Crowther (Danny) & Shafaie (Shirin) & alii, Biblical Interpretation in Islamic Context: Muslim and Christian, London, Routledge, ("Routledge Biblical Interpretation in Islamic Context") 352 p. ISBN 978-1138093577

Authors

Danny Crowther is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford, UK.

Shirin Shafaie is a lecturer at SOAS, University of London, and a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies (CMCS) in Oxford, UK.

Ida Glaser is director of The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies and a lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, UK.

Shabbir Akhtar is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies and a Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford, UK.

Presentation

In the current political and social climate, there is increasing demand for a deeper understanding of Muslims, the Qur’an and Islam, as well as a keen demand among Muslim scholars to explore ways of engaging with Christians theologically, culturally, and socially.

This book explores the ways in which an awareness of Islam and the Qur’an can change the way in which the Bible is read. The contributors come from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds, bring various levels of commitment to the Qur’an and the Bible as Scripture, and often have significantly different perspectives. The first section of the book contains chapters that compare the report of an event in the Bible with a report of the same event in the Qur’an. The second section addresses Muslim readings of the Bible and biblical tradition and looks at how Muslims might regard the Bible - Can they recognise it as Scripture? If so, what does that mean, and how does it relate to the Qur’an as Scripture? Similarly, how might Christian readers regard the Qur’an? The final section explores different analogies for understanding the Bible in relation to the Qur’an. The book concludes with a reflection upon the particular challenges that await Muslim scholars who seek to respond to Jewish and Christian understandings of the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

A pioneering venture into intertextual reading, this book has important implications for relationships between Christians and Muslims. It will be of significant value to scholars of both Biblical and Qur’anic Studies, as well as any Muslim seeking to deepen their understanding of the Bible, and any Christian looking to transform the way in which they read the Bible.

Content

Foreword, Martin Whittingham

Synopsis, Danny Crowther

1. Biblical interpretation in Islamic context, Ida Glaser

Part 1: Intertextual Conversations

2. Abraham in narrative worldviews: reflections on doing comparative theology through Christian-Muslim dialogue in Turkey, George Bristow

3. Toward inter-theological hermeneutics: a case study in reading between the Joseph stories, Shirin Shafaie

4. The ‘sin’ of David in the light of Islamic thought, Ali Makhlabi and Larry Ciccarelli

5. David and the single ewe lamb: tracking conversation between two texts (2 Samuel 12:3 and Q38:23) when they are read in their canonical contexts, Carol Walker

6. Facing mirrors: the intertwined golden calf story, Mohammad Ghandehari and Mohsen Feyzbakhsh

Part 2: Questions about Texts

7. The fourth source: Isrā’iliyyāt and the use of the Bible in Muslim scholarship, Wan Mohd Fazrul Azdi Wan Razali, Ahmad Yunus Mohd Noor and Jaffary Awang

8. Constrained by scriptural polemics: Hamiduddin Farahi on the Akedah, Nazirudin Mohd Nasir

9. The culture shock of the Bible, Danny Crowther

10. Islamic tradition and the reception history of the Bible, Martin O’Kane and Talha Bhamji

11. The Morphology of the narrative exegesis of the Qur’an: The case of the cow of the Banū Isrāʾīl (Q2:67-74), Ali Aghaie

Part 3: Analogical Explorations

12. The place of purity in faith, Dwight Swanson

13. Biblical Ruth as a qur’anic Queen of Sheba: scriptural narratives of foreigner assent, Georgina Jardim

14. Reading Paul on idolatry (Romans 1:18-32) alongside the Qur’an: a theology of divine signs, Michael Lodahl

15. Indirection in biblical and qur’anic discourses, and in Bible translation in Islamic contexts, Andy Warren-Rothlin

16. The Gospel of John as a structure for Muslim-Christian understanding, Dan Madigan

17. Three methods for a Muslim reading of the Bible, Shabbir Akhtar