Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Edited by James L. Heft, S.M.

In May of 2003, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, along with the Omar ibn al-Khattab Foundation and Hebrew Union College, sponsored a conference titled "Beyond Violence." The organizers of the conference sought to foster dialogue on the question of what makes adherents and leaders of traditional, institutional religions work towards reconciliation and peace rather than violence and hostility. The volume under review contains the six keynote addresses from the conference, two apiece from each of the Abrahamic monotheistic faiths. The essays offer a great deal of hope and insight.

The approaches, methods, and styles adopted by the contributors vary widely. The two Muslim authors, Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, and Mohamed Fathi Osman, a Qur'anic scholar, journalist, and human rights advocate, write from a perspective perhaps best described as theological and normative. Ceric, reflecting on the particular challenges of modernity, advocated dialogue between the traditions and a return to the medieval Islamic theologies of toleration.

Reviewed by Nathan Rein
Ursinus College
Collegeville, Pennsylvania

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 19-1 (Spring/Summer 2005)


Abraham's Promise: Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations
By Michael Wyschogrod
Edited and Introduced by R. Kendall Soulen

With the publication of this volume, scholars and students now have access to a collection of essays by widely regarded Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod. Though Abraham's Promise is in part directed toward those interested in interfaith dialogue, specifically Jewish-Christian relations, it is equally valuable in the field of modern Judaic thought. This first published collection of essays by Wyschogrod, whose publications span a career of some fifty years (all of which are helpfully listed in a special bibliographical section), will allow him to be read alongside figures in the Judaic tradition engaged by many of the same questions, including Leibowitz, Fackenheim, and Hartman, to name a few.

This is one volume published in a series by Eerdmans under the heading "Radical Traditions: Theology in a Postcritical Age." It will not be surprising to readers of this journal that many of the scholars involved in interreligious dialogue represent 'orthodox' religious positions. It is worth noting that, true to the radical designation of the series, Wyschogrod does not work towards other traditions by reforming Judaism to fit the various demands of pluralism which have so influenced Conservative and Reform Judaism, as well as other upper and lower case movements in the tradition. No where is this more evident than in the essays in which Wyschogrod explores divine election and promise.

Reviewed by Randy L. Friedman
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 19-1 (Spring/Summer 2005)

Jesus in His Jewish Context
By Geza Vermes

In Jesus in His Jewish Context, Vermes contributes a highly-important picture of Jesus as an exponent of Hasidism, not modern Hasidism, but an ancient form of "the holy man," a genuine feature of formative Judaism. He sees Jesus as a rural character, an Hasid, less-educated than the eminent teachers in Jerusalem, but one who embodied in his life and teachings a close experience of holiness, and one who was immediately recognized by his contemporaries as "a man of God."

Vermes is pretty straightforward about his methodology. He seeks to locate the historical Jesus within the evolution of Jewish religious history by means of extra-biblical parallels. In fact, his optimism in this endeavor extends to the point that he sees Jesus and the New Testament as source material for Talmudic passages. While I see nothing wrong with this in theory, in practice there are pitfalls. For one, rabinic exegetes have been hesitant to use Christian parallels to enlighten the Talmud, and Christian scholars are notably uninterested in the material except where it is relevant to their own purposes, whatever they happen to be.

Reviewed by Gene G. James
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-2 (Fall/Winter 2004/05)
 

Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning
Edited by Erik C. Owens, John D. Carlson, and Eric P. Elshtain

This book is the first in a new series on religion, ethics, and public life. Since it suggests a comprehensive treatment of religion and the death penalty, the title is misleading. There are no articles from a Buddhist or Hindu perspective, and only one each from Jewish and Muslim perspectives. Most are written from a Catholic or Evangelical Christian point of view and were given in 2002 at the University of Chicago Divinity School forums sponsored by the Pew foundation. The collection includes articles by both scholars and public figures such as governors Mario Cuomo, Frank Keating and George Ryan, former U.S. Senator Paul Simon and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The articles by Eric Owens and Eric Elshtain, E.J. Dionne Jr., and Beth Wilkinson provide important background information about recent debates regarding the death penalty. Those by former Governers Cuomo, Keating, and Ryan are important in showing how the death penalty has been administered. Frank Ryan's is especially interesting because it explains his reasons for declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.

Reviewed by Gene G. James
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-2 (Fall/Winter 2004/05)


The Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ: In Dialogue with the Religions
Edited by Massimo Serretti, translated by Talavera and Schindler

Two theological debates currently roil the church. The first, which is more internal in its focus, is over moral theology; its outcome will decide whether the gospel is about sexual liberation or salvation from death, sin, and the devil. The second, which is principally directed at the world outside the church, concerns Jesus' relations to the religions. Its implications are more far-reaching than the first: is Jesus the savior, or one of many saving manifestations of Ultimate Reality?

Reviewed by Gerald R. McDermott
Roanoke College
Salem, Virgina

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-2 (Fall/Winter 2004/05)


 

After Empire: The Art and Ethos of Enduring Peace
By Sharon D. Welch

If there is a flaw in this wide-ranging, ambitious, and inspiring book it may be that it attempts to do too much--one only has to reflect momentarily on the title to understand the possible beauty (or the beautiful impossibility) of Welch's project. Yet, impossibility need note denote futility. Any exploration such as this that poses crucial questions, delves into an intellectual unraveling of our current dilemmas, and suggests practices and paradigm shifts that lead to greater awareness and fuller humanity is a vital project. This said, do not refrain from joining Welch on this important journey. Don't be too fixated on a destination, and be prepared to experience numerous modes of transportation and many illuminating side-trips.

Alternating between an eclectic scholarly approach and the passionate dogma of a political and deeply humanistic vision, Welch traces the Imperialist outline of the United States. She points to a "creative tension" in the disjunction between "comfort with the unilateral use of power" and "distaste for the name of 'empire'", proposing that the examination of this apparent hypocrisy presents a window of opportunity for deeper self-reflection and dialogue. If we choose to take hold of that tension, to explore it honestly we can build that "prescient discomfort [into] a different expression of  national and international power, one as creatively attuned to our weaknesses and limitations as to our strengths." (xiii)

Reviewed by Julia van der Ryn
Dominican University
San Rafael, California

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-2 (Fall/Winter 2004/05)
 

Around the Sacred Fire: Native Religious Activism
By James Treat

Around the Sacred Fire is a unique narrative of the Indian Ecumenical Conference, covering the conference's life span, developments and disappointments. The book, a multidisciplinary interpretation of the conference, speaks about the much-ignored "dialogical significance of the religious traditions maintained by tribal communities" (4). Treat says that his historical research on the movement, as well as his personal experience in the 1992 gathering shook his faith in the "authority of linear logic and argumentative discourse" (5). He writes a book that is relational, dialogical, and reflexive, braiding together the lived experiences of those who were instrumental in the Indian Ecumenical Conference.
    
The reader is provided with a historical overview of a grassroots, interreligious movement of the sixties and seventies, a movement that was overshadowed by more publicized and more flamboyant Native revival movements, such as the American Indian Movement. Treat argues that the Indian Ecumenical Conferences played an important role in the cultural and spiritual revival of native people, on both sides of the border. Furthermore, Around the Sacred Fire clearly illustrates in the inter-religious dialogue that occurred between: different native communities; within the communities themselves, who often combined traditional cultural practices and Christian beliefs; and the alliances that promoted a deeper understanding amidst religious diversity and tension.

Reviewed by Olga Nikolajev
Wilfred Laurier University
Waterloo, Canada

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 17-2 (Fall/Winter 2003/04)
 

Violence in God's Name: Religion in an Age of Conflict
By Oliver McTernarn

McTernan argues that conflict analysis and resolution underestimate the role of religion. Researchers and practitioners continue to describe religion as an epiphenomenon, or a "proxy for some other cause." By contrast, McTernan insists that religion "needs to be acknowledged as an actor in its own right" (xv).
      
 He first critiques three theories, beginning with Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations. Whereas the culture clash both overemphasizes and simplifies religion, McTernan insists that greed theory and grievance theory entirely discount it. In a subsequent chapter, he suggests that these latter two positions reflect the secularization argument and reductionist tendencies pervasive in conflict analysis. Repeatedly, researchers discount the role of religion because they believe "it has ceased to have impact on the social or political life of modern society" (23) or because they search for the simplest cause (such as greed) rather than complex systems of worldview, historical experience, and religious interpretation.
       
McTernan then takes his readers into this complexity. He first introduces the religious component in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, and Israel/Palestine in his second chapter and then provides a more detailed analysis in chapter four. Chapter three survey's the world's "mainstream religious traditions" (76) to demonstrate that each one carries resources for those who would use their faith to justify violence. In each tradition, there is sacred text to support the use of violence, heroes whose violent acts are believed to be divinely guided, and either threat of extinction or opportunity for expansion to provide motivation for violence.

Reviewed by Ellen Ott Marshall
Claremont School of Theology
Claremont, California

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-1 (Spring/Summer 2004)

Sin and Salvation in the World Religions
By Harold Coward

The author, director of the Center for Studies of Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, Canada, presents a very readable summary of the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The focus of this study is on the concept and religious experience of "sin and salvation" in each of these traditions. A "common approach" is followed in each of the five chapters, which includes first of all a consideration of "The Human Condition." There follows then an "analysis of how the scripture of that religious tradition views sin and salvation." This is followed by looking to see how the "scriptural ideas" came to be developed by "some of the major thinkers or schools of thought...(with)...examples from recent scholars within the tradition."
      
The author recognizes that "salvation" is a term which "arises most clearly in the Christian tradition" but shows how other religions "have parallel concepts." He points out, for example, how Jews speak more of "redemption;" Muslims of najat ("escape or deliverance from the fires of hell to the pleasures of paradise"). In Hinduism and Buddhism the "baseline human experience" is seen to be human ignorance.

Reviewed by Thomas Pucelik
Bradley University
Peoria, Illinois

Review-in-full featured in Dialogue and Alliance, issue 18-1 (Spring/Summer 2004)
 

Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth?
By Jonathan Wells

Most everyone was required to take biology in high school, and many who went on to college likely took an introductory biology course as an elective, if not as a beginning course for a biology major. Required in most of these courses, mainly because of its inclusion in the textbook, was a section on evolution. Therefore, most people with a secondary education or above are familiar with the more popular evidences and examples of evolution nearly all textbooks have been using for decades. These include the peppered moth story of natural selection, Darwin’s finches as an example of adaptive speciation, and the ubiquitous tree of life with its implied common ancestor to all life forms.

These familiar evidences of the creation story of our early 21st century culture are what Jonathan Wells (Ph.D., UC Berkeley, molecular and cell biology; Ph.D., Yale University, religious studies) refers to as the Icons of Evolution in his book by the same name (Regnery Publishing, 2000). Wells focuses on ten of these icons and meticulously exposes them to be false, fraudulent or at best, misleading. Many of these difficulties have been pointed out before and are known to a few, but Wells adds a level of sophistication and packages them in a form certain to get the attention of everyone in the educational establishment. This book is not a plea for creation in the schools or a selective and picky rant against trivial details. It is a frontal assault against some of the most cherished and revered "proofs" of the evolution story. There will be no shortage of controversy around this extensively researched and well-written exposé. If these "Icons" are the best evidence for evolution, or at least the easiest evidence to explain, then one is left wondering what the future of evolutionary instruction could be. Even further, what future might there be for evolution itself?

Reviewed by Raymond G. Bohlin, Ph.D.
President of Probe Ministries
Richardson, Texas

Review-in-full featured here.

No God But God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Dialogue on God's Nature
By A. Christian van Gorder

 The Iranian President, Muhammad Khatami, said in a speech to the World Coucil of Churches (Dec. 2003) that in a world in which secularism threatens all religious faiths and tensions have mounted between Muslim and Western nations, "dialogue between civilizations, but also between religions, in particular between Islam and Christianity, has proved to be a vital, imperative and undeniable necessity." This is the task that A. Christian van Gorder has set before himself, having traveled from Africa to the Middle East, to India and China asking Muslims what they knew about Christianity. His conclusion is that Muslims and Christians do not understand each other's faiths, and that the main stumbling block resides in their different perception of God's nature. "This difference provides a fascinating opportunity for both faiths to learn and understand more about the nature of God" (p. 163).

Christians, of all people, argues van Gorder, because they believe that humanity was created in God's image, should realize that there is more truth about God than what they already know. Their first task is to listen to Muslims and seek to understand the Muslim view of God, not only as it is taught in the Qur'an, but also in the light of Islam's classical traditions. Both faiths seek to "come into right relation with the Creator," and point to submission to God's will as the means to that end. Yet many well-meaning dialogues stop at that point, so great are the frustrations in overcoming seemingly impossible differences. The Qur'an invites Muslims to inquire of the People of the Book if they have any doubts (Q. 10:95), but in practice they have become wary of Christian motives in dialogue.

Reviewed by David L. Johnston
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

Review-in-full featured here.
 

Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence
By Charles Selengut

Charles Selengut, Professor of Sociology at the County College of Morris, New Jersey, has written in the past on Jewish-Muslim relations and Judaism in search of itself in today's world. In Sacred Fury, Professor Selengut examines the relation between religion and violence. Early in the book the reader becomes aware of Selengut's command of two important issues, namely the relation between religious fundamentalism and a host of new religious movements.

Selengut claims, "...at the center of all religions is the yearning for the eschaton, an end time where all the peoples of the world live together in peace and harmony" (1). Do all religions have an "end-time" preoccupation at the "center" of their religion? The author also argues that, "Scriptures and sacred traditions of the world religions prescribe violence (17)" and that, "Holy war is a necessary and essential element in virtually all religious systems" (19). These are provocative assessments. Christianity's relation to social violence is presented with a litany of sordid and undeniable facts but does not reference those Gospel texts that confront violence.

Reviewed by A. Christian van Gorder
Baylor University
Waco, Texas

Review-in-full featured here.