Building Bridges Seminar

The Community of Believers offers the proceedings of the 2013 Building Bridges seminar, a dialogue between leading Christian and Muslim scholars under the stewardship of Georgetown University. These essays consider such themes as the Church as mystical body of Christ versus the Church as proclamation; the roots and uses of the term ummah and its development over time; Christian desires for communion, experiences of division, and approaches to unity; the history of Muslim disunity; twentieth-century Christian ecclesiology and its responses to a post-Christendom and post-Christian world; and the Arab Spring as a case study for contemplating accommodationism, conservatism, reformism, and fundamentalism as Muslim strategies to address the pressures of modernism. The volume also includes texts and commentaries used in the seminar's discussions of each topic and a concluding essay summarizing the tone, content, and style of participant exchanges throughout the seminar. 

download | PDF of this book (provided by Georgetown University Press)

Table of Contents

• Participants
• Introduction

Part I: The Nature and Purpose of the Community

• The Nature and Purpose of the Christian Community (the Church) | Gavin D’Costa
• The Nature and Purpose of the Community (Ummah) in the Qur'an | Abdullah Saeed
• Scripture Dialogue I: God's People Israel and the Church
• Scripture Dialogue II: The Umma and Earlier Religious Communities
• Scripture Dialogue III: The Nature and Purpose of the Church
• Scripture Dialogue IV: The Nature and Purpose of the Umma

Part II: Unity and Disunity in the Life of the Community

• Perspectives on Christian Desires for Communion and Experiences of Division (or, The History of the Church in Half a Chapter!) | Lucy Gardner
• Unity and Disunity in the Life of the Muslim Community | Feras Hamza
• Scripture Dialogue V: Unity and Disunity in the Church
• Scripture Dialogue VI: Unity and Disunity in the Umma

Part III: Continuity and Change in the Life of the Community

• Continuity and Change in the Life of the Community: Muslims' Changing Attitudes to Change | Ahmet Alibasic
• The Christian Church Facing Itself and Facing the World: An Ecumenical Overview of Modern Christian Ecclesiology | Brandon Gallaher
• Scripture Dialogue VII: Continuity and Change in the Church
• Scripture Dialogue VIII: Continuity and Change in the Umma

Part IV: Reflection

• Conversations in Doha | Lucinda Mosher