Islam and Christianity

Mary, Jesus and Abraham (Maryam, Isa wa Ibrahim) as muslim?n – exemplars of submission to God’s will in both Islamic and Christian traditions. This seminar course focuses on these towering figures of faith through the study of Sacred Scriptures (Qur’an and the Bible) of both traditions. Their stories contain so many lessons of both what has gone wrong historically (as result of misinterpretations and misrepresentations of sacred texts), and what can hopefully go right by recapturing the intended meaning of their stories. The course intends to illustrate that Mary, Jesus and Abraham can serve as models and paths to our effort to build a bridge between Islam and Christianity. This course is an introduction to the religion of Islam. There will be a discussion to demonstrate how the beliefs and practices of Islam have relationship with (and similarities and differences from) the Christian system of thought and teachings. The purposes of this course are: 1) to provide a succinct introduction to the religion of Islam as well as its history and civilization, at least in its intellectual aspects; 2) to explore the diversity of theological and philosophical interpretations of Islamic doctrines and even of Islamic Law (despite a sense of unity that has at all times dominated everything Islamic); 3) to facilitate better mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims.