What Constitutes Scripture?

From Comparative Religion and Humanities Department September 19th, 2017

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Dr. David Bertaina
Chair, History Department
University of Illinois-Springfield

Dr. Najm Yousefi
Faculty, History Department
CSU, Chico

In the first part of this presentation, Dr. Bertaina addresses the difficulty of dialog between believers when their definition of what constitutes scriptures excludes the existence of other scriptures. He states that the overlapping literary and thematic material in the Bible and Qur’an exacerbates the problem. He then explains how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authors have compared their scriptures with the scriptures of others. Then, Dr. Yousefi asks if there is a way followers of these three faiths can find common ground and have a dialog. There is some commonality in that Islam builds upon the older traditions of Christianity and Judaism. He states that perhaps one way of finding this common ground is to focus on the formulative period of Islam, when the focus was on the Qu’ran’s emphasis on the continuity and unity of the divine message. Dr. Yousefi notes that the Qu’ran can be interpreted as putting Mohammad “on the same playing field with other prophets.”

Recorded: September 16, 2017

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What Constitutes Scripture?

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