Review
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Title: The Oxford Handbook of Abrahamic Religions
Editors: Adam J. Silverstein and Guy G. Stroumsa
Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York, NY
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2015
Number of pages: 617
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-19-969776-2
Price: $150.00
Reviewed by Dale E. Luffman for the Association for Mormon Letters
Oxford University Press has established a reputation for producing both quality works as well as authoritative handbooks and reference materials. These productions have generally met with acclaim and have provided information contributing to a variety of subject areas. The “Oxford Handbooks” have helped to establish this reputation, and generally have been seen as contributive works drawn from up-to-date scholarship.
The Oxford Handbook of Abrahamic Religions is no exception. It is a complex, multi-disciplinary composition engaging a timely subject matter from a variety of angles. This volume features 32 essays by leading, impressive scholars in the field of Abrahamic studies from around the globe.
The Oxford Handbook of Abrahamic Religions is impressive. The volume is organized in six sections or parts. It would appear that the editors have intended for the users of the text to be able to move through the text from beginning to end, or alternatively, to easily focus on one of its major sections. With each section including up to seven articles written by scholars representing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities, a good, quality engagement with the topic(s) significant to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam emerges. One very important focus of the volume is the figure of Abraham in all three religions. The writing, to my delight, includes both critical and supportive essays. Organizationally, consideration has been given to the following subject clusters: 1) the concept of Abrahamic religions, 2) the historical interaction of the Abrahamic communities, 3) the Holy Scriptures and their interpretations, 4) religious thought and conceptions of religious history, and 5) consideration of the rituals of prayer, purity, and ethics.
In addition, a final section entitled “Epilogues” considers the complexed multi-disciplinary aspects from the perspectives of the three Abrahamic traditions in three superb essays, essays intended to conclude the volume. These three chapters, one each composed by a representative scholar in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities, offer a broad perspectival survey regarding the comparative studies of the Abrahamic religions, drawing on the essays that have preceded them in this work. The authors of these three articles, Peter Ochs, David F. Ford, and Tariq Ramadan, challenge readers to take seriously the conversation of this Handbook. These authors also invite the reader to engage in the rewards of intentionally studying these three Abrahamic religious traditions together with each writer providing very helpful suggestions for the way forward.
What strikes me throughout the volume is the honest intellectual wrestling taking place in the various articles with not only what is common among Abrahamic religions, but what truly distinguishes and often divides these religious traditions. The encounters between the traditions, the peoples, the evolutionary phenomenon, and the historical sojourns are taken seriously throughout most of the chapters of the text. Indeed, the reader is helpfully introduced to the challenges and rewards of studying these three religious traditions together.
From a critical perspective, it would have been good to have more women, and more Muslims, as authors of chapters in this volume. Although acknowledged in the introduction, there remain a number of topics and issues that go unaddressed in this volume as well. That likely could not be helped. However, it goes without saying that the primary aim of this volume is to make a contemporary contribution to the emergence and development of the comparative study of Abrahamic religions. This volume does that. In doing so, I find in this text a balance of consideration of the three religious traditions, endeavoring to communicate the “family resemblances” of the Abrahamic religions.
It is always important to ask, for whom is such a volume written? A simple response would be anyone who is concerned for our world. The volume is capable of introducing scholars, students, and other readers to the challenges and the rewards of studying aspects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam together. As ignorance is usually the seed bed of prejudice, the chapters in this volume have the potential of drawing persons interested and/or committed to one of the Abrahamic religions into thoughtful, considered, and provocative conversation with one another. Dialogue and proactivity are absolutely necessary in such considerations. And this handbook resources such an endeavor.
This volume should be in libraries, and in the possession of all who have interest in the traditions of Abrahamic faith. It is a volume worthy of being carefully read, and carefully studied. For persons and educational institutions in the Latter-day Saint community there would be a significant benefit from owning this volume and having it secured in an accessible place on the book shelf. As the Latter-day Saints desire to be understood, and hopefully, to understand other religious traditions, The Oxford Handbook of Abrahamic Religions offers a critical, useful, and invaluable resource for inter-religious dialogue, understanding, teaching, and writing.
The editors are to be commended for creating dialogue around a variety of issues by enlisting scholars who are able to critically represent their respective traditions while respectfully engaging the differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is a timely volume.