Crisis, Call, and Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions
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Crisis, Call, and Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions Edited by Peter Ochs and William Stacy Johnson
CRISIS, CALL, AND LEADERSHIP IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS Copyright Peter Ochs and William Stacy Johnson, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61825-1 All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38097-8 ISBN 978-0-230-10135-7 (ebook) DOI. 10.1057/9780230101357 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crisis, call, and leadership in the Abrahamic traditions / edited by Peter Ochs and Stacy Johnson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-38097-8 (alk. paper) 1. Abrahamic religions. 2. Christianity and other religions. 3. Religions Relations. 4. Abraham (Biblical patriarch) 5. Bible. O.T. Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Ochs, Peter, 1950 II. Johnson, William Stacy. BR127.C74 2009 201.5 dc22 2009014133 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is written in loving memory of Michael A. Signer who taught us to read the plain sense with the interpreted sense, the ancestors sense with our generation s sense, the Jewish sense with the Christian sense with the Muslim sense, the divine sense with our human sense, the sense of this world with a sense of the next
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CONTENTS One Introduction: Crisis and the Call to Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions 1 William Stacy Johnson and Peter Ochs Part I Communal Identity and the Other Introduction: The Other Within and the Other Without 11 William Stacy Johnson Two The Sign of Jonah: A Christian Perspective on the Relation of the Abrahamic Faiths 15 R. Kendall Soulen Three Hagar and Esau: From Others to Sisters and Brothers 31 Steven Kepnes Four Qur an and the Image of the Other : The Good, the Bad, the Ugly 47 Mehdi Aminrazavi Five These Are the Generations : Reasoning with Rabbi Samuel ben Meier 59 Michael A. Signer Six Three Voices, One Response: Here I Am: A Reformed Christian Perspective on Abraham s Dilemma 71 William Stacy Johnson Part II Spirituality and Social Responsibility: Poverty and Charity Introduction: The Cry of the Poor 89 Kevin L. Hughes
viii Contents Seven The Poor Are Always with You 93 Kevin L. Hughes Eight Hearing the Cry of the Poor 109 Aryeh Cohen Nine The Tests of Poverty: Qur anic Perspectives 123 Timothy J. Gianotti Ten In the Bosom of Abraham: Saint Bonaventure, Lazarus, and the Houses of Hospitality 139 Ann W. Astell Eleven Charity and the Good Life: On Islamic Prophetic Ethics 153 Mohammad Azadpur Twelve Lawe, loue, and lewete: The Kenotic Vision of Traditional Christian Political Theology 169 R.R. Reno Part III Abrahamic Traditions and Modernity Introduction: The Scriptural Traditions and Modernity: The Unhappy Relations between Traditions and Modern Historical Consciousness 187 Maria Massi Dakake Thirteen Human Contention and Divine Argument: Faith and Truth in the Qur anic Story of Abraham 191 Maria Massi Dakake Fourteen Abraham in the Image of Job: A Model for Postcritical Readings of Scripture 209 Elizabeth Shanks Alexander Fifteen Moses and the Mountain of Knowledge 223 Robert W. Jenson Sixteen Moses in the Sea: Reading Scripture as Liturgical Performance 231 Peter Ochs Seventeen Transfigured Exegesis 243 C. Clifton Black Contributors 259
Contents ix Index of Scriptural Sources and Commentaries 263 Index of Modern Authors 271 Subject Index 273