Jews, Christians, Muslims: Scripture and Tradition in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Objectives:

To understand a complicated relationship: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share sacred stories and the idea of sacred scriptures that are divinely revealed, yet each tradition has a different concept of scriptural revelation, and a different canon of scripture. From these similarities and differences come the theological definitions of the three traditions.

Reading:

Corrigan Text and Reader, Part 1

Post-Class Discussion Questions

How is Tanakh the same and not the same as the Christian Old Testament? What issues are posed by the Christian appropriation of Jewish scriptures: for Christianity? For Judaism?

How does the role of the Qur’an in Islam relate to the fact that the tradition recognizes and incorporates Jewish and Christian scriptural elements?