Claiming Abraham: Reading the Bible and the Qur’an Side by Side

by Michael Lodahl

Publisher:

Brazos

, 2010

Overview

Many of the Bible’s characters and stories are also found in the Qur’an, but there are often different details or new twists in the Islamic retelling of biblical narrative. In Claiming Abraham, seasoned theologian Michael Lodahl explores these fascinating divergences to discover the theological difference they make. He writes from a Christian perspective that respects the Islamic tradition to encourage readers to reflect on the real and appreciable differences among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. Lodahl compares and contrasts how the Bible and the Qur’an depict and treat certain characters in common to both religions, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Lodahl provides extended theological reflection on doctrines held in common by Christians and Muslims, such as creation, revelation, and the resurrection of the body.

Claiming Abraham offers an accessible introduction to Muslim theology and to the Qur’an’s leading themes, providing readers with a fuller understanding of Islam. It will benefit professors and students in theology, comparative religion, intercultural studies, and Islam courses as well as thoughtful lay readers and pastors.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Provides comparative/interreligious and exegetical/intertextual insights from important texts in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism
• Explores divergences in order to determine what difference they make
• Offers a distinctive approach to interreligious dialogue

Contents

• Arguing over Abraham Arguing with God
• People of the Torah, People of the Gospel
• The Creative Word of God: Be!
• The Revealing of the Word of God
• Adam: What Does It Mean to Be Human?
• Cain and Abel: The Commanding Word of God
• Knowing Noah—or Not
• The Sign of Sinai
• Mary, Mother of Jesus
• Jesus, Son of Mary
• Adonai, Allah, and the Triune God
• Apocalypse When?

Top Highlights

“The Qur’an accords Jesus a remarkable role; he is a ‘sign’ and even a ‘mercy’ from God to all humanity.” (Page 142)

“Both the Word that God utters and the Spirit that God breathes toward creation share fully in God’s own being” (Page 174)

“This is, incidentally, one of several passages in the Qur’an in which Jesus is described as the Messiah.” (Page 140)

Praise for the Print Edition

Scholars will find this book brimming with comparative/interreligious and exegetical/intertextual insights from the Tanakh, New Testament, Qur’an, and their commentary traditions. For all other readers, including those wondering if it is possible to acknowledge the revelatory status of the Qur’an while remaining committed to faith in Christ, Claiming Abraham accessibly engages the theological matters at stake in ways that, if taken seriously, will both deeply inform Christian faith in a pluralistic world and transform the next generation of Christian-Muslim relations.

—Amos Yong, J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology, Regent University School of Divinity

In his presentation of the narratives and themes that are shared in the two scriptures, Michael Lodahl demonstrates a remarkable familiarity with the distinctive religious systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Most impressively, he avoids clichés and superficial assumptions by illustrating how these religious traditions are more often in disagreement than in agreement over figures such as Adam, Abraham, and Jesus. Ultimately, Lodahl presents an account of these matters that is marked by candor, clarity, and a firm grounding in Christian theology.

—Gabriel Said Reynolds, associate professor of Islamic studies and theology, University of Notre Dame

In a novel approach to interreligious dialogue, Michael Lodahl puts the Bible and the Qur’an in conversation with one another. The result is a fascinating study that shows how the two scriptures often draw upon and reshape the same pool of traditions. In the process, he raises important questions about the relationships among the monotheistic faiths by pointing out their similarities without ignoring or downplaying their differences.

—John Kaltner, Virginia Ballou McGehee Professor of Muslim-Christian Relations, Rhodes College

Claiming Abraham is a most surprising, inviting, challenging, and important book . . . through the pages of this lovingly crafted book, all Abrahamic believers are invited to feast together on God’s word.

—Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia

Lodahl is sympathetic, patient, interested, and engaged, and so offers the reader the considerable assets of personal sensitivity along with a clear exposition of ideas and concepts. I can only hope that his style of theological inquiry will not only advance interfaith understanding but will move theology itself from its deep Western domestication.

—Lamin Sanneh, director, World Christianity Initiative at Yale

Claiming Abraham has recourse to a fine repertoire of skills in reading Scripture and in theological interpretation, to lead us on a journey of discovery of the similarity-in-difference that characterizes the ways Christianity and Islam can be seen to relate to one another. ‘Similarity-in-difference’ is the key, for each will prove illuminating in understanding the other.

—David Burrell, CSC, professor of ethics and development, Uganda Martyrs University

Product Details

• Title: Claiming Abraham: Reading the Bible and the Qur’an Side by Side
• Author: Michael Lodahl
• Publisher: Brazos
• Print Publication Date: 2010
• Logos Release Date: 2013
• Pages: 240
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Abraham (Biblical patriarch); Abraham (Biblical patriarch) › In the Qur’an; Bible. O.T. Genesis › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. Genesis › Islamic interpretations; Qur’an › Relation to the Bible
• ISBNs: 9781441249296, 9781587432392, 144124929X, 1587432390
• Resource ID: LLS:CLMNGBRHM
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:45:53Z

About Michael Lodahl

Michael Lodahl is a theologian in the Church of the Nazarene. He graduated from Northwest Nazarene College in 1977, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1981, and earned a Ph.D. from Emory University. He has pastored one church, La Puente Church of the Nazarene from 1981–1984, held professorship at Northwest Nazarene University, and currently teaches at Point Loma Nazarene University.