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In recent decades, new paradigms have radically altered the historical understanding of the Qur'ān and Early Islam, causing much debate and controversy. This volume gathers select proceedings from the first conference of the Early Islamic Studies Seminar.These studies explore the history of the Qur'ān and of formative Islam, with the methodological tools set forth in Biblical, New Testament and Apocryphal studies, as well as the approaches used in the study of Second Temple Judaism, Christian and Rabbinic origins. It thereby contributes to the interdisciplinary study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the religious landscape of Late Antiquity.

What defines'humanity'is a seemingly innocuous question and yet one which continues to attract controversy. Directed by this inquiry and bringing together theological insight in conversation with academic interreligious discourse, the present edited volume offers a unique contribution towards articulating the complex and myriad ways in which human life has been conceived and related to the greater vista of reality. Framed around Muslim-Christian theological dialogue, the volume results from a meeting of prominent international scholars, whose contributions investigate the origins of life through to death and beyond. Informed by classical and contemporary theological questions and interests, the volume offers scholarship in the humanities and sciences important insights into debates pertaining to human beings, their nature, future, and purposes.

”Theology of Religions” is among the most burning issues within Christian theology today. The challenge to study and discuss different ways of handling conflicting truth claims and religious narratives between religions is taken up by a growing number of theologians across denominational boundaries. This is a common and ecumenical effort undertaken by Christian theologians all over the world. And yet, the impact of specific ecclesiastical or theological traditions on different concepts of theology of religions should not be underestimated. As well known, the Second Vatican council with its pivotal decree Nostra Aetate (On the relation to other religions) not only set the agenda for Catholic theology, but even influenced the wider discussion on the topic. The papers of this volume were all given at a conference in Uppsala, Sweden in October 2017. The structure of Faithful Interpretations follows closely the way the conference was conducted. A general introduction to the development and present status of ”Theology of Religions” by Marianne Moyaert opens the book. Archbishop J Augustine Di Noia of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith then treats the recent developments in the teaching of the Magisterium regarding theology of religions. Anna Bonta Moreland adresses the issue of Muhammad and Christian Prophecy. Diego R Sarrió Cucarella focuses on early Christian theological views of Islam and concludes that Islam has been from the begining a ”disturbing” factor in the Christian view of salvation history. Wilhelmus G B M Valkenberg discusses the impact of Nostra Aetate on the Church's relation to Muslims, using especially the precedent of Nicolaus of Cues as regards a constructive approach to Islam. Klaus von Stosch adresses a sensitive issue in Muslim-Christian relations and illustrates the advantages of the comparative theology approach for the theology of religions. Complementing this perspective, Peter Jonkers offers a hermeneutical perspective on truth claims, and reflects on ”the religious Other” with references to Jacques Derrida among others. Reinhold Bernhardt argues in favour of a biblically grounded “relational-existential” theory of truth, which would be most helpful with regard to other religions. To conclude, the prominent Catholic specialist on Theology of Religions, Gavin D'Costa, widened the perspective by addressing the relation to Judaism from the point of view of the covenant and the promises of the land. Altogether, the papers of this volume give a clear impression of the status of Roman Catholic Theology of Religions.

Das Impulspapier'Reformation und Islam'der Konferenz für Islamfragen der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) hat innerhalb und außerhalb der Kirche Zuspruch und Widerspruch erfahren und zur Diskussion eingeladen. Der Band'Reformation und Islam. Ein Diskurs'zeigt Hintergründe der Entstehung des Textes auf, präsentiert aktuelle Diskussionen zum Thema sowie Perspektiven zum Weiterdenken in Theorie und Praxis. Namhafte Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unter anderem der Kirchengeschichte, der Fundamentaltheologie und der Praktischen Theologie sowie der Islamwissenschaft sind mit vertiefenden und weiterführenden Beiträgen in diesem Buch versammelt. Bereichernde Darlegungen aus evangelischer, katholischer und muslimischer Sicht um'Reformation und Islam'für alle, die aktuell im christlich-islamischen Dialog engagiert sind und für die am historischen und theologischen Erbe der Reformation Interessierten. Mit Beiträgen von Katajun Amirpur, Josef Freise, Detlef Görrig, Werner Höbsch, Mouhanad Khorchide, Karl-Josef Kuschel, Athina Lexutt, Andreas Mühling, Andreas Renz, André Ritter, Ertuğrul Şahin und Klaus von Stosch. [Reformation and Islam. A Discourse] The Stimulus Paper'Reformation and Islam'from the Conference for Islam Issues of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) invites discussion and causes agreement as well as disagreement within and outside the church. The new publication'Reformation and Islam. A Discourse'illuminates some backgrounds of the stimulus paper and presents some new ideas of discussions and perspectives theoretically and practically. Prominent teachers and researchers e.g. of Church History, Fundamental or Practical Theology and Islamic Studies are collected in this book by deepening and continuing articles to give new insights concerning'Reformation and Islam'in the perspective of protestant, catholic and islamic tradition and to reach all those who are engaged within the Christian-Muslim Dialogue and who are interested in the historical and theological heritage.

This volume of the Building Bridges Seminar, Power: Divine and Human, Christian and Muslim Perspectives, comprises pairs of essays by Christians and Muslims which introduce texts for dialogical study, plus the actual text-excerpts themselves. This new book goes far beyond mere reporting on a dialogical seminar; rather, it provides guidance and materials for constructing a similar dialogical experience on a particular topic. As a resource for comparative theology, Power: Divine and Human is unique in that it takes up a topic not usually explored in depth in Christian-Muslim conversations. It is written by scholars for scholars. However, in tone and structure, it is suitable for the non-specialist as well. Students (undergraduate and graduate), religious leaders, and motivated non-specialists will find it readable and useful. While it falls solidly in the domain of comparative theology, it can also be used in courses on dialogical reading of scripture, interreligious relations, and political philosophy.

The Indonesian Dutch Consortium on Muslim-Christian Relations brought together academics, intellectuals as well as social activists from both countries, Christians and Muslims alike. While what is published here is the academic output, the impact of the consortium has therefore been much broader. The contributions are organized according to five generative themes: Identity, Religion and State, Gender, Hermeneutics and Theology of Dialogue. The book has attracted attention already before its publication. It is hoped that this project will inspire continuous efforts for interreligious dialogue. [Muslimisch-christliche Beziehungen. Vergleichende Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen in Indonesien und den Niederlanden] Wissenschaftler, Intellektuelle und Aktivisten aus den Niederlanden und Indonesien, Muslime und Christen, Frauen und Männer, haben sich hier erstmals in einem Konsortium zusammengefunden, um miteinander ins Gespräch zu kommen. Während mit diesem Band das Ergebnis vielfältiger gemeinsamer Forschungsprojekte vorgelegt wird, hat ihre Initiative darüber hinaus eine viel größere Breitenwirkung in Kirche und Gesellschaft. Die Beiträge sind anhand von fünf generativen Themen geordnet: Identität, Religion und Staat, Gender, Hermeneutik und Theologie des Dialogs. Das Buch hat bereits vor seiner Veröffentlichung großes Interesse auf sich gezogen und kann weitere Bemühungen um interreligiöse Dialoge in den verschiedensten Kontexten inspirieren.

Das Spannungsfeld'Glaube und Vernunft'ist eine Kernfrage sowohl christlicher als auch muslimischer Theologie. Bereits in den Offenbarungsschriften selbst wird ansatzweise die Frage diskutiert, inwieweit die Vernunft eine eigenständige Quelle der Gotteserkenntnis und eine kritische Instanz für die Prüfung der Glaubenswahrheiten ist. Beide Weltreligionen rezipieren von ihren Anfängen Werke und Gedanken der griechischen Philosophie. Umstritten bleibt die Reichweite der Vernunft in Glaubensfragen, besonders bei Themen wie Freiheit und Gehorsam, Allmacht Gottes und Wahrheitsansprüche anderer Religionen. In den gegenwärtigen, weltanschaulich pluralen Diskursen sowie im interreligiösen Gespräch eröffnet die Annahme der Vernünftigkeit der Offenbarung eine grundlegende Möglichkeit zur Verständigung. Die Beiträge zu diesem Band sind sowohl in deutscher als auch in türkischer Sprache wiedergegeben. Vorangestellte Abstracts erleichtern einen raschen Zugang. Resümees aus christlicher bzw. islamischer Sicht sind in deutscher, türkischer und englischer Sprache beigegeben. Der Band wird durch ein deutsches und ein türkisches Namens- und Sachregister erschlossen.

Angesichts der aktuellen Flüchtlingssituation stehen Themen wie das Verhältnis von Religion und moderner Gesellschaft, Religion und Gewalt sowie die Einstellung religiöser Menschen zu den Grundlagen unseres Staates im Fokus aktueller Debatten. Aus gesellschaftspolitischer, theologischer sowie sozial- und islamwissenschaftlicher Perspektive beleuchten die AutorInnen unter anderem folgende Fragen: Welche Erwartungshaltung gibt es in Politik und Gesellschaft gegenüber Religionen? Wie offen sind religiöse Gemeinschaften gegenüber der säkularen Gesellschaft? Steckt in den Religionen Friedenspotenzial oder sind sie gar gewaltfördernd? Die AutorInnen zeigen, dass Religion in unserer Gesellschaft nicht verschwunden ist, dass beide vielmehr voneinander profitieren können und dass gegenseitiger Respekt und ein offener Dialog die Basis einer funktionierenden Demokratie sind. Sie plädieren für mehr religiöse Bildung und Wissen über die Religionen, auch zur Bekämpfung des Fundamentalismus, der weltweit nicht nur die Religionsfreiheit bedroht. Mit Beiträgen von Dirk Ansorge, Bernd Apel, Hans-Georg Burger, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Michael Hochschild, Bettina Jarasch, Siegfried Karl, Norbert Lammert, Sigrid Monnheimer, Franz-Josef Overbeck, Thomas Petersen, Diaa Rashid, Yasar Sarikaya, Sarah Larissa Schneemann, Susanne Schröter, Wolfgang Thierse und einem Grußwort von Gerda Weigel-Greilich.

Sin, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation: Christian and Muslim Perspectives is a collection of essays and scripture passages studied at the 2014 Building Bridges seminar. Thoughtful and provocative, the book begins with the complete texts of the opening lectures by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and Jonathan A. C. Brown and contains essays by Christoph Schwöbel, Ayman Shabana, Susan Eastman, Mohammad Hassan Khalil, Philip Sheldrake, and Asma Afsaruddin. Peppered throughout with relevant scripture passages and commentary, the text concludes with an extensive account of the informal conversations at the seminar that conveys the lively and respectful dialogue that is the hallmark of this meeting.

The Community of Believers offers the proceedings of the 2013 Building Bridges seminar, a dialogue between leading Christian and Muslim scholars under the stewardship of Georgetown University.These essays consider such themes as the Church as mystical body of Christ versus the Church as proclamation; the roots and uses of the term ummah and its development over time; Christian desires for communion, experiences of division, and approaches to unity; the history of Muslim disunity; twentieth-century Christian ecclesiology and its responses to a post-Christendom and post-Christian world; and the Arab Spring as a case study for contemplating accommodationism, conservatism, reformism, and fundamentalism as Muslim strategies to address the pressures of modernism. The volume also includes texts and commentaries used in the seminar's discussions of each topic and a concluding essay summarizing the tone, content, and style of participant exchanges throughout the seminar.

Der vorliegende zweite Band der Schriftenreihe'Interreligiöser Dialog in gesellschaftlicher Verantwortung'der Eugen-Biser-Stiftung beleuchtet unterschiedliche Aspekte des Wandels der deutschen und europäischen Gesellschaft im Zuge der zunehmenden Präsenz des Islam in Europa. Es zeigt sich, dass die wachsenden Konfliktpotenziale, die sich nicht zuletzt in einer dezidierten und politisch organisierten Islamfeindlichkeit niederschlagen, langfristig nur auf dem Wege des Dialogs überwunden werden können. In dem Band werden Gesprächsangebote von muslimischer wie von christlicher Seite vorgelegt, die es anzunehmen und weiterzuführen gilt.

Death, Resurrection, and Human Destiny: Christian and Muslim Perspectives is a record of the 2012 Building Bridges seminar for leading Christian and Muslim scholars, convened by Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury. The essays in this volume explore what the Bible and Qurān—and the Christian and Islamic theological traditions—have to say about death, resurrection, and human destiny. Special attention is given to the writings of al-Ghazali and Dante. Other essays explore the notion of the good death. Funeral practices of each tradition are explained. Relevant texts are included with commentary, as are personal reflections on death by several of the seminar participants. An account of the informal conversations at the seminar conveys a vivid sense of the lively, penetrating, but respectful dialogue which took place. Three short pieces by Rowan Williams provide his opening comments at the seminar and his reflections on its proceedings. The volume also contains an analysis of the Building Bridges Seminar after a decade of his leadership.

¿Cómo percibieron los cristianos el auge del islam? ¿Qué elementos contribuyeron a la construcción literaria e iconográfica de Mahoma en el mundo cristiano? ¿Se mantuvo de forma invariable esa percepción? El presente libro intenta ofrecer respuestas a esas preguntas a partir de la lectura de textos y autores medievales y modernos que ofrecen su percepción del islam y la vida de Mahoma desde tiempos y perspectivas intelectuales diferentes: desde el tiempo de las cruzadas hasta la expulsión de los moriscos; desde la derrota de Heraclio hasta el dominio turco en los Balcanes; desde las obras de los cristianos de Arabia hasta las de los mozárabes; desde textos de polémica religiosa hasta obras teatrales. A través del análisis de esos soportes y su transmisión vemos cómo los cristianos ofrecieron una figura poliédrica de Mahoma no solo como hereje, falso profeta o cismático, sino también como ambicioso conquistador y astuto legislador, e incluso como mago y visionario.

Wissenschaftler, Intelektuelle und Aktivisten aus den Niederlanden und Indonesien, Muslime und Christen, Frauen und Männer, haben sich hier erstmals in einem Konsortium zusammengefunden, um miteinander ins Gespräch zu kommen. Während mit diesem Band das Ergebnis vielfältiger gemeinsamer Forschungsprojekte vorgelegt wird, hat ihre Initiative darüber hinaus eine viel größere Breitenwirkung in Kirche und Gesellschaft. Die Beiträge sind anhand von fünf generativen Themen geordnet: Identität, Religion und Staat, Gender, Hermeneutik und Theologie des Dialogs. Das Buch hat bereits vor seiner Veröffentlichung großes Interesse auf sich gezogen und kann weitere Bemühungen um interreligiöse Dialoge in den verschiedensten Kontexten inspirieren.

Prayer: Christian and Muslim Perspectives is a rich collection of essays, scriptural texts, and personal reflections featuring leading scholars analyzing the meaning and function of prayer within their traditions. Drawn from the 2011 Building Bridges seminar in Doha, Qatar, the essays in this volume explore the devotional practices of each tradition and how these practices are taught and learned. Relevant texts are included, with commentary, as are personal reflections on prayer by each of the seminar participants. The volume also contains a Christian reflection on Islamic prayer and a Muslim reflection on Christian prayer. An extensive account of the informal conversations at the seminar conveys a vivid sense of the lively, penetrating, but respectful dialogue that took place.

Science and Religion is a record of the 2009 Building Bridges seminar, a dialogue between leading Christian and Muslim scholars convened annually by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The essays in this volume explore how both faith traditions have approached the interface between science and religion and throw light on the ongoing challenges posed by this issue today. The volume includes a selection of relevant texts together with commentary that illuminates the scriptures, the ideas of key religious thinkers, and also the legacy of Charles Darwin.

This volume contains theoretical and empirical articles on tensions within and between religion and human rights. There are conflicts in the past histories of Christianity and Islam in regard to human rights, but also in contemporary history. There are also tensions in the sphere of human rights, like the relation between natural law and human rights, morality and law, liberty and equality, civil rights and socio-economic rights, and more specific ones, like the rights of humans and citizens, religious freedom and the separation of church and state, religious freedom and freedom of speech, and the state and religion on social welfare provisions. The volume aims at theoretical clarification and empirical exploration on data from 14 countries.Contributors include: Jean-Pierre Wils, Piet Hein van Kempen, Mathias Rohe, Johannes (Hans) van der Ven, Anders Sjöborg, Raymond J. Webb, Jack Curran, Marion Reindl, Leo W.J.M. van der Tuin, Clement D. Fumbo, and Hans-Georg Ziebertz.

In a world where almost all societies are multi-religious and multi-ethnic, we need to study how social cohesion can be achieved in different contexts. In some geographical areas, as in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, people of different religious belonging have, through the ages, lived side by side, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in dissonance. In other geographical regions, as in Scandinavia, societies have been quite religiously homogeneous but only recently challenged by immigration.In both locations the relations between religious minority and majority are very much on the agenda. In order to discuss the situation for non-Muslims in Muslim majority societies, a consultation was convened with both Muslim and Christian participants from Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Sweden. Some of the participants work in academic settings, others in faith-based organisations, some in jurisprudence and others with theological issues. Non-Muslims in Muslim Majority Societies is the result of thatconsultation. The intention of the book is to trigger reflection and further thinking, through papers that discuss issues such as freedom of religion, minority rights, secular and religious legislation, and inter-religious dialogue in Muslim majority societies. Although the articles are presented as'works in progress'and remain tentative in many of their conclusions, this book is an important contribution to the global debate over religious tolerance and religious pluralism.

Communicating the Word is a record of the 2008 Building Bridges seminar, an annual dialogue between leading Christian and Muslim scholars convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Featuring the insights of internationally known Christian and Muslim scholars, the essays collected here focus attention on key scriptural texts but also engage with both classical and contemporary Islamic and Christian thought. Issues addressed include, among others, the different ways in which Christians and Muslims think of their scriptures as the “Word of God,” the possibilities and challenges of translating scripture, and the methods—and conflicts—involved in interpreting scripture in the past and today. In his concluding reflections, Archbishop Rowan Williams draws attention to a fundamental point emerging from these fascinating contributions: “Islam and Christianity alike give a high valuation to the conviction that God speaks to us. Grasping what that does and does not mean... is challenging theological work.”

Humanity: Texts and Contexts is a record of the 2007 Singapore “Building Bridges” seminar, an annual dialogue between Muslim and Christian scholars cosponsored by Georgetown University and the Archbishop of Canterbury. This volume explores three central questions: What does it mean to be human? What is the significance of the diversity that is evident among human beings? And what are the challenges that humans face living within the natural world?A distinguished group of scholars focuses on the theological responses to each of these questions, drawing on the wealth of material found in both Christian and Islamic scriptures. Part one lays out the three issues of human identity, difference, and guardianship. Part two explores scriptural texts side by side, pairing Christian and Islamic scholars who examine such themes as human dignity, human alienation, human destiny, humanity and gender, humanity and diversity, and humanity and the environment. In addition to contributions from an international cast of outstanding scholars, the book includes an afterword by Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Building a Better Bridge is a record of the fourth'Building Bridges'seminar held in Sarajevo in 2005 as part of an annual symposium on Muslim-Christian relations cosponsored by Georgetown University and the Archbishop of Canterbury. This volume presents the texts of the public lectures with regional presentations on issues of citizenship, religious believing and belonging, and the relationship between government and religion—both from the immediate situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and from three contexts further afield: Britain, Malaysia, and West Africa. Both Christian and Muslim scholars propose key questions to be faced in addressing the issue of the common good. How do we approach the civic sphere as believers in particular faiths and as citizens of mixed societies? What makes us who we are, and how do our religious and secular allegiances relate to one another? How do we accommodate our commitment to religious values with acknowledgment of human disagreement, and how can this be expressed in models of governance and justice? How are we, mandated by scriptures to be caretakers, to respond to the current ecological and economic disorder of our world? Michael Ipgrave and his contributors do not claim to provide definitive answers to these questions, but rather they further a necessary dialogue and show that, while Christian and Islamic understandings of God may differ sharply and perhaps irreducibly, the acknowledgment of one another as people of faith is the surest ground on which to build trust, friendship, and cooperation.

The contributions to this volume, which come from the Fifth Mingana Symposium, survey the use of the Bible and attitudes towards it in the early and classical Islamic periods. The authors explore such themes as early Christian translations of the Bible into Arabic, the use of verses from it to defend the truth of Christianity, to interpret the significance of Islam and to prove its error, Muslim accusations of corruption of the Bible, and the influences that affected production of Bibles in Muslims lands. The volume illustrates the centrality of the Bible to Arab Christians as a source of authority and information about their experiences under Islam, and the importance of upholding its authenticity in the face of Muslim criticisms.Contributors include: Samir Arbache, Mark Beaumont, Emmanouela Grypeou, Lucy-Anne Hunt, Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala, Said Gabriel Reynolds, Barbara Roggema, Harald Suermann and Mark Swanson.

This timely collection offers new perspectives on Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa. Working against political and scholarly traditions that keep Muslims and Christians apart, the essays in this multidisciplinary volume locate African Muslims and Christians within a common analytical frame. In a series of historical and ethnographic case studies from across the African continent, the authors consider the multiple ways Muslims and Christians have encountered each other, borrowed or appropriated from one another, and sometimes also clashed. Contributors recast assumptions about the making and transgressing of religious boundaries, Christian-Muslim relations, and conversion. This engaging collection is a long overdue attempt to grapple with the multi-faceted and changing encounters of Muslims and Christians in Africa.

The theme of this book is the early encounters between Christianity and Islam in the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire and in Persia from the beginnings of Islam in Mecca to the time of the Abbasids in Bagdad. The contributions in this volume deal with crucial subjects of political and theological dialogue and controversy that characterized the varying responses of the Christian communities in the Byzantine Eastern provinces to the Islamic conquest and its subsequent impact on Byzantine society and history.This volume opens up new research perspectives surrounding the confrontation of Christianity with the early theological and political development of Islam. The present publication emphasizes the importance of the study of the beginnings and the foundations of the relations between the two religions.

It is crucial today to understand how religions can exist harmoniously in a shared environment, whether local or global. A reasoned approach to this question was sought by participants at a stimulating conference of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) in a predominantly Muslim country, Indonesia. Themes treated include the relation between theoretical approaches and religious viewpoints, practical problems and conflict resolution at the local level, and religious education with special reference to the role of Muslim schools (pesantren) in Indonesia.

Der umfangreiche Band enthält neben den auf dem 4. deutschen Syrologen-Symposium in Trier gehaltenen Vorträgen Beiträge zur Umwelt der orientalischen Christenheit. Hier erfahren auch allgemein interessierte Leser Grundsätzliches zum Verhältnis von orientalischen Christen und Islam, andere etwas zu Fragen der Kunst im Islam. Die Beiträge zum syrisch-sprachigen Christentum reichen von der Antike bis zur Moderne und dokumentieren Fragen wissenschaftlicher Forschung ebenso wie Vorgänge der jüngeren Geschichte und Gegenwart.

During the first six-seven centuries of the Islamic era there was a very lively exchange between Christian and Islamic thinking. It was a period when Christian theologians of various denominations had to find ways of expressing their traditional ideas in Arabic. In the process their thinking developed. The papers in this volume represent the wide range of this field, including detailed studies of such key writers as Abū Rā'itah, Yaḥyā b. ‘Adī and Theodore Abū Qūrrah, as well as probably the earliest, anonymous, Christian apology in Arabic. The Islamic context in which such writers worked is also dealt with, as is the wider geographical spread of Christian Arabic thought extending to Islamic Spain.