The Holocaust lies, often unacknowledged, near the heart of our contemporary crisis of religious faith. The horrific fruit of two millennia of Christian antisemitism, the slaughter calls into sharp question the moral and intellectual credibility of the Churches and the Christian faith itself. Can Christianity ever recover? In Broken Gospel? Peter Waddell suggests that it can, but only by facing unflinchingly the history that paved the way for the Nazi genocide, and the Churches' sins of omission and commission as it took place. Engaging with both Christian and Jewish scholarship, Waddell also approaches with sensitivity the theological issues that arise from the horror: questions of how the claimed holiness of the Church relates to its wickedness; of Christian-Jewish relations; of prayer and providence; of heaven and hell, and the faint possibility of forgiveness. Scholars, clergy and general readers alike will be challenged by this exercise in repentance and reconstruction, and inspired by the possibility it offers for Christian theology and practice to flourish once more.

Rome and Canterbury tells the story of the determined but little known work being done to end the nearly five hundred year old divisions between the Roman Catholic and the Anglican/Episcopal Churches. The break was never intended, has never been fully accepted and is experienced, by many, as a painful and open wound. It is a personal account, by a non-professional, that begins the story by reviewing the relevant history and theology, looks at where we are today, and concludes with some personal reflections on faith and belief in the US.

This book examines the role of the papacy and the crusade in the religious life of the late twelfth through late thirteenth centuries and beyond. Throughout the book, the contributors ask several important questions. Was Innocent III more theologian than lawyer-pope and how did his personal experience of earlier crusade campaigns inform his own vigorous promotion of the crusades? How did the outlook and policy of Honorius III differ from that of Innocent III in crucial areas including the promotion of multiple crusades (including the Fifth Crusade and the crusade of William of Montferrat) and how were both pope's mindsets manifested in writings associated with them? What kind of men did Honorius III and Innocent III select to promote their plans for reform and crusade? How did the laity make their own mark on the crusade through participation in the peace movements which were so crucial to the stability in Europe essential for enabling crusaders to fulfill their vows abroad and through joining in the liturgical processions and prayers deemed essential for divine favor at home and abroad? Further essays explore the commemoration of crusade campaigns through the deliberate construction of physical and literary paths of remembrance. Yet while the enemy was often constructed in a deliberately polarizing fashion, did confessional differences really determine the way in which Latin crusaders and their descendants interacted with the Muslim world or did a more pragmatic position of 'rough tolerance' shape mundane activities including trade agreements and treaties?

The present volume includes the papers of the first PRO ORIENTE Colloquium Syriacum, which took place in Salzburg, Austria and concentrated on the Syriac Churches' experiences with Islam. The papers in this volume survey the whole history of these two communities from the times of the Four Caliphs through the Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ottoman periods. Topics include the personal status of Christians under Islam, the ecclesiastical response to the rise of Islam, the Indian experience and the present situation.

Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree to which Jesus' message and mission were at home amidst, and shaped by, the Judaism(s) of the Second Temple Period. In The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude David deSilva introduces readers to the ancient Jewish writings known as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and examines their formative impact on the teachings and mission of Jesus and his half-brothers, James and Jude. Knowledge of this literature, deSilva argues, helps to bridge the perceived gap between Jesus and Judaism when Judaism is understood only in terms of the Hebrew Bible (or ''Old Testament''), and not as a living, growing body of faith and practice. Where our understanding of early Judaism is limited to the religion reflected in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus will appear more as an outsider speaking ''against'' Judaism and introducing more that is novel. Where our understanding of early Judaism is also informed by the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Jesus and his half-brothers appear more fully at home within Judaism, and giving us a more precise understanding of what is essential, as well as distinctive, in their proclamation. This comparative study engages several critical issues. How can we recover the voices of Jesus, James, and Jude from the material purporting to preserve their speech? How can we assess a particular text's influence on Jews in early first-century Palestine? How can we be sufficiently sensitive to the meanings and nuances in both the text presumed to influence and the text presumed to be influenced so as not to distort the meaning of either? The result is a portrait of Jesus that is fully at home in Roman Judea and Galilee, and perhaps an explanation for why these extra-biblical Jewish texts continued to be preserved in Christian circles.

Many observers greeted the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as the most important religious event in the twentieth century. Its implementation and impact are still being felt in the Catholic Church, the wider Christian world, and beyond. One sea change that Vatican II brought concerned Roman Catholic attitudes towards Judaism, Islam, and other religions. Gerald O'Collins breaks fresh ground by examining in detail five documents from the Council which embodied a new mindset about other religious faiths and mandated changes that quickly led to international and national dialogues between the Catholic Church and the followers of non-Christian religions. The book also includes chapters on the insights that prepared the way for the rethinking expressed by Vatican II, and on the follow-up to the Council's teaching found in the work of Pope John Paul II and Jacques Dupuis. O'Collins ably illustrates how the Council made a startling advance in official Catholic teaching about followers of other living faiths. Carefully researched, the book is written in the clear, accessible style that readers of previous works by O'Collins will recognize.

How does one culture 'read' another? In Literature and Religion, two scholars, one from China and one from the West, each read texts from the other's culture as a means of dialogue. A key issue in such an enterprise is the nature of religion and what we understand by that term in a world in which ancient religious customs seem to be dying or under threat. Does a comparative study of religious literature offer a way towards mutual understanding - or merely illustrate our differences? Underpinned by their own friendship, these two partners in conversation show what is possible.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Is religion a force for war, or a force for peace? Some of the most terrible wars in history have been caused and motivated by religion. Much of the violence that fills our screens today springs from the same source. Yet some of the bravest pacifists have also been deeply religious people, and many of the laws and institutions that work to soften or prevent war have deep religious roots. This Very Short Introduction provides an overview of the history of religion and war, and a framework for analysing it. Ranging from the warrior gods of Ancient Greece and Rome, and the ethical drama of the Mahabharata, through the Islamic wars of conquest and the Crusades, to present day conflicts in Sri Lanka and the Balkans, it considers the entanglement of war and religion. Yet from Just War theory and the restraints on war-making imposed by Islamic jurisprudence, through the Pax Christi of the middle ages, to the non-violence of Gandhi and Bacha Khan; there is also a story to be told of peace and religion as well. Jolyon Mitchell and Joshua Rey consider both sides of the age long drama of war and religion, challenging assumptions at the most fundamental level. Throughout, they encourage a more sophisticated and well-grounded view on these issues that have had such weight in the past, and continue to shape our present and future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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.

Without question, inter-religious relations are crucial in the contemporary age. While most dialogue works on past and contemporary matters, this volume takes on the relations among the Abrahamic religions and looks forward, toward the possibility of real and lasting dialogue. The book centers upon inter-faith issues. It identifies problems that stand in the way of fostering healthy dialogues both within particular religious traditions and between faiths. The volume's contributors strive for a realization of already existing common ground between religions. They engagingly explore how inter-religious dialogue can be re-energized for a new century.

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.

As experiences of suffering continue to influence the responses of identity groups in the midst of violent conflict, a way to harness their narratives, stories, memories, and myths in transformative and non-violent ways is needed. From Suffering to Solidarity explores the historical seeds of Mennonite peacebuilding approaches and their application in violent conflicts around the world. The authors in this book first draw out the experiences of Anabaptists and Mennonites from the sixteenth-century origins through to the present that have shaped their approaches to conflict transformation and inspired new generations of Mennonites to engage in relief, development, and peacebuilding to alleviate the suffering of others whose experiences today reflect those of their ancestors. Authors then explore the various peacebuilding approaches, methods, and initiatives that have emerged from this Mennonite narrative and its preservation and dissemination in subsequent generations. Finally, the book examines how this combined historical sensitivity and resulting peacebuilding theory and practice have been applied in violent conflicts around the world, noting both successes and challenges. Ultimately, From Suffering to Solidarity attempts to answer a question: How can a robust historical infrastructure be used to inspire empathetic solidarity with the Other and shape nonviolent ways of transforming conflict to thrust a stick in the spokes of the cycle of violence?

Can Christians read biblical meaning into qur'anic texts? Does this violate the intent of those passages? What about making positive reference to the Qur'an in the context of an evangelistic presentation or defence of biblical doctrines? Does this imply that Christians accept the Muslim scripture as inspired? What about Christians who reside in the world of Islam and write their theology in the language of the Qur'an - Arabic? Is it legitimate for them to use the Qur'an in their explorations of the Christian faith? This book explores these questions and offers a biblically, theologically, and historically informed response. For years evangelical Christians seeking answers to questions like these have turned to the history of Protestant Christian interaction with Muslim peoples. Few are aware of the cultural, intellectual, and theological achievements of Middle Eastern Christians who have resided in the world of Islam for fourteen centuries. Their works are a treasure-trove of riches for those investigating contemporary theological and missiological questions.

Islam, Peace and Social Justice examines the ways in which Islamic cultures have dealt with issues of social justice historically and culturally. With unwavering objectivity, the author helps readers of any faith to gain a nuanced and accurate understanding of the challenges that we face in contemporary multifaith engagements. Dr van Gorder offers a comprehensive and sympathetic Christian insight into Islam. The contentious issues of social justice that are encountered in this broad, yet intricate, study include the concept of Jihad, poverty, political oppression, human rights, genocide, racism, sexual injustice, homophobia, and environmental degradation. The challenges are real and the problems are vast; partnerships and solutions must be found - people of faith, Muslim, Jewish and Christian, must find ways to work together to address these shared challenges. This work exposes misrepresentations and stereotypes about Islamic views of social justice that abound in Europe and North America. The author encourages a deeper appreciation of how themes of social justice resound through Islamic texts and have been expressed both in the contemporary and historical life of various and diverse Islamic communities worldwide.

Antagonistic Tolerance examines patterns of coexistence and conflict amongst members of different religious communities, using multidisciplinary research to analyze groups who have peacefully intermingled for generations, and who may have developed aspects of syncretism in their religious practices, and yet have turned violently on each other. Such communities define themselves as separate peoples, with different and often competing interests, yet their interaction is usually peaceable provided the dominance of one group is clear. The key indicator of dominance is control over central religious sites, which may be tacitly shared for long periods, but later contested and even converted as dominance changes. By focusing on these shared and contested sites, this volume allows for a wider understanding of relations between these communities. Using a range of ethnographic, historical and archaeological data from the Balkans, India, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Turkey, Antagonistic Tolerance develops a comparative model of the competitive sharing and transformation of religious sites. These studies are not considered as isolated cases, but are instead woven into a unified analytical framework which explains how long-term peaceful interactions between religious communities can turn conflictual and even result in ethnic cleansing.

Surprising Bedfellows: Hindus and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern India argues that religious and cultural identities in medieval and early modern India were marked by fluid and constantly shifting relationships rather than by the binary model of opposition that is assumed in so much scholarship. Building on the pioneering work of scholars such as Cynthia Talbot and Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, these chapters seek to understand identity perception through romances, historical documents, ballads and historical epics, inscriptions and even architecture. The chapters in this volume urge readers to reconsider the simple and rigid application of categories such as Hindu and Muslim when studying South Asia's medieval and early modern past. It is only by doing this that we can understand the past and, perhaps, help prevent the dangerous rewriting of Indian history.

Issues relating to employment and labour have once again come to the fore of global policy debates in the wake of the widespread unemployment that has accompanied the current financial crisis. In the developing world, there is a growing realization that productive employment promotion and social protection have to be at the core of inclusive growth and development. This book supports the view that employment is a cross-cutting issue shaped by macroeconomic and microeconomic policy interventions, and provides a capacious framework to analyse the complexity of this global debate. It covers a wide range of issues that have received insufficient attention in the discourse of development and labour economics. These include the impact of macroeconomic policies on employment, labour rights, the development of human capabilities and employability, youth employment, the benefits and costs of labour market flexibility, and the importance of social protection for all. This important book aims at filling this gap by revisiting old debates and reconnecting them to the contemporary context, combining analyses with relevant empirical evidence. It will appeal to a diverse readership of academic institutions and think-tanks, international organizations, bilateral donors working on development issues and policy-makers in developing countries.

This comprehensive volume brings together a distinguished editorial team, including some of the field s pioneers, to explore the aims, practice, and historical context of interfaith collaboration. * Explores in full the background, history, objectives, and discourse between the leaders and practitioners of the world s major religions * Examines relations between religions from around the world, moving well beyond the common focus on Christianity, to also cover over 12 major religions * Features a wealth of case studies on contemporary interreligious dialogue * Charts a long-term shift away from a competitive rivalry between belief systems, and a change in focus towards the more respectful, cooperative approach reflected in institutions such as the World Council of Churches * Includes up-to-date commentary on the growing dialogue of recent years, written by some of the leading figures working in the field of interfaith discourse

When Hindus and Sikhs become followers of Christ, what happens next? Should they join Christian churches that often look and feel very unfamiliar to them? Or to what degree can or should they remain a part of their Hindu/Sikh communities and practices? Uncomfortable with the answers that were provided to them by Christian leaders in northwest India, six followers of Christ began Yeshu satsangs that sought to follow Christ and the teachings of the Bible while remaining connected to their Hindu and/or Sikh communities. 'Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-Faith Context' contextualises the practices and identities of these leaders and their gatherings, situating these in the religious history of the region and the personal histories of the leaders themselves. Whereas some Christians worry that the Yeshu satsangs and related 'insider movements' are syncretising their beliefs and are not properly identifiable as 'churches', Darren Todd Duerksen analyses the Yeshu satsang's narratives and practices to find vibrant expressions of local church that are grappling with questions and tensions of social and religious identity. In addition to his ethnographic approach, Duerksen also uses recent sociological and anthropological theory in identity formation and critical realism, as well as discussions of biblical ecclesiology from the Book of Acts. This study will be a helpful resource for those interested in global Christianity, the practices and identities of churches in religiously plural environments, and the creative ways in which Christfollowers can engage people of other faiths.

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.

These dialogues began in 1993 as an outgrowth of a 1990 conference on Catholic-Jewish relations that commemorated the 25th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document encouraging dialogue between the Catholic church and non-Christian religions. This volume contains a record of the first five Nostra Aetate dialogues, and it brings together an impressive array of Jewish and Catholic scholars. The conversations here take up "the Jewishness of Jesus" (John Meier and Shaye Cohen); "the Death of Jesus" (the late Raymond Brown and Michael Cook); "Catholic-Jewish Dialogue and the New Millennium" (Ismar Schorsch and John Cardinal O'Connor); "Jerusalem in Jewish and early Christian Thought" (Robert Wilkins and Michael Fishbane); and Abraham Joshua Heschel as "prophet of social activism" (Eugene Borowitz and Daniel Berrigan). Moderators and respondents include religion journalist Peter Steinfels, Rabbi Burton Visotzky and Susannah Heschel, Abraham Joshua Heschel's daughter. The volume is a solid introduction to some of the most important historical work on Christian origins, Jewish-Christian relations and the historical Jesus. The discussion of contemporary issues, especially between Brown and Cook and between Heschel and Berrigan, is lively and accessible. This collection serves as a model for interreligious dialogue.

This book explores the complexity of preaching as a phenomenon in the medieval Jewish-Christian encounter. This was not only an "encounter" as physical meeting or confrontation (such as the forced attendance of Jews at Christian sermons that took place across Europe), but also an "imaginary" or theological encounter in which Jews remained a figure from a distant constructed time and place who served only to underline and verify Christian teachings. Contributors also explore the Jewish response to Christian anti-Jewish preaching in their own preaching and religious instruction.

Twentieth Century Christian Responses to Religious Pluralism begins with the recognition that the traditional three-fold typology adopted by Christians in responding to other living world religions is no longer adequate and offers a much more sophisticated and developed approach. This is accomplished with particular reference to ten key Twentieth Century theologians, each of whom had significant influence in the field of inter-religious studies, both during their lifetime and beyond. The author rejects the exclusivism and triumphalism of traditional Christian approaches and argues strongly and persuasively that the future for inter-religious relationships lies in what he describes as 'classical pluralism', and in an understanding of the importance of difference for inter-faith dialogue. Presenting an accessible introduction to the contemporary issues and challenges facing all those engaged in the further development of inter-faith relationships, dialogue and partnership between the world religions, Pitman argues that the future of world peace and prosperity depends on the outcome.

Manifestations of hatred of Jews and Israel have risen over the last few decades in the Arab and Muslim world. This hatred is demonstrated in many ways -- from propaganda to terrorism. But is such hatred the result of Islamic anti-Semitism, as widely claimed? Or does it have other roots and reasons? This book sets the record straight by explaining that while anti-Semitism is the credo of fanatic groups and regimes, such an attitude is not representative of traditional and contemporary Islam. For centuries Muslim attitudes to Jews were ambivalent: contempt and antagonism alongside tolerance and cooperation. In fact Jews under Islam were better off than their Christian neighbours, and much better off than their Jewish brethren under Christianity. A similar pattern of relations has developed over the last several decades between Muslim nations and the Jewish state of Israel: hostility and violence, mostly by Muslim Arabs, but also dialogue and cooperation by and with many other Muslims. These complex relations are discussed here by Muslim and Jewish scholars -- from Azerbaijan, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, the USA and Turkey -- who analyze the religious, cultural, political and economic factors that have shaped Muslim attitudes to Jews and Israel. Ideas and suggestions are put forward to improve MuslimJewish relations -- the theme of which was first conceived at an international conference organized by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Divinity School, Harvard University.

This original and ambitious book considers the terms of engagement between Christian theology and other religious traditions, beginning with criticism of Christian theology of religions as entangled with European colonial modernity. Jenny Daggers covers recent efforts to disentangle Eurocentrism from the meeting of the religions, and investigates new constructive possibilities arising in the postcolonial context. In dialogue with Asian and feminist theologies, she reflects on ways forward for relations between the religions and offers a particularist model for theology of religions, standing within a classical Trinitarian framework.