Abstract
Wessels attempts a noble task, reading the three monotheistic scriptures (the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, the Qur’an) as a single, harmonious narrative, to model how these religions might get along. In doing so, however, he loses the sense of the individual scriptures. To bring these disparate texts into a single, coherent narrative, he imposes an external structure. W.’s own structure is Christian—he is a Presbyterian minister. Because he reads the texts harmoniously, he explains away, minimizes, or ignores their disparities. Muslims will find the book unsatisfactory because of its christological leanings and occasional sermonizing. Jews will be unsatisfied because W. minimizes the importance of Jewish identity and the Jewish connection to the land. In sum, his narrative focuses on “universal salvation.”
W. treats the Qur’an as a source of divine wisdom. Although apparently not a reader of Arabic, he has made careful study of the Qur’an in his native Dutch. He claims his book as a tale of two cities (good and evil) but tries to hold together too many different kinds of comparisons for this to be a useful structure. The cities keep changing and share little that might make them one story. He adds historical summary, he reviews the Deuteronomic History, and he reflects on the nature of kingship. None of this refers to the “tale of two cities.” The book is rather a collection of essays around the topic of the Bible and the Qur’an.
Although certainly not a fundamentalist, W. places too much credence in the historicity of stories in the Bible, particularly concerning Abraham and the reign of Solomon.
I especially liked W.’s treatment of the Hijra, the historic pilgrimage of the early Islamic community from Mecca to Medina. He fruitfully compares it to Abraham leaving Mesopotamia, to the Exodus, and to Jesus’ sojourn into the desert.
W. is well intentioned but misrepresents the various texts, making them more univocal and peaceful/tolerant than they actually are. I recommend instead Kaltner’s Ishmael Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers (1999) for a less troublesome approach to this difficult and sensitive topic.