Category Archives for "Our Blog"

On Dialogue in the Interfaith World The ideal of harmonious relations among religions, and among believers from different traditions has become increasingly affirmed, evermore widely in recent decades. This good impulse spreads quickly, but the subtleties, nuances, and challenges associated with the effort generally are not known. The broad and varied goals, purposes, and orientations […]

Peacemaker’s Interview — Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Part 3 How do we approach the violent commands found in the Qu’ran, like ‘kill the infidels wherever you find them’ and other such verses? Are those who hold to violent jihad interpreting the Qu’ran correctly? Are they being faithful to the proper interpretation of the Qu’ran? Watch Dr. […]

A Key Question on Jihad and the Qur’an Many religious articles are concerned with what I will call a Key Question on the minds of Christians (and indeed, peace-loving people everywhere) towards jihadists. How can jihadists be convinced that Allah doesn’t want them to kill infidels? A friend brought my attention to one particular article […]

Religiously Diverse: Can Christians and Muslims Embrace Each Other? For this month’s guest post we are featuring an essay published in the Journal of Religion & Society (2014) on how Muslims and Christians might embrace religious diversity. Benjamin DeVan asks and answers this question with a qualified yes. In an arena that is often stymied […]

Peacemaker’s Interview — Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Part 2 What can change a heart? Having been confronted by the memory of his former reading of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Dr. Hamid then describes his moment of […]

Peacemaker’s Interview — Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Part 1 Dr. Tawfik Hamid is no stranger to controversy: a one-time member of the Islamic radical group Jamaa-Islamiya, he has focused in recent years on combating radicalism and has argued for a fresh interpretation of the Quran to counterbalance radical teaching. Dr. Hamid is the author of “Inside […]

The Awakening, Part 1: The Smoke of Rebellion “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now our life is nearer than when we believed.” Romans 13:11 “Such (being their state), we raised them up (from sleep), that they might question each other. Qur’an 18:19 From […]

Who Cares About Aramaic? — TV personality Stephen Colbert should! — Part 4 Did God really “forsake” Jesus? Aramaic, the Missing Link in Apologetics I vividly recall the interview for my book, A Deadly Misunderstanding, with Harper Collins Publishers. I had just read one of their published books, Jesus Misquoted, written by Prof. Bart Ehrman […]