Shared Stories, Rival Tellings
Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims
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- $35.99
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- $35.99
Publisher Description
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are considered kindred religions-holding ancestral heritages and monotheistic belief in common-but there are definitive distinctions between these "Abrahamic" peoples. Shared Stories, Rival Tellings explores the early exchanges of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and argues that their interactions were dominated by debates over the meanings of certain stories sacred to all three communities.
Robert C. Gregg shows how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters--artists as well as authors--developed their unique and particular understandings of narratives present in the two Bibles and the Qur'an. Gregg focuses on five stories: Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, Jonah and the Whale, and Mary the Mother of Jesus. As he guides us through the often intentional variations introduced into these shared stories, Gregg exposes major issues under contention and the social-intellectual forces that contributed to spirited, and sometimes combative, exchanges among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Offering deeper insight into these historical moments and their implications for contemporary relations among the three religions, Shared Stories, Rival Tellings will inspire readers to consider--and reconsider--the dynamics of traditional and current social-religious competition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stanford religious studies professor Gregg presents an in-depth comparison of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim versions and interpretations of familiar stories from the Bible and Qur'an (including Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, and Joseph's encounter with his master's wife). Gregg reveals the different ways in which each tradition "fills in the gaps" of the story as it appears in sacred texts to suit each religion's theological and communal needs at any given time or place. Early interpretations of these stories also show evidence of the encounters between the rival traditions, in retellings that may borrow from a competing tradition or implicitly counter another's view. Gregg analyzes this "conversation" among the three traditions as it manifests in both written texts and some examples of religious art. This important and well-written work may be too comprehensive and detailed for some lay readers, but its breadth and depth make it a worthwhile investment for students of comparative religion, Judaism, early Christianity, and Islam.
