Religions 101. - book review

Cross Currents, Wntr, 2002 by Sheila C. Gordon

Khalid Duran, Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews. $24.94 (paper). Reuven Firestone, Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims. New York: American Jewish Committee, 2001 $38.97 (paper).

September 11 propelled Americans to consider both what we know about Islam and how Muslims think about other religious traditions. With uncanny prescience, the American Jewish Committee had just launched a series of publications to encourage mutual understanding between Muslims and Jews. Thus this reviewer found herself with the more timely and even more compelling task of culling the essence of these books.

The American Jewish Committee is a distinguished organization committed to the welfare of Jews in a pluralistic world with a particular focus on promoting inter-religious understanding. The first two publications of its new series titled the Children of Abraham are a companion set: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims by Reuven Firestone and An introduction to Islam for Jews by Khalid Duran.

In introducing the two volumes, the American Jewish Committee explained why it commissioned them: "This period is fraught with danger and laden with opportunity. We... are drawn to this task precisely because of the 'civilizational' storm now looming and because of the enormous importance of what is at stake. [We hope] to enhance mutual understanding and reduce mutual ignorance and suspicion... [and remind] us of uplifting, revivifying, and unifying seminal truths."

The American Jewish Committee is to be applauded for having achieved its intent. Each book is a useful and concise (300 pages) introduction to a religious tradition, tying each to the other with references to similarities, juxtapositions, and historical interactions. Each provides a historical overview, a section on religious practice (holy days, rituals), a very helpful chronology of major events, and a glossary of terms. Both aim to show the interaction between Jews and Muslims over time and to present a picture of the current situation. Firestone devotes relatively more space to explanation of theology, text, and prayer than does Duran, who emphasizes the more controversial (to the West) aspects of Islam, namely the role of women and the role of fundamentalist ideology ("Islamism").

Written for a lay audience, providing systematic contrast along with the interweave of Jewish-Muslim history, the books are informative and often beguiling. A Muslim scholar praised Duran's book for a "balanced account...skillfully presented" and also as one which "Muslim students will enjoy...and benefit from." (1) As a Jew, not only did I find the background on Islam vital, I found the organized presentation of Judaism very useful in structuring my own eclectic knowledge. Moreover, I loved learning from Firestone that the rabbinic tradition and role of the Talmud as we understand it today emerged because of the hegemony of the Abbasid Caliphate at Baghdad in the eighth century; and I was delighted to be reminded by Duran of the extraordinary symbiosis between Islam and Judaism in Spain at the time of Maimonides (who wrote in Arabic).

Useful as they are, the companion volumes -- in the wake of September 11 -- leave the reader wishing that they had been more ambitious.

American Jews -- and Christians, as well -- have become hungry to understand Islam. They are enormously frustrated that Muslims often seem unable to explain their faith and their assumptions. Thoughtful, moderate Muslims like Khalid Duran do this well, but get distracted by a compulsive need to defend the faith from its most extreme practitioners -- at the clear risk of alienating themselves from many in the Muslim community. (2)

One assumes that Muslims, too, are increasingly eager to understand Judaism. Firestone describes Judaism in a clear, confident, but somewhat sanitized way. In contrast to Duran, he is astonishingly matter-of-fact in presenting the most volatile of contemporary issues, namely those surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Both books read in large part like university lectures, presenting an organized body of knowledge in a systematic, didactic way. Apart from Duran's focus on the fundamentalist issues, they do not seem to ask what their audience wants or needs to know. While each book explains its respective tradition clearly and well -- a vital first step -- neither reaches across the chasm of misunderstanding in a way that truly engages the other.

I wonder what these books would be like if, instead of trying to teach the "other" about the merits of his own tradition, each writer had, instead, tried to explain to his co-religionists what is beautiful and compelling about the other faith. There are no more transforming moments in the Interfaith Community, an organization of Jewish-Christian families that I head, than when a Jew explains to other Jews -- without fear and without derision -- the meaning of a Christian ritual or belief. I recall a powerful moment when a rabbi who taught our community reacted when I derided the ideas of the Virgin Birth and of the Resurrection. "If I were a Christian," he snapped, "I would be drawn to the mystery of those ideas." Understanding the "other" deepens one's understanding and appreciation of one's own tradition.