Two books recently published by the Oxford University Press
(OUP) cover comparisons between Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious
thought. Natural Law: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Trialogue by
Anver Emon, Matthew Levering, and David Novak, provides a sense for how natural
law doctrine arises and functions in each tradition, while Shared Stories,Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims by Robert
Gregg reveals that Christians, Jews, and Muslims conscientiously differentiated
themselves through debates over scriptural stories' meanings.
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| Source: OUP website. |
In Natural Law each author has written an essay on natural
law doctrine in one tradition and responds to the other two authors, revealing
the particular points of tension/interest between the traditions. Readers will
gain a sense for how natural law resonated with classical thinkers such as
Maimonides, Origen, Augustine, al-Ghazali and others. There is extensive reliance
on classical sources from each tradition, with clear explanations of the key
sources and terms for natural law doctrine in the tradition. Footnotes provide
key bibliographic resources for further study.
Anver Emon is Professor of Law, University of Toronto,
Canada; Matthew Levering is Professor, Mundelein Seminary, Illinois in the US,
and David Novak holds the J Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair in Jewish Studies
as Professor of Religion and Philosophy, University of Toronto.
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| Source: OUP website. |
For Shared Stories Gregg, who is Emeritus Professor in
Religious Studies, Stanford University, emphasises that there was mutual
curiosity between Christians, Muslims, and Jews, since all three religions had
ancestral traditions and a commanding God in common, but also competitiveness, as each group was compelled to sharpen its identity against
the other two.
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 the exchanges between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Interested?
Shared Stories, Rival Tellings (ISBN 978-0-19-023149-1,
£25.99 or US$39.95) is available as an e-book and as a hardback. To purchase the e-book, visit your preferred e-book provider