Scriptural Reasoning (Paperback)

Fosters deep inter-faith understanding through shared scriptural study and mutual religious hospitality

Scriptural Reasoning: Abrahamic Inter-faith Practice provides an accessible and practical introduction to a unique form of inter-faith engagement centered on shared sacred text study. Rather than minimizing deep commitments to one's own faith, this approach encourages participants to enter more fully into their own traditions while offering and receiving hospitality across religious boundaries. Focusing on the Abrahamic faiths―Judaism, Christianity, and Islam―this book equips students and lay practitioners to participate meaningfully in Scriptural Reasoning (SR) groups, where members of different faiths read and reason together from their respective Scriptures.

The authors―scholars and practitioners from the three traditions―guide readers through the origins, aims, and methods of SR while offering theological context, practical guidance, and real-world examples. Chapters explore common questions about the nature of Scripture, revelation, interpretation, and the challenges and promises of inter-religious study. Designed for classroom use, religious institutions, or community initiatives, this concise and clear resource helps participants “hit the ground running.” By grounding the practice in deep respect, conviction, and curiosity, the authors position Scriptural Reasoning as a tool not only for dialogue, but for healing and reconciliation across difference.

Encouraging cross-faith understanding in a world marked by religious plurality and social fragmentation, Scriptural Reasoning:

• Provides the foundation for understanding, practicing, and reflecting on Abrahamic Scriptural Reasoning
• Contains tools and texts for launching SR in classroom, religious, and civic settings
• Includes foundational background on the Scriptures and interpretive traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• Addresses common questions and misconceptions about inter-faith engagement and religious pluralism
• Features real-world examples of SR used in diverse contexts, from prisons to hospitals to inter-faith dialogue programs

Combining theological reflection with practical instruction for first-time SR facilitators and participants, Scriptural Reasoning: Abrahamic Inter-faith Practice is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in theology, religious studies, and interfaith engagement programs. It can be used in courses such as Interfaith Dialogue, Comparative Religion, and Abrahamic Traditions, and is appropriate for degrees in divinity, religious studies, and civic leadership.

MARIA DAKAKE is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, where she directs programs in Islamic Studies and Middle East Studies. She holds a PhD from Princeton University and is widely published in Islamic intellectual history, Qur’anic studies, Shiism, Sufism, and women’s spirituality She is co-author and co-editor of The Study Quran (HarperOne 2015) and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an (Routledge, 2022).

TOM GREGGS is Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey. He previously held the Marischal Chair of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, UK. A Methodist preacher and international ecumenical leader, his many publications include Dogmatic Ecclesiology, The Breadth of Salvation, and Barth and Bonhoeffer as Contributors to a Postliberal Ecclesiology.

STEVEN KEPNES is Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Colgate University. A prominent voice in Jewish theology, he is the author of Jewish Liturgical Reasoning, Reviving Jewish Theology, and editor of the Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology. He has also taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.