Abrahamic Religions
Inheriting AbrahamTuesday, November 27, 2012 by Jon D. Levenson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On August 28, Jon D. Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, spoke with the current class of Tikvah fellows about his latest book, the first volume in the Library of Jewish Ideas: Inheriting Abraham. Here, an edited transcript of the event.
Whose Akedah Was It, Anyhow?Friday, October 26, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Today, October 26, 2012, the world’s Muslims will celebrate `Id al-Adha, commemorating Abraham’s willingness to demonstrate his love of God by sacrificing his son. While most Muslims assume that the son Abraham intended to sacrifice was Ishmael, this was not the unanimous opinion of early Muslims and Qur’anic scholars.
Cousins: Jews and Arabs Seek Each Other OutThursday, October 18, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, it seems, is the rule governing Jews and Arabs: the farther apart they are from one another, the greater their mutual interest, while the greater their proximity, the more antagonistic they seem.
Editors' Picks
Scotland's New Gospel Archbishop Cranmer, Cranmer. "If God makes a promise to Jews, it's a metaphor. If He makes a promise to Christians, it's literal except where it refers to the Jews and Israel."
Giving Up on Humanity Ilan Feldman, Klal Perspectives. By failing to reach out to non-Orthodox Jews, says an Orthodox rabbi, "we have sold out on the view of man that was the keystone of Avraham Avinu."
Interfaith Abraham? Jon D. Levenson, Huffington Post. Should an inheritor of Abraham follow the way of Torah, the way of Gospel, or Islamic submission to God? And are they all, underneath, the same way?
One Abraham, or Three? Jon D. Levenson, Wall Street Journal. A shared, "Abrahamic" heritage is supposed to foster reconciliation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims—but bears little relation to the figure of Abraham in any of the three traditions.
To Each His Abraham Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education. In Inheriting Abraham, Bible scholar Jon D. Levenson shows that while Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider themselves the patriarch's children, they aren't talking about the same Abraham.