It took about half an hour for the small group of Muslim, Jewish and Christians theologians poring over the koranic exegesis of the binding of Isaac to reach the volatile analogy of jihadist suicide bombings.
The biblical story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s directive, one of Judaism’s formative narratives, proved fertile ground for the scholars in the joint learning session, part of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s 24th Annual International Theology Conference that took place a few weeks ago in Jerusalem, bringing some 50 scholars from 15 countries for four days of study, this year’s theme being “a good man.”
“This conference is about going to the next stage in interreligious relationships,” said Rabbi Donniel Hartman, Shalom Hartman Institute president. “For many years, interreligious conferences were about how we relate to each other. What we do at this conference is interreligious studies. We know for sure that we have to live with each other, we take that for granted.
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