Scriptural Reasoning among Jews and Muslims in London: Dynamics of an Inter-Religious Practice

Susanne Van Esdonk,Gerard Wiegers

doi:10.46586/er.8.2019.8342

Abstract

Scriptural Reasoning (SR)—the philosophical inter-religious study of foundational religious texts—came into being as an academic practice in the 1990s. In this article, based on empirical research, we analyse how in London over the past decades this practice has gradually been applied by new groups—including as a means for Jewish-Muslim engagement, the focus of our research. We discuss the ways in which the role of the foundational religious texts in SR practices has changed and how Jewish and Muslim initiators and participants at the local level now navigate between academic theological guidelines, daily interactions, and grassroots’ objectives for inter-religious engagement. We argue that SR practices, after having been adapted to community and individual needs and responding to religious and social caveats from different sides, provide a meaningful approach to constructive and dynamic interaction and engagement between Jews and Muslims at a grassroots level.

Highlights

According to the most recent census data (2011), approximately 56 percent of British Jews [1] live in London, which is almost 150.000 Jews, representing an average of 1.8 percent of the city’s total population
The empirical research of the first author into Jewish-Muslim relations in London demonstrates that among the many sorts of activities that are undertaken by Jews and Muslims, we find dialogue as well as social action projects, including several forms of so called Scriptural Reasoning (SR)—the philosophical inter-religious study of foundational religious texts
The discussion on the approaches used in inter-religious engagement is especially interest- [17] ing in the context of Scriptural Reasoning, where we find a formal academic practice being transferred to the often informal settings at the grassroots level, while retaining its dialogical character

Summary

Introduction

According to the most recent census data (2011), approximately 56 percent of British Jews [1] live in London, which is almost 150.000 Jews, representing an average of 1.8 percent of the city’s total population. In a report published in 2005, Dilwar Hussain and Keith Kahn-Harris divide these initiatives into five ‘categories of contact’, namely religious/theological, pragmatic, political, cultural/social, and multi-faith contact (see Hussain and Kahn-Harris 2005) Such Jewish-Muslim cooperation has been around in the United Kingdom since the late-1980s, when the Rushdie affair motivated Jewish and Muslim organisations to start working together more structurally. The empirical research of the first author into Jewish-Muslim relations in London demonstrates that among the many sorts of activities that are undertaken by Jews and Muslims, we find dialogue as well as social action projects, including several forms of so called Scriptural Reasoning (SR)—the philosophical inter-religious study of foundational religious texts.

Methodology

11 In Bowling Alone

A Fatwa on Scriptural Reasoning

A Changing Role for the Foundational Religious Texts

Findings

Conclusion