Kicking Over My Traces

In response to a passage from Pope Benedict’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth, I recently posted to ask if there were a book similar to that written by Jacob Neusner, A Rabbi Talks With Jesus, but from the Muslim perspective: An Imam Talks with Jesus, as it were.

I am still looking.

Meanwhile, however, Robert Spencer may provide the answer indirectly:

[O]ver the course of the next few months, I’m going to read it, and discuss it in a series of columns. All of it. Not “cherry-picked” or “out of context.” The whole thing, beginning to end. Some of you may be familiar with David Plotz’s series on Slate, “Blogging the Bible.” This series will be similar to that one, but rather than just write about what I think or feel about a certain passage, I will, unlike Plotz, refer to commentaries – all Muslim ones – on the Qur’an. I’ll try to explain how mainstream Muslims who study the Qur’an will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims.

Mr. Spencer’s series of posts will not provide what I want — a Muslim in dialogue with Christianity (rather than flinging invective, or dismissive out-of-hand). He will provide Qur’anic exegesis based on the Qur’anic text itself and Muslim commentaries. That will by design include commentary on both Jews and Christians, as People of the Book, because both populations appear in the Qur’an.

I am hoping that at some point a commentary of the sort I am looking for will be cited or described.

Meantime: good launch, Mr. Spencer! And safe voyage! I will be following your progress.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 5:20 pm +0000 GMT and is filed under Books, Catholicism, Islam, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.