A powerful challenge to conventional Judeo-Christian theology, The First and Final Commandment combines the author's two books, MisGod'ed and God'ed, within one cover. The First and Final Commandment begins by defining the internal conflicts that fracture the metaphysical worlds of Judaism and Christianity from within, and indeed, which demand reappraisal of the Judeo-Christian scriptures themselves. Incorporating detailed analysis, this work continues on to document the scriptural evidences that suggest continuity in revelation from Judaism to Christianity and, in the end, to orthodox (Sunni) Islam. Provocative and thought-provoking, intelligent and inspiring, this book enters the melee of two thousand years of religious debate with clarity of vision, accuracy of detail, and common sense conclusions which boldly confront conventional Judeo-Christian conclusions.

Renewing Islam by Service offers a theological account of the contemporary Turkish faith-based service movement started by Fethullah Gulen, and placed against the backdrop of changes in modern Turkish society. The life and works of Gulen are analyzed against the background of developments in Turkish society, and of spiritual Islamic tendencies in the transition from the Ottoman empire to the secular republic. Pim Valkenberg includes stories of his personal experiences with supporters of this movement, in a number of different countries, and analyzes the spiritual practices and the faith-based service of this movement that is also compared to some important Christian religious movements. Fethullah Gulen (born 1941 in Erzurum) is sometimes mentioned as one of the most influential Islamic scholars of the twenty-first century. During his work as a scholar-preacher in Izmir in the 1970s he started to provide learning opportunities for his students. He attracted many supporters and inspired them to form communities that put their Islamic faith into practice by serving others. When the political and economic situation of the Turkish republic improved, Gulen and the Hizmet (service) Movement began to take initiatives in order to overcome ignorance, disunity and poverty. At the beginning of the 21-st century the Hizmet Movement ormed one of the most influential networks of Muslims, not only in Turkey but in Europe and the United States as well. Gulen now lives in the United States where he still inspires many groups to engage in dialogue initiatives, excellent schools, public media and service organizatons. However, these initiatives are often met with suspicion by a number of different groups - secularists as well as radical Muslims. While the Hizmet Movement has thus far mainly been studied from a social scientific perspective, this book claims that Gulen and the Hizmet can best be understood by researching the religious drive that empowers them. Since this book has been written by a Christian theologian, this is done in a comparative theological approach that not only shows how Gulen and the Hizmet Movement renew Islam by service, but also how Christians can be inspired by such a religious renewal movement.

Join interfaith commentator Eboo Patel as he explores what it means to be "literate" about other faiths, how interfaith cooperation "works" and why, the skills needed for interfaith cooperation and the significant role that our institutions, including colleges and faith communities, can play in this process. This resources contains all he material needed by class participants and the group facilitator. SOLD SEPARATELY. Embracing Interfaith Cooperation DVD. This resource features five 10-15 minute presentations by Eboo Patel, each of which is followed by video of Patel interacting with a small, diverse group of adults and young adults as they respond and discuss interfaith issues. Eboo Patel believes religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Inspired by his faith as a Muslim, his Indian heritage and his American citizen ship, he speaks to his vision of interfaith harmony at places like he Clinton Global Initiative, The Nobel Peace Prize Forum, as well as college and universality campuses across the country. He is a regular contributor to the Washington Post, USA Todayand he Huffington Post."

An important interfaith dialogue examines causes of global inequality and explores solutions. In A World of Inequalities: Christian and Muslim Perspectives, fourteen leading Christian and Muslim scholars respond to the global crisis of inequality by demanding and modeling interreligious dialogue. This volume takes an intersectional approach, examining aspects of global inequality including gender, race and ethnicity, caste and social class, economic and sociopolitical disparities, and slavery. Essays explore the roots of these realities, how they are treated in Christian and Muslim traditions and texts, and how the two faiths can work together to address inequality. A World of Inequalities brings readers into the conversation, inviting them to engage in a similar dialogue by offering pairs of essays alongside texts for close reading. Scholars, religious leaders, and students of theology and theological ethics will find this a useful resource to address this pressing issue.

The concept of "vocation" or "calling" is a distinctively Christian concern, grounded in the long-held belief that we find our meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in God. But what about religions other than Christianity? What does it mean for someone from another faith tradition to understand calling or vocation? In this book contributors with expertise in Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, and secular humanism explore the idea of calling in these various faith traditions. The contributors each search their respective tradition's sacred texts, key figures, practices, and concepts for wisdom on the meaning of vocation. By seeking comparative insights from diverse faith traditions, say Kathleen Cahalan and Douglas Schuurman, we can all increase and improve our efforts to build a better, more humane world.

It is impossible to understand Palestine today without a careful reading of its distant and recent past. But until now there has been no single volume in English that tells the history of the events--from the Ottoman Empire to the mid-twentieth century--that shaped modern Palestine. The first book of its kind, "A History of Palestine" offers a richly detailed interpretation of this critical region's evolution.

Starting with the prebiblical and biblical roots of Palestine, noted historian Gudrun Kramer examines the meanings ascribed to the land in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. Paying special attention to social and economic factors, she examines the gradual transformation of Palestine, following the history of the region through the Egyptian occupation of the mid-nineteenth century, the Ottoman reform era, and the British Mandate up to the founding of Israel in 1948. Focusing on the interactions of Arabs and Jews, "A History of Palestine" tells how these connections affected the cultural and political evolution of each community and Palestine as a whole."

Holy sites are often at the center of intense contestation between different groups regarding a wide variety of issues, including ownership, access, usage rights, permissible religious conduct, and many others. They are often the source of intractable long-standing conflicts and extreme violence. These difficulties are exemplified by the five sites profiled in Governing the Sacred : Devils Tower National Monument (Wyoming, US), Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi (Uttar-Pradesh, India), the Western Wall (Jerusalem), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem), and the Temple Mount/Haram esh-Sharif (Jerusalem). Telling the fascinating stories of these high-profile contested sites, the authors develop and critically explore five different models of governing such sites: "non-interference," "separation and division," "preference," "status-quo," and "closure." Each model relies on different sets of considerations; central among them are trade-offs between religious liberty and social order. This novel typology aims to assist democratic governments in their attempt to secure public order and mutual toleration among opposed groups in contested sacred sites.

Christianity Today Book of the Year award of Merit We generally assume that those sitting around us in church share our beliefs. But when our personal convictions are contested by fellow Christians, everything changes. We feel attacked from behind. When other Christians doubt or deny our convictions, we don't experience it as a mere difference of opinion, but as a violation of an unspoken agreement. Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer offer a guide to help Christians navigate disagreements with one another. In today's polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How do we discern between core biblical convictions and secondary issues? How do we cultivate better understanding and compassion for those we disagree with? Muehlhoff and Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to avoid the dangers of groupthink and how to negotiate differing biblical convictions to avoid church splits and repair interpersonal ruptures. Christian unity is possible. Discover how we can navigate differences by speaking in both truth and love.

This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted-or not-by conflict, and the policy consequences. These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile examines the changes in Jewish-Christian relations in the Iberian kingdom of Castile during the pivotal period of the reconquest and the hundred years that followed the end of its most active phase (eleventh to mid-fourteenth century). The study's focus on the Christian heartland north of the Duero River, known as Old Castile, allows for a detailed investigation of the Jews' changing relations with the area's main power players-the monarchy, the church, and the towns. In a departure from previous assessments, Soifer Irish shows that the institutional and legal norms of toleration for the Jewish minority were forged not along the military frontier with Islam, but in the north of Castile. She argues that the Jews' relationship with the Castilian monarchy was by far the most significant factor that influenced their situation in the kingdom, but also demonstrates that this relationship was inherently problematic. Although during the early centuries of Christian expansion the Jewish communities benefited from a strong royal power, after about 1250 helping maintain it proved to be costly to the Jewish communities in economic and human terms. Soifer Irish demonstrates that while some Castilian clergymen were vehemently anti-Jewish, the Castilian Church as a whole never developed a coordinated strategy on the Jews, or even showed much interest in the issue. The opposite is true about the townsmen, whose relations with their Jewish neighbors vacillated between cooperation and conflict. In the late thirteenth century, the Crown's heavy-handed tactics in enforcing the collection of outstanding debts to Jewish moneylenders led to the breakdown in the negotiations between the Jewish and Christian communities, creating a fertile ground for the formation of an anti-Jewish discourse in Castilian towns. Soifer Irish also examines the Jews' attitudes toward the various powers in the Christian society and shows that they were active players in the kingdom's politics. Jews and Christians in Medieval Castile breaks new ground in helping us understand more fully the tensions, and commonalities, between groups of different faiths in the late medieval period.

Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines investigates the political and cultural significance of marriages and other sexual encounters between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, from the Islamic conquest in the early eighth century to the end of Muslim rule in 1492. Interfaith liaisons carried powerful resonances, as such unions could function as a tool of diplomacy, the catalyst for conversion, or potent psychological propaganda. Examining a wide range of source material including legal documents, historical narratives, polemical and hagiographic works, poetry, music, and visual art, Simon Barton presents a nuanced reading of the ways interfaith couplings were perceived, tolerated, or feared, depending upon the precise political and social contexts in which they occurred. Religious boundaries in the Peninsula were complex and actively policed, often shaped by an overriding fear of excessive social interaction or assimilation of the three faiths that coexisted within the region. Barton traces the protective cultural, legal, and mental boundaries that the rival faiths of Iberia erected, and the processes by which women, as legitimate wives or slave concubines, physically traversed those borders. Through a close examination of the realities and the imagination of interfaith relations, Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines highlights the extent to which sex, power, and identity were closely bound up with one another.

What is the role of scripture in illuminating the lives of the faithful today? In this book, three experts in Judaism, Christianity and Islam respectively discuss and debate this question, by exploring the core messages of the Torah, Bible and Qu'ran. Taking a deeper look at the wide range of theological, political and social issues that divide (and sometimes unite) their religions, they reveal how inspiration and guidance can be drawn not only on life's big questions such as sin and the afterlife, but also on societal issues including war, suffering, marriage and justice.

A thoughtful, down-to-earth look at helpful ways to lessen human suffering.

This book takes you on a lively, sometimes light-hearted, journey through nine Buddhist practices that can bring "blessed relief" to a wide range of human suffering and teaches you skills to reduce suffering in the long term for yourself and others.The practices help you: Loosen the grip of sufferingEngage and question limiting views, thoughts and opinionsDeconstruct ten common assumptionsBe present in each momentSurvive emotional stormsDevelop peaceful communication skillsDeepen communication with your partnerAppreciate mortality and the preciousness of lifeCultivate compassion

As you read the chapters and engage in each practice, you will work with your own stories of suffering stories in which you have felt abandoned, deprived, subjugated, defective, excluded or vulnerable and you will learn how to release yourself from suffering by investigating it with curiosity and kindness."

Based on archival and primary sources in Persian, Hebrew, Judeo-Persian, Arabic, and European languages, "Between Foreigners and Shi'is" examines the Jews' religious, social, and political status in nineteenth-century Iran. This book, which focuses on Nasir al-Din Shah's reign (1848-1896), is the first comprehensive scholarly attempt to weave all these threads into a single tapestry. This case study of the Jewish minority illuminates broader processes pertaining to other religious minorities and Iranian society in general, and the interaction among intervening foreigners, the Shi'i majority, and local Jews helps us understand Iranian dilemmas that have persisted well beyond the second half of the nineteenth century.

The story of the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls has become a part of Western lore. Who has not heard about the Bedouin shepherd who threw a rock into a cave, heard a crash, went in to explore, and found the scrolls? The story in that form may be accurate, but it turns out to be something of a simplification. As a matter of fact, much remains unknown about the exact circumstances under which those scrolls were discovered. The story of the discovery at first deals with just one cave; the other ten were located at later times.

The publication of the Chinese Union Version (CUV) in 1919 was the culmination of a hundred years of struggle by Western missionaries working closely with Chinese assistants to produce a translation of the Bible fit for the needs of a growing church. Celebrating the CUV's centennial, The Translation of the Bible into Chinese explores the unique challenges faced by its translators in the context of the history of Chinese Bible translation. Ann Cui'an Peng's personal experience of the role played by the CUV in Chinese Christian communities lends the narrative particular weight, while her role as director of the Commission on Bible Publication at the China Christian Council offers a unique insight into the continuing legacy of the CUV for Bible translators today.

The first few decades of the eighteenth century witnessed an important moment in Jewish-Christian relations, as influential Christian scholars increasingly looked to Jewish texts to reveal the truths of their own faith. To what extent could postbiblical writings help them better understand the New Testament? And who would best be able to explicate these connections? Connecting the Covenants focuses on two separate but entwined stories, the first centering around the colorful character of Moses Marcus. The English-born son of wealthy parents and the grandson of the famous autobiographical author Glikl of Hameln, Marcus was a prominent Jew educated in the Ashkenazic yeshivah at Hamburg. On New Year's Day, 1723, Marcus was baptized as a Christian, later publishing a justification of his conversion and a vindication of his newly discovered faith in a small book in London. A trophy convert, he was promoted by figures at the highest levels of the Anglican Church as a cultural mediator between Judaism and Christianity. His modest successes in the world of the elite clerical establishment were followed, however, by conspicuous failures, both intellectual and material. The second story that David Ruderman tells emerges against the background of Marcus's professional decline. In the end, the prize convert proved to be a theologian of limited ability, far outstripped in sophistication and openness to rabbinic learning by a circle of Enlightenment Protestant scholars. It was not the Jew who had abjured Judaism who was willing or able to apply the Mishnah and Talmud to Christian exegesis, but figures such as William Whiston, Anthony Collins, William Wotton, and the Dutch scholar William Surenhusius who seized upon the ways to connect the covenants.

The state of Goa on India's southwest coast was once the capital of the Portuguese-Catholic empire in Asia. When Vasco Da Gama arrived in India in 1498, he mistook Hindus for Christians, but Jesuit missionaries soon declared war on the alleged idolatry of the Hindus. Today, Hindus and Catholics assert their own religious identities, but Hindu village gods and Catholic patron saints attract worship from members of both religious communities. Through fresh readings of early Portuguese sources and long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this study traces the history of Hindu-Catholic syncretism in Goa and reveals the complex role of religion at the intersection of colonialism and modernity.

Muhammad Rashid Rida is among the most influential Muslim thinkers of the modern period and yet, until now, his writings on Christian-Muslim relations have remained unpublished in English. In this flagship English edition, Simon A. Wood rights this wrong by translating and analysing one of his most important works, The Criticisms of the Christians and the Proofs of Islam. Contending that Rida's work cannot be separated from the period of colonial humiliation from which it originated, he challenges the view that Rida was a fundamentalist and argues that his response to Christian criticisms was, in fact, distinctly modernist.