Crisis, Call, and Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions

288 Pages·2009·1.53 MB·English

by  Peter Ochs and William Stacy Johnson (Editors)

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
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CRISIS, CALL, AND LEADERSHIP IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS
Copyright © Peter Ochs and William Stacy Johnson, 2009.
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: 978–0–230–61825–1
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 0-230-61825-1 (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(cid:2).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
Printed in the United States of America.
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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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C O N T E N T S
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
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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 I n the Bosom of Abraham: Saint Bonaventure,
Lazarus, and the Houses of Hospitality 139
Ann W. Astell
Eleven C harity 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 H uman 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 M oses in the Sea: Reading Scripture as
Liturgical Performance 231
Peter Ochs
Seventeen Transfigured Exegesis 243
C. Clifton Black
Contributors 259
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Contents ix
Index of Scriptural Sources and Commentaries 263
Index of Modern Authors 271
Subject Index 273
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