The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions

630 Pages·2015·45.24 MB·English

by  Silverstein

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF THE
ABRAHAMIC
RELIGIONS
Edited by
ADAM J. SILVERSTEIN
and
GUY G. STROUMSA
Associate Editor
MOSHE BLIDSTEIN
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVBRSITY PRESS
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
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contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
The editors wish to dedicate this Handbook to two towering scholars
in recognition of their pioneering work
in deciphering the roots of the Abrahamic religions
and fostering relations between children of Abraham
Patricia Crone (1945-2015)
R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (1924-2015)
In memoriam
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Contributors xi
Introduction xiii
ADAM J. SILVERSTEIN, Guy G. STROUMSA, AND MosHE BLIDSTEIN
PART I. THE CONCEPT OF THE
ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS
1. Abraham and Authenticity 3
REUVEN FIRESTONE
2. Yet Another Abraham 22
GIL ANIDJAR
3. Abrahamic Experiments in History 37
ADAM J. SILVERSTEIN
4. Three Rings or Three Impostors? The Comparative Approach
to the Abrahamic Religions and its Origins 56
GUY G. STROUMSA
5. The Abrahamic Religions as a Modern Concept 71
MARK SILK
6. The Concept of the Abrahamic Religions, Problems and Pitfalls 88
RE.MI BRAGUE
PART II. COMMUNITIES
7. Islamo-Christian Civilization 109
RICHARD W. BULLIET
8. The Abrahamic Religions in the Mediterranean 121
DAVID ABULAFIA
9. Justice 137
URIEL SIMONSOHN
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
10. Jews and Muslims in Christian Law and History 166
]OHN TOLAN
11. Beyond Exclusivism in the Middle Ages: On the Three Rings,
the Three Impostors, and the Discourse of Multiplicity 189
DOROTHEA WELTECKE
PART III. SCRIPTURE AND HERMENEUTICS
12. Historical-Critical Readings of the Abrahamic Scriptures 209
NICOLAI SINAI
13. Interpreters of Scripture 226
CAROL BAKHOS
14. The Finality of Prophecy 254
s.
DAVID POWERS
15. Apocalypticism, Millenarianism, and Messianism 272
LUTZ GREISIGER
PART IV. RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
16. The Abrahamic Religions and the Classical Tradition 297
PETER E. PORMANN
17. Confessing Monotheism in Arabic (at-Taw]fid): The One God
of Abraham and his Apologists 315
SIDNEY H. GRIFFITH
18. Philosophy and Theology 332
CARLOS FRAENKEL
19. Science and Creation: The Medieval Heritage 355
WILLIAM E. CARROLL
20. Mysticism in the Abrahamic Religions 373
MOSHE lDEL
21. Political Thought 390
ANTONY BLACK
22. Religious Dualism and the Abrahamic Religions 405
YuRISTOYANOV
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
PART V. RITUALS AND ETHICS
23. Prayer 429
CLEMENS LEONHARD AND MARTIN LUSTRAETEN
24. Purity and Defilement 448
MOSHE BLIDSTEIN
25. Dietary Law
DAVID M. FREIDENREICH
26. Life-Cycle Rites of Passage
HARVEY E. GOLDBERG
27. The Cult of Saints and Pilgrimage 499
YOUSEF MERI
28. Religions of Love: Judaism, Christianity, Islam 518
DAVID NIRENBERG AND LEONARDO CAPEZZONE
29. Religion and Politics in the Age of Fundamentalisms 536
MALISE RUTHVEN
PART VI. EPILOGUES
30. Jewish and other Abrahamic Philosophic Arguments
for Abrahamic Studies 559
PETER OCHS
31. Christian Perspectives: Settings, Theology, Practices,
and Challenges 580
DAVID F. FORD
32. Islamic Perspectives 597
TARIQ RAMADAN
Index 613
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge
and Papathomas Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Gil Anidjar, Professor in the Department of Religion, the Department of Middle
Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, and the Institute for Comparative Literature
and Society, Columbia University.
Carol Bakhos, Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures,
University of California, Los Angeles.
Antony Black, Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics, University of Dundee.
Moshe Blidstein, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Remi Brague, Professor Emeritus of Medieval and Arabic Philosophy, University of
Paris I.
Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History, Columbia University.
Leonardo Capezzone, Associate Professor, Italian Institute of Oriental Studies,
Sapienza University of Rome.
William E. Carroll, Thomas Aquinas Fellow in Theology and Science at Blackfriars
and a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.
Reuven Firestone, Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam, Hebrew
Union College.
David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and Director of
the Cambridge Interfaith Programme.
Carlos Fraenkel, Associate Professor, Departments of Philosophy and Jewish Studies,
McGill University, Montreal.
David M. Freidenreich, Pulver Family Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Colby
College, W aterville, Maine.
Harvey E. Goldberg, Professor Emeritus, Sarah Allen Shaine Chair in Sociology and
Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Lutz Greisiger, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Sidney H. Griffith, Professor ofEarly Christian Studies, Catholic University of America.
Moshe Idel, Max Cooper Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University
of Jerusalem.
Clemens Leonhard, Professor of Liturgical Studies, University of Munster.
Martin Lilstraeten, Lecturer in Liturgical Studies, University of Munster.
Yousef Meri, Visiting Professor, Department of Studies of Contemporary Islam,
Faculty of Shari'a, University of Jordan (2014-15).
David Nirenberg, Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History
and Social Thought, University of Chicago.
Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of
Virginia.
Peter E. Pormann, Professor of Classics and Graeco-Arabic Studies, University
of Manchester, and Director of the John Rylands Research Institute.
David S. Powers, Professor of Islamic History, Cornell University.
Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental
Studies, University of Oxford.
Malise Ruthven, author of Islam in the World (1984, revised and updated 2015), The
Divine Supermarket (1990), A Fury for God (2002), Fundamentalism: A Very Short
Introduction (2004, 2007) and other books. He lives in London.
Mark Silk, Professor of Religion in Public Life and Director of the Leonard
E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut.
Adam J. Silverstein, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Bar Ilan University.
Uriel Simonsohn, Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern History, Univer
sity of Haifa.
Nicolai Sinai, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow
of Pembroke College.
Yuri Stoyanov, Research Associate, Department of Languages and Cultures of the
Near and Middle East, SOAS, University of London.
Guy G. Stroumsa, Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and Professor Emeritus of the Study of the Abrahamic
Religions, University of Oxford.
John Tolan, Professor of History, University of Nantes.
Dorothea W eltecke, Chair for the History of Religions, Center of Excellence 'Cultural
Foundations of Social Integration', University of Konstanz.
INTRODUCTION
ADAM]. SILVERSTEIN, GUY G. STROUMSA,
AND MOSHE BLIDSTEIN
THE primary aim of this book is to contribute to the emergence and development of the
comparative study of the Abrahamic religions. The Handbook thus includes authori
tative yet accessible studies on a variety of topics dealing comparatively with Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, as well as with the interactions between the adherents of these
religions throughout history. Underpinning this is the assumption that there is some
thing to be gained from studying these religious traditions together, an assumption to
which we will devote some attention in what follows.1
In a sense, the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions has been undertaken
for many centuries, first by adherents of the respective religions who sought to make
sense of their neighbours and competitors (and, in many cases, to refute their claims
about religious truth), later by European scholars, Catholics and Protestants alike, in
the early modern period, for whom adopting a comparative approach to the mono
theistic religions was obvious. More often than not, these studies reflected a polemical
rather than an ecumenical approach to the topic, a fact also emphasized by the
Enlightenment pamphlet about 'The Three Impostors' (Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad),
who deceived humankind with their false claims to prophecy.
Since the nineteenth century and the development of the scholarly, non-theological
study of religions, the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions has not been
pursued either intensively or systematically, and it is only very recently that the
comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has picked up in earnest. It
should be noted that despite its recent use in interfaith dialogue, the concept of the
Abrahamic religions reflects the fundamental 'family resemblances', to use a Wittgen
steinian metaphor, between these religions. Hence the concept is useful for the
1 There are, of course, a number of traditions originating within these three main Abrahamic
Religions that might also be considered 'Abrahamic', such as those of the Samaritans, the Mormons, and
the Bahais. However, in order not to further complicate what is an already complex picture, we have
asked our contributors to focus on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
xiv ADAM J. SILVERSTEIN, GUY G. STROUMSA, AND MOSHE BLIDSTEIN
comparative study of these religions, which seeks to identify differences and distinc
tions between them at least as much as similarities.
Over the past few decades, a handful of scholars have been instrumental in creating
the modern, academic groundwork for the study of the Abrahamic religions. It is
perhaps to Francis E. Peters, more than to anyone else, that this emerging field is
indebted: Peters has both authored introductory surveys on this topic-as The Children
of Abraham (Princeton, 1986) and The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in
Conflict and Cooperation (Princeton, 1994)-and has usefully collected primary sources
from each of the three traditions, published in the three-volume set Judaism, Chris
tianity, and Islam: The Classical Texts and their Interpretation (Princeton, 1990),
amongst other contributions to specific sub-topics within the field.2
With the field's growth came the almost inevitable scholarly dissensions. Objections
to the comparative study of religions are in some ways understandable and to be
expected. After all, the implication of comparative studies is that religions and their
adherents influence one another, while scholars of a religious tradition often accept, at
least implicitly, the internal narrative of these religions, which emphasizes their
autonomous development. Similarly, since Islam is the youngest of the three Abraha
mic religions, studies of Islam in the context of Judaism and Christianity often amount
to investigations into the 'origins' of things Islamic, which can have the effect-even if
unintended-of downplaying the originality and contribution of Islam and Muslims
to history. Moreover, some voices have recently been heard, which raise a caveat about
the relevance of 'Abraham' to the comparative study of these religions, or against the
heuristic value of the concept of Abrahamic religions outside interfaith dialogue.3
Traditionally, what has been more common than the comparative study of the
Abrahamic religions has been the study of two of these religions together, to the
exclusion of the third one. Studies of Judaism and Christianity, of Christianity and
Islam, and of Judaism and Islam, have contributed greatly to our understanding of the
beliefs, practices, and interactions between these respective communities. However, in
excluding the third side of the triangle, as it were, these studies are necessarily limited
and provide only a partial picture of a complex and dynamic interface between the
beliefs and practices of these communities throughout the ages.
Be all that as it may, the study of Abrahamic religions is as much about encounters
between traditions as it is about encounters between peoples. Abrahamic studies of
2 E.g. The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scriptures of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007); and Jerusalem and Mecca: The Typology of the Holy City
in the Near East (New York: New York University Press, 1986). Other scholars, including in Continental
Europe, have also contributed significant studies to this field, e.g. H. Busse, Islam, Judaism, and
Christianity: Theological and Historical Affiliations (Princeton: Wiener Markus, 1998); and Karl-Josepf
Kuschel, Abraham: A Symbol of Hope for Jews, Christians and Muslims (London: SCM, 1995).
3 On Abraham: J. D. Levenson, Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012); on the concept itself:
A. W. Hughes, Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2012).