The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions

Adam Silverstein · Guy G. Stroumsa · Moshe Blidstein

oct 2015 · OUP Oxford

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The Oxford Handbook of the Abrahamic Religions includes authoritative yet accessible studies on a wide variety of topics dealing comparatively with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as with the interactions between the adherents of these religions throughout history. The comparative study of the Abrahamic Religions has been undertaken for many centuries. More often than not, these studies reflected a polemical rather than an ecumenical approach to the topic. Since the nineteenth century, the comparative study of the Abrahamic Religions has not been pursued either intensively or systematically, and it is only recently that the comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam has received more serious attention. This volume contributes to the emergence and development of the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions, a discipline which is now in its formative stages. This Handbook includes both critical and supportive perspectives on the very concept of the Abrahamic religions and discussions on the role of the figure of Abraham in these religions. It features 32 essays, by the foremost scholars in the field, on the historical interactions between Abrahamic communities; on Holy Scriptures and their interpretation; on conceptions of religious history; on various topics and strands of religious thought, such as monotheism and mysticism; on rituals of prayer, purity, and sainthood, on love in the three religions and on fundamentalism. The volume concludes with three epilogues written by three influential figures in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, to provide a broader perspective on the comparative study of the Abrahamic religions. This ground-breaking work introduces readers to the challenges and rewards of studying these three religions together.

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Adam J. Silverstein is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His research interests include the history of the Middle East from late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, especially the relationships between Abrahamic Religions. His publications include Postal Systems in the Pre-Modern Islamic World (2010) and slamic History: A Very Short Introduction (2010). Guy G. Stroumsa is Professor Emeritus of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at University of Oxford and Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He obtained his PhD from Harvard in 1978. Professor Stroumsa received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Zurich in 2004, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2008, and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre du Mérite in 2012. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is the author of The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity (2015). Moshe Blidstein is Postdoctoral fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017).