The relationship between the sacred books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and war and violence continues to be a controversial and important question for many modern people. At a personal level, I am sympathetic to the analysis of scholars like William Cavanaugh, who in his 2009 book, The Myth of Religious Violemce, argued that war and violence are most often inspired by more mundane concerns about land, natural resources, and dysfunctional politics rather than religion. This is not to say that movements never appeal to religious justifications for violence and aggression. For example, Islamic State militants appealed to fringe interpretations of Islamic texts for their brutal treatment of other Muslims, Christians, and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria. Some Israeli settlers and Christian Zionists appeal to the Hebrew Bible to justify aggressive expansion and dispossession of Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

Rev. Mark Taqqī discusses war in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.

We were privileged to explore some of these difficult questions at a September 4-6 interfaith conference, “A Journey of Learning,” that we cosponsored along with the Centre for Christian-Muslim Understanding and Partnership in Cairo. Dr. ʿAbd al-Mālik Muṣṭafā, a vice president and professor of Qurʾānic studies at al-Azhar University, and Rev. Mark Taqqī, a lecturer in Old Testament and theology at the Alexandria School of Theology, lectured on these questions from Christian and Muslim perspectives. The introduction to Dr. ʿAbd al-Mālik’s lecture can be found here. We are in the final stages of editing Rev. Taqqī’s lecture for publication as well.

In my experience, although Christians and Muslims do have interpretive questions about the other tradition, when given space, they often acknowledge important questions about their own scriptural traditions as well. We very much appreciated being able to explore some of these questions in a respectful interfaith atmosphere.

Matthew Anderson