Images of Jesus Christ in Islam

Oddbjørn Leirvik is Professor of Interreligious Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is co-initiator of the European Society of Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies, and has written extensively in English and Norwegian on Christian-Muslim Relations and Interreligious Dialogue.

"The person of Jesus Christ is cherished and venerated by both Muslims and Christians. Many works have shown how respect for him has brought division, and some try to show how it could bring unanimity. This is one of the few that succeeds in showing both why he is crucial to Muslims as well as Christians, and also how he has set the faiths apart and might bring them closer. The variety of approaches to Jesus it includes and the broad range of works on him it examines make it a leader in this field and a key to understanding why Jesus retains his potency for agreement and disagreement in the two largest world religions." - David Thomas, Professor of Christianity and Islam, University of Birmingham, UK

• Preface1 Introduction A sensitive question The status of Christology in Christian-Muslim dialogue Bibliographical introduction Methodological considerations2. Christ in the Qur'an and in Hadith Christ in the Qur'an Jesus in Hadith The understanding of 'gospel' (injil) Muhammad and Jesus in Hadith and legend 3. Jesus in Muslim legend and Qur'anic exegesis Jesus in Muslim legend and storytelling IClassical exegesis of the Qur'an (tafsir)4. Jesus in Shi'ite tradition Jewish in Shi'ite Hadith and TafsirThe brethren of purityThe significance of suffering5. Jesus in Sufism Various representations of Jesus in SufismSummarising central features of Sufi images of Jesus The mystical perfection: Muhammad 6. Encounters and confrontations: dialogue, apologetics, polemics The role of Christ in early intra-Muslim polemics Christian apologetics under Muslim rule Muslim polemics, directed towards submitted ChristiansMuslim polemical refutations and sympathetic reinterpretations in the medieval era Christian polemics against Islam in the medieval era: enemy images and attempts at understanding 7. Twentieth-century tendencies and discussions Christ in nineteenth and twentieth-century Muslim theology: reinterpretation, polemics and dialogue Jesus in twentieth-century Muslim poetry Christ in Egyptian Muslim literature, from 1950 onwards8. Issues of dialogue Why Christology? Jesus and Muhammad Christology, anthropology, theology Rethinking Christology in dialogue with Islam Christology and human experience: from miracles to cross? The ethical connection Doing theology Postscript: Knowing with oneself, knowing with the other: A 'conscientous' dialogue between religions? BibliographyIndex of authors