
another and know little about each other's traditions and
beliefs.Firestone explains the remarkable similarities and profound
differences between Judaism and Islam, the complex history of
Jihad, the legal and religious positions of Jews in the world of
Islam, how various expressions of Islam (Sunni, Shi'a, Sufi,
Salafi, etc.) regard Jews, the range of Muslim views about Israel,
and much more. He addresses these issues and others with candor and
integrity, and he writes with language, symbols, and ideas that
make sense to Jews.Exploring these subjects in today's vexed
political climate is a delicate undertaking. Firestone draws on the
research and writings of generations of Muslim, Jewish, and other
scholars, as well as his own considerable expertise in this field.
The book's tone is neither disparaging, apologetic, nor triumphal.
Firestone provides many original sources in translation, as well as
an appendix of additional key sources in context. Most importantly,
this book is readable and reasoned, presenting to readers for the
first time the complexity of Islam and its relationship toward Jews
and Judaism.
How does the Qur'an depict the religious Other? Historically, this
question has provoked extensive debate among Islamic scholars about
the identity, nature, and status of such religious Others. Today,
this debate assumes great importance because of the widening
experience of religious plurality, which prompts inquiry into
convergences and divergences in belief and practice as well as
controversy over the appropriate forms of interaction among
different religions. The persistence of religious violence also
gives rise to difficult questions about the relationship between
the depiction of religious Others, and intolerance and oppression.
Scholars have traditionally accounted for the coexistence of
religious similarity and difference by resorting either to models
that depict religions as isolated entities or models that arrange
religions in a static, evaluative hierarchy. In response to the
limitations of this discourse, Jerusha Tanner Lamptey constructs an
alternative conceptual and hermeneutical approach that draws
insights from the work of Muslim women interpreters of the Qur'an,
feminist theology, and semantic analysis. She employs this approach
to reevaluate, reinterpret, and reenvision the Qur'anic discourse
on religious difference. Through a close reading of the Qur'anic
text, she distinguishes between two forms of religious difference:
hierarchical and lateral. She goes on to explore the complex
relationality that exists among Qur'anic concepts of hierarchical
religious difference and to articulate a new, integrated model of
religious pluralism. Using an interdisciplinary approach to
confront existing Islamic scholarship, Lamptey's Never Wholly Other
offers a new genre of theology.
Founded by Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus in 1994,
Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) has fostered a fruitful
conversation on the meaning of the gospel in today's world. Over
the course of twenty years, ECT has issued nine statements
addressing contemporary topics. This one-volume guide, the first
collection of the ECT statements, explores the key accomplishments
of this groundbreaking, ongoing dialogue. Introductions and notes
provide context and discuss history and future prospects. The book
also includes prefaces by J. I. Packer and Cardinal Timothy Dolan,
a foreword by George Weigel, and an epilogue by R. R. Reno and
Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
This volume sheds light on the transformed post-Holocaust
relationship between Catholics and Jews. Once implacable
theological foes, the two traditions have travelled a great
distance in coming to view the other with respect and dignity.
Responding to the horrors of Auschwitz, the Catholic Church has
undergone a "reckoning of the soul," beginning with its landmark
document Nostra Aetate and embraced a positive theology of Judaism
including the ongoing validity of the Jewish covenant. Jews have
responded to this unprecedented outreach, especially in the
document Dabru Emet. Together, these two Abrahamic traditions have
begun seeking a repair of the world. The road has been rocky and
certainly obstacles remain. Nevertheless, authentic interfaith
dialogue remains a new and promising development in the search for
a peace.
English summary: In this work, Christian Ronning shows how Latin
panegyric was part of an elaborate system of signs and rituals to
express complex relationships of power and subjection in Roman
society. He studies how the interpretative power of the
well-trained rhetorician was used to smooth administrative measures
and to adapt imperial orders to the structures and demands of an
aristocratic elite which ruled the cities of the Imperium Romanum.
As a highly specialized code, panegyric was a language of social
power that should not be misunderstood as propaganda but rather
seen as a means of maintaining the fiction of a tight relationship
between emperor and viri boni even in times of growing
intransparency of rulership and government. German description:
Welche Funktion erfullte die Herrscherpanegyrik der romischen
Kaiserzeit? Handelte es sich hierbei um propagandistische
Auftragswerke zur Glorifizierung des Machthabers oder um
Instrumente einer raffinierten Lenkung des Monarchen unter dem
Deckmantel des Lobpreises? Anhand der dichten Analyse
exemplarischer Reden aus der Zeit Trajans (Plinius, Panegyricus)
und Konstantins (Pan. Lat. 5 u. 12) arbeitet Christian Ronning die
Rahmenbedingungen dieser Festreden, die gesellschaftliche und
politische Stellung der Redner sowie die individuelle Zielsetzung
heraus und stellt sie in ihren historischen Kontext. Besonderes
Augenmerk liegt dabei auf der Verschrankung der Panegyrik mit ihrem
zeremoniellen Umfeld, auf den Ritualen, die die Rede umgeben und
die in sie selbst Eingang gefunden haben. Festreden erscheinen
dabei als ein konstitutives Element der Austauschbeziehungen
zwischen Herrscher, Stadten und Funktionseliten im Romischen Reich.
Sie spiegeln die jeweils aktuellen Machtlagerungen wider und zeugen
von der Aneignung und spezifischen Deutung der herrscherlichen
Rituale durch die Beteiligten. Die kaiserzeitliche Panegyrik ist
damit keine Rhetorik der propagandistischen Beeinflussung oder
Verschleierung, sondern ein gemeinsamer Code, dessen sich Herrscher
und Untertanen bedienen, um sich ihres wechselseitigen
Verhaltnisses zu versichern - und dieses gegenuber den Anspruchen
und Interessen Dritter abzugrenzen. Zugleich dient die Panegyrik
der Speicherung, Aktualisierung und Re-Interpretation vergangener
Ritualhandlungen; sie ist in diesem Sinne von einer auf Zeremonien
basierten Gesellschaft nicht zu trennen.
The fascinating story of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) changing himself
while trying to change the religious faith of the Chinese has been
told many times. As a Jesuit, Ricci pushed Christian evangelism by
claiming a theistic affinity with Confucianism and by presenting
himself as a defender of Confucian orthodoxy from Buddhism. Already
in his day, Ricci's unusual cultural adaptation was controversial;
not surprisingly, scholarly studies have hitherto focused almost
exclusively on variations of this controversy. Reacting mostly to
Ricci's account of events, this line of research has provided
insight, but much more can be learned about the early-modern
cross-cultural encounter of Europe and China if the perspective is
broadened to include his intricate and intriguing relationships
with his Chinese friends. With his distinctively different
religiosity, personal charisma, and knowledge of European science
and mathematics, Ricci impressed the social and cultural elite of
late Ming China, many of whom befriended him and some of whom
became Christian converts. However, between him and his Chinese
friends there were always disagreements, resulting sometimes from a
lack of understanding or misunderstanding, and sometimes even when
they apparently understood each other perfectly. Followed closely
as the investigative thread of this book, the many kinds of
disagreement cast an unusual light on an otherwise long familiar
subject and are instructive for the at times tense and even
hostile, but in reality always mutually energizing relationship of
both competition and complement between China and the West in the
early twenty-first century.
By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic
decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah, particularly its Arab
heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current
state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet,
precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability,
Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to
challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American,
homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox
of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one
sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement
of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and
powerful transnational force and what implications does it have for
the West? In One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds Raymond W. Baker
addresses this question. Two things are clear, Baker argues:
Islam's unexpected strength in recent decades does not originate
from official political, economic, or religious institutions, nor
can it be explained by focusing exclusively on the often-criminal
assertions of violent, marginal groups. While extremists monopolize
the international press and the scholarly journals, those who live
and work in the Islamic world know that the vast majority of
Muslims reject their reckless calls to violence and look elsewhere
for guidance. Baker shows that extremists draw their energy and
support not from contributions to the reinterpretation and revival
of Islamic beliefs and practices, but from the hatreds engendered
by misguided Western policies in Islamic lands. His persuasive
analysis of the Islamic world identifies centrists as the
revitalizing force of Islam, saying that they are responsible for
constructing a modern, cohesive Islamic identity that is a force to
be reckoned with.
This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical
memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact,
even poison, present day relations. Its operative notion is that of
healing of memory, a notion developed by John Paul II. The
different papers explore how the painful memories of yesteryear can
be healed in the framework of contemporary efforts. In so doing,
they seek to address some of the root causes that continue to
impact present day relations, but which rarely if ever get
addressed in other contexts. Strategies from six different faith
traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a
cross-religious brainstorming session that seeks to identify the
kinds of tools that would allow us to improve present day
relations. At the end of the conceptual pole of this project is the
notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizons
for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons
for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our
traditions, so that it might be receptive to opening up to a common
vision of good for all? Between memory and hope, the project seeks
to offer a vision of healing and hope that can serve as a resource
in contemporary interfaith relations.
While existing scholarship informs us about early contact between
Christians, Muslims, and Jews, the nature of that interaction, and
how it developed over time, is still often misunderstood. Robert
Gregg emphasizes that there was both mutual curiosity, since all
three religions had ancestral traditions and a commanding God in
common, and also wary competitiveness, as each group was compelled
to sharpen its identity against the other two. Faced with the
overlap of many scriptural stories, they were eager to defend the
claim that they alone were God's preferred people. In Shared
Stories, Rival Tellings, Gregg performs a comparative investigation
of how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters-both writers and
artists-developed their distinctive and exclusionary understandings
of narratives common to their three Holy Books: Cain and Abel, Sara
and Hagar, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, Jonah and the Whale, and
Mary the Mother of Jesus. Exposed in the process are the major
issues under contention and the social-intellectual forces that
contributed to spirited, creative, and sometimes combative
exchanges between Muslims, Christians and Jews. In illuminating
these historical moments, and their implications for contemporary
relations between these three religions, Gregg argues that
scripture interpreters played an often underappreciated role in
each religion's individual development of thought, spirituality,
and worship, and in the three religions' debates with one
another-and the cultural results of those debates.
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