Scriptural Polemics

“Through careful analysis of five original, related, but never-compared case studies, Sirry expands what others have argued about the mandate for a sustained, interreligious focus on creedal and practical differences within the Abrahamic fold, not just in the Middle East but across the Indian Ocean, including and especially in Indonesia. This study marks a welcome advance into contextualized dialogue. It offers ground-level awareness of challenges as well aspromises to all researchers and practitioners of monotheistic collaboration toward a higher, collective good.” –Bruce B. Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies Emeritus, Duke University”This volume is an important contribution to understanding the impact of the key polemical Qur’anic passages about Judaism and Christianity that shaped Muslim theology of the ‘other.’ Sirry’s meticulous reading of the Qur’anic commentaries to expound this theology is thoroughly grounded in both the classical as well as the modernist-reformist commentaries. At every step of the evolving thesis, he is in total command of his materials and the academic methodologyrequired to establish the validity of his approach as inclusively and critically as possible. The inclusion of Shi’ite materials, and thorough familiarity with Western scholarship on the Qur’an, inaddition to selecting the exegetes from different parts of the Islamic world, render the work indispensable for anyone wishing to examine the Muslim religious polemics and its production under various social-political contexts today.” –Abdulaziz Sachedina, Professor and Endowed IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies, George Mason University”In this carefully argued study of modern Muslim interpreters of the Qur’an, Mun’im Sirry directly addresses the difficult questions affecting Muslim attitudes toward other religions. It is a thought-provoking contribution which will interest anyone concerned about interfaith relations.” –Carl W. Ernst, William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mun’im Sirry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His articles have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals, including Arabica, BSOAS, Interpretation, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Journal of SemiticStudies, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, The Muslim World, Studia Islamica, and Der Welt des Islams.