A revisionist reading of early anti-Judaism, in which the author challenges the prevailing opinion and offers a richer picture than ever before of the Jews and Christians of antiquity.

'A very important contribution to the clarifying of the complexity of the relaionships between Jews, Christians, and pagans in Greco-Roman culture.' Rosemary Radford Ruether, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Since the Enlightenment, the churches have progressively suffered a severe loss of status because of their belief that revelation is realized only in Christianity. The suggestion that Christian revelation might be truer than other so-called revelations seems to be preposterous. This book argues that this insistence has often remained unnuanced and simplistic, with the consequence that not only unbelievers as well as believers of other religions, but even numerous Christians no longer agree with the primacy of a truth revealed in Jesus Christ. The book addresses the difficulties affecting the interpretation of belief, given modernity's concerns. The volume sets out a provisional synthesis on revelation and it makes available much expository and historical information. It correlates distinctions between pair members such as the natural and the supernatural, conceptualism and intellectualism, heart and reason, subjectivity and objectivity, limited perspective and universal viewpoint, permanence of doctrine and historicity, Christian and non-Christian claims regarding truth, revelation and divine speech, moderate and radical pluralism, Jesus absolutized and Jesus relativized. The thrust of the argument is towards an appropriation of what is best in ancient, medieval, and modern traditions on revelation. This book delineates, in an original way, a position on revelation that is at once traditional and relevant for today. It accepts many values brought to the fore by modernity and draws from exegetes, historians, philosophers, and theologians. Its inspiration comes principally from the Bible, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, and Bernard Lonergan.

The first Christians to meet Muslims were not Latin-speaking Christians from the western Mediterranean or Greek-speaking Christians from Constantinople but rather Christians from northern Mesopotamia who spoke the Aramaic dialect of Syriac. Living under Muslim rule from the seventh century to the present, Syriac Christians wrote the first and most extensive accounts of Islam, describing a complicated set of religious and cultural exchanges not reducible to the solely antagonistic. Through its critical introductions and new translations of this invaluable historical material, When Christians First Met Muslims allows scholars, students, and the general public to explore the earliest interactions between what eventually became the world's two largest religions, shedding new light on Islamic history and Christian-Muslim relations.

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.

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.

Lavishly illustrated with over 100 color photographs, Places of Faith takes readers on a fascinating religious road trip. Christopher Scheitle and Roger Finke have crisscrossed America, visiting churches in small towns and rural areas, as well as the mega-churches, storefronts, synagogues, Islamic centers, Eastern temples, and other places of faith in major cities. Each stop on their tour provides an opportunity to introduce a particular current of American religion. Memphis serves as a window into the Black Church, a visit to Colorado Springs provides insight into evangelicalism, and a stop in Detroit sheds light on American Muslims. Readers visit Hare Krishnas in San Francisco, the Amish in central Pennsylvania, and a "cowboy church" in Amarillo, Texas. As the authors journey across the country, they retell unique religious histories and touch on local religious profiles and trends. They draw from conversations they had with pastors, imams, bishops, priests, and monks, along with ordinary believers of all kinds. Most of all, they tell the reader what they saw and heard, putting a human face on America's astounding religious diversity.

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.

The first intellectual history of interreligious dialogue, a relatively new and significant dimension of human religiosity "[A] fast-paced history of interreligious dialogue . . . For those new to the field or interested in looking at where we've been and how we came to be here, this book is a very good place to start."-Emily Soloff, Christian Century In recent decades, organizations committed to interreligious or interfaith dialogue have proliferated, both in the Western and non-Western worlds. Why? How so? And what exactly is interreligious dialogue? These are the touchstone questions of this book, the first major history of interreligious dialogue in the modern age. Thomas Albert Howard narrates and analyzes several key turning points in the history of interfaith dialogue before examining, in the conclusion, the contemporary landscape. While many have theorized about and practiced interreligious dialogue, few have attended carefully to its past, connecting its emergence and spread with broader developments in modern history. Interreligious dialogue-grasped in light of careful, critical attention to its past-holds promise for helping people of diverse faith backgrounds to foster cooperation and knowledge of one another while contributing insight into contemporary, global religious pluralism.

In their third book together, Adam B. Seligman and Robert P. Weller address a seemingly simple question: What counts as the same? Given the myriad differences that divide one individual from another, why do we recognize anyone as somehow sharing a common fate with us? For that matter, how do we live in harmony with groups who may not share the sense of a common fate? Such relationships lie at the heart of the problems of pluralism that increasingly face so much of the world today. Note that "counting as" the same differs from "being" the same. Counting as the same is not an empirical question about how much or how little one person shares with another or one event shares with a previous event. Nothing is actually the same. That is why, as humans, we construct sameness all the time. In the process, of course, we also construct difference. Creating sameness and difference leaves us with the perennial problem of how to live with difference instead of seeing it as a threat. How Things Count as the Same suggests that there are multiple ways in which we can count things as the same, and that each of them fosters different kinds of group dynamics and different sets of benefits and risks for the creation of plural societies. While there might be many ways to understand how people construct sameness, three stand out as especially important and form the focus of the book's analysis: Memory, Mimesis, and Metaphor.

A comprehensive collection provides guidance and deep insight from a variety of experts in this emerging field The rapidly developing field of interreligious studies fosters scholarship engaging two or more religious traditions at a time. Inherently multidisciplinary, the field brings the academic consideration of religions into conversation with the humanities and social sciences, employing relational, intersectional, experiential, and dialogical methodologies as it examines the interrelationship of individuals and groups with differing alignments toward religion. Edited by Lucinda Mosher, The Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies features an international roster of practitioners of or experts on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Ruism, Humanism, and African, North American, and South American Indigenous lifeways. Each author offers a unique perspective on the nature of this emerging discipline. This companion provides fifty thought-provoking chapters on the history, priorities, challenges, distinguishing pedagogies, and practical applications of interreligious studies. Anyone who seeks a deeper appreciation of this relatively new academic field will find it useful as a textbook or research resource.

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.

Winner of the Frederick Streng Book Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies This work provides the first systematic discussion of the Bodhisattva path and its importance for constructive Christian theology. Crucified Wisdom examines specific Buddhist traditions, texts, and practices not as phenomena whose existence requires an apologetic justification but as wells of tested wisdom that invite theological insight. With the increasing participation of Christians in Buddhist practice, many are seeking a deeper understanding of the way the teachings of the two traditions might interface. Christ and the Bodhisattva are often compared superficially in Buddhist-Christian discussion. This text combines a rich exposition of the Bodhisattva path, using Santideva's classic work the Bodicaryavatara and subsequent Tibetan commentators, with detailed reflection on its implications for Christian faith and practice. Author S. Mark Heim lays out root tensions constituted by basic Buddhist teachings on the one hand, and Christian teachings on the other, and the ways in which the Bodhisattva or Christ embody and resolve the resulting paradoxes in their respective traditions. An important contribution to the field of comparative theology in general and to the area of Buddhist-Christian studies in particular, Crucified Wisdom proposes that Christian theology can take direct instruction from Mahayana Buddhism in two respects: deepening its understanding of our creaturely nature through no-self insights, and revising its vision of divine immanence in dialogue with teachings of emptiness. Heim argues that Christians may affirm the importance of novelty in history, the enduring significance of human persons, and the Trinitarian reality of God, even as they learn to value less familiar, nondual dimensions of Christ's incarnation, human redemption, and the divine life. Crucified Wisdom focuses on questions of reconciliation and atonement in Christian theology and explores the varying interpretations of the crucifixion of Jesus in Buddhist-Christian discussion. The Bodhisattva path is central for major contemporary Buddhist voices such as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, who figure prominently as conversation partners in the text. This work will be of particular value for those interested in "dual belonging" in connection to these traditions.

This is the first encyclopedic guide to the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book features more than 150 authoritative and accessible articles by an international team of leading experts in history, politics, literature, anthropology, and philosophy. Organized thematically and chronologically, this indispensable reference provides critical facts and balanced context for greater historical understanding and a more informed dialogue between Jews and Muslims.

Part I covers the medieval period; Part II, the early modern period through the nineteenth century, in the Ottoman Empire, Africa, Asia, and Europe; Part III, the twentieth century, including the exile of Jews from the Muslim world, Jews and Muslims in Israel, and Jewish-Muslim politics; and Part IV, intersections between Jewish and Muslim origins, philosophy, scholarship, art, ritual, and beliefs. The main articles address major topics such as the Jews of Arabia at the origin of Islam; special profiles cover important individuals and places; and excerpts from primary sources provide contemporary views on historical events.

Contributors include Mark R. Cohen, Alain Dieckhoff, Michael Laskier, Vera Moreen, Gordon D. Newby, Marina Rustow, Daniel Schroeter, Kirsten Schulze, Mark Tessler, John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and many more.Covers the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to todayWritten by an international team of leading scholarsFeatures in-depth articles on social, political, and cultural historyIncludes profiles of important people (Eliyahu Capsali, Joseph Nasi, Mohammed V, Martin Buber, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Edward Said, Messali Hadj, Mahmoud Darwish) and places (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Baghdad)Presents passages from essential documents of each historical period, such as the Cairo Geniza, Al-Sira, and Judeo-Persian illuminated manuscriptsRichly illustrated with more than 250 images, including maps and color photographsIncludes extensive cross-references, bibliographies, and an index

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."

"A wonderful, rich, and fascinating book, and a great read. Biale explores the meanings of blood within Jewish and Christian cultures from the blood of the sacrifices of the book of Leviticus to the blood of the Eucharist to the blood of medieval blood libels and the place of blood in Nazi ideology. Biale shows that blood symbolism stands at the center of the divide between Judaism and Christianity. This book will be the point of departure for all future studies of the subject."--Shaye J.D. Cohen, Harvard University
"I know of no other work that, through numerous insights and useful distinctions, so alerts us to and comprehensively documents the ongoing constitutive role of Christian and anti-Semitic perceptions of Jewish existence and the interactions between them. Whereas much contemporary historiography has become so specialized that historians have surrendered the larger picture, David Biale's panoramic perspective reveals the great value and interest of this work."--Steven E. Aschheim, author of "Beyond the Border: The German-Jewish Legacy Abroad"

Religious faith is a powerful source of comfort and support for individuals and families facing dementia. Many faith leaders need help in adapting their ministries to address the worship/spiritual needs of this group. A product of Faith United Against Alzheimer's, this handbook by 45 different authors represents diverse faith traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Native American. It provides practical help in developing services and creating dementia friendly faith communities. It gives an understanding of the cognitive, communicative and physical abilities of people with dementia and shows what chaplains, clergy and lay persons can do to engage them through worship. Included are several articles by persons living with dementia.

Why should Christians engage in interfaith dialogue with Muslims? Does Islam have anything to offer Christians? What is Islamophobia, and what should we do about it? These are just some of the questions addressed in Finding Jesus among Muslims, an urgent new book from author Jordan Denari Duffner. Drawing from church teaching, the stories of saints and martyrs, and her extensive personal experiences living among Muslims in both the United States and the Middle East, Duffner explains why all Christians are called to participate in a "dialogue of life" with Muslims. Her intelligent and fresh approach makes Duffner a welcome voice on some of the most important social and religious questions of our day.

It was once common consensus that there was no significant Jewish community in ancient and medieval Armenia. The discovery and excavation (1997-2002) of a Jewish cemetery of the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries in southern Armenia substantially changed this picture. In this volume, Stone and Topchyan assemble evidence about the Jews of Armenia from earliest times to the fourteenth century. Based on research of the Greco-Roman period, the authors are able to draw new conclusions about the transfer of Jews-including the High Priest Hyrcanus-from the north of Palestine and other countries to Armenia by King Tigran the Great in the first century BCE. The fact that descendants of King Herod ruled in Armenia in Roman times and that some noble Armenian families may have had Jewish origin is discussed. The much-debated identification of the "Mountains of Ararat" of Noah's Ark fame as well as ancient biblical and other references to Ararat and the Caucasus are re-assessed, and new evidence is adduced that challenges the scientific consensus. The role of Jews during the Seljuk, Mongol, and later times is also presented, from surviving sources in Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew, and others. The volume also includes studies of medieval Jewish sources on Armenia and the Armenians and of communication between Armenia and the Holy Land. Documents from the Cairo Geniza, newly uncovered inscriptions, medieval itineraria, and diplomatica also throw light on Armenia in the context of the Turkic Khazar kingdom, which converted to Judaism in the latter part of the first century CE. It responds both to new archeological discoveries in Armenia and to the growing interest in the history of the region that extends north from the Euphrates and into the Caucasus.