Memphis
Inter-Religious
Group
Sources of books.
Bookstores; on-line (//amazon.com has one of the largest lists,
//alibris.com often has the lowest prices on used or out-of-print
copies.) In Memphis, commercial bookstores often tend to more
Christian books than others: gift shops at synagogues and the
Jewish Community Center often have more Jewish books. One of the best
sources for Muslim books in Memphis is the Mediterranean Market on Park
near Highland. Other suggestions are welcome.
Yes, we lend books.
Some Books of interest -
This is an initial list, incomplete, and with no idea yet how it should
be organized. Suggestions are very welcome. January 30,
2010.
New additions added at the top of
the list, March 23, 2010.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, What's Right With Islam Is What's Right
With America.
Imam Rauf is Imam of a mosque located twelve blocks from the site of
the former World Trade Center in New York. We speaks of the
extent to which Muslim Values and American values agree, and the ways
in which American Muslims may influence the rest of teh Muslim world,
among other issues. Introduction by Karen Armstrong.
Sermon examples:
People sometimes wonder what the sermons are about, or what they sound
like, in another religion. Nice examples of Memphis sermons can
be found on line, among other places, at
Temple Israel:
http://timemphis.org/worship/sermons.htm
Balmoral Presbyterian:
http://balmoralpc.com/content/Sermons.shtml
Masjid As-Salam:
http://www.pleasantviewschool.com/media/
and http://youthdawahcenter.org/Audio.aspx
(Don't be put off that the Muslim ones start
with a quotation in Arabic - they switch to English after a few
minutes. Many of the talks here are longer lectures or what others
might call "Sunday school lessons." Actual sermons are called
"Khutabs".)
At our March 2010 meeting, some of us got into a discussion of the
different images of Satan (Shaitan) in the different religions.
Tanvir Kazmi has provided a rather large collection of Quran quotations
on the subject. I've put them in the "discussion" section of the
Facebook.com page for the group MemphisIRG. Is that a good place
for them? Would people like to start other discussions there?
Rebecca
Peters
and
Elizabeth
Hinson-Hasty, To
Do Justice: A Guide for Progressive
Christians.
Balmoral Presbyterian has a lot of Sunday School classes; one in Spring
semester 2010 is using this one which may be of general interest.
A survey of areas in which a religious person might be concerned about
modern American society: family, education, the economy, war, and
others.
J. Clinton McCann, Jr.
Great Psalms of the Bible.
Another Balmoral Sunday School book. It takes twelve psalms and goes
through them carefully, line by line, to get the context and meaning,
then discusses implications for today.
Ibn Kathir, Stories of the Prophets.
A Muslim book that serves as an adult "Sunday School Book", this
retells the stories of the major Biblical figures from a Muslim
viewpoint. Adam, Enoch(Idris), Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Job,
Jonah, and many others up to John the Baptist and Jesus.
Wonderful reading for Jews and Christians who are frustrated by the
fact that the Koran isn't chronological.
Milton Steinberg, As a Driven Leaf.
A fictionalized life of an important first-century Rabbi, the only
Rabbi ever expelled from the Sanhedrin (for attending Church too
often, among other reasons.) An excellent exposition
of life in Palestine in the first
century C.E., used as a study text at Temple Israel.
Bruce
Chilton, Rabbi Jesus.
An Episcopal priest but rather nonconforming, Chilton tries to portray
Jesus in the light of what we know of Jewish society at the time. This
is interesting to compare with the Milton Steinberg book set just a few
decades later.
Elias Chacour, Blood Brothers
Elias Chacour is a Christian Priest (now
an Archbishop) born in Galilee before
1948, who remained there as an Israeli citizen. He has
devoted himself to
building schools that teach tolerance and respect. These schools have a
very large Muslim enrollment and are so very well regarded by the
Israeli Education Ministry that they receive high subsidies from the
Israeli government. He recounts the close relationship and active
cooperation between the Muslim and Christian communities in the village
of Ibilin, and his difficulties with the Israeli goverment. Chacour has
lectured at Montreat, a Presbyterian camp
many members at Balmoral are acquainted with (We can lend a DVD of that
lecture, which tells many of the stories in the book.)
Eboo Patel, Acts of Faith.
Patel is an American Muslim of Indian heritage, who has become a major
leader in interfaith youth work.
Howard R. Greenstein, K.G. Hotz. J.
Kaltner, What do our
neighbors believe?
An introduction to multiple faiths, organized by topic (Sacred Texts,
Beliefs, Practices, Social Issues, ...) rather than by faith. Our
local Rabbi Greenstein's father was one of the authors.
Jeffrey K. Salkin, Righteous Gentiles in th Hebrew Bible.
A book on non-Jewish characters in the Hebrew Bible, by Rabbi Salkin
who is a very popular occasional guest lecturer at Temple Israel.
Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three
Faiths.
A life of Abraham with references to his role in Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam.
Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God. A
history of the time around the Council of Nicea, about 325 C.E., when
the doctrine of the Trinity was being formed.
Sari Nusseibeh, Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life.
The autobiography of the president of Al-Quds University, the
Palestinian university in East Jerusalem. A vivid picture of the
career of an intellectual caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy.
Tariq Ramadan, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons
from the Life of Muhammad.
A modern life of Muhammad by a Fellow at Oxford who has been called
"Europe's leading Muslim Intellectual."
Rashi, a Light after the Dark Ages.
DVD
Educational DVD, 1 hour, of an important Jewish scholar working in the
time of Charlemagne.
Rambam, the Story of Maimonides.
DVD
Educational DVD, 1 hour, of one of the most important Jewish scholars,
working primarily in Muslim Spain and Egypt.
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood
Vilifies a People. DVD
Documentary, under 1 hour. excerpts from famous films showing the use
of Arabs as villains.
Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet.
DVD
Life of Muhammad. Full length movie.
Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of
Islamic Spain. DVD.
Usually in the US we learn of the "Christian reconquest of Spain" from
a north-European viewpoint. This is a far more Muslim viewpoint, but
with a very interesting treatment of the Christians and Jews of the
Iberian penensula. Full length movie.
Encounter Point.
DVD.
The story of the Breaved Fanilies Association: An Israeli whose
daughter was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, and a Palestinian
whose son was killed by an Israeli soldier, come together in sympathy
and speak to Israeli and Palestinian audiences about the need to end
the fighting. Full length movie.
The Childrens March on Birmingham.
DVD.
Documentary, about 40 minutes. At a critical point in the Civil Rights
movement, when the Black adults in Birmingham Alabama were afraid to
act for fear of retaliation, the childen gathered at a church and went
out to successfully face down the loal police and firemen.
New Muslim Cool. DVD
Movie for the general market, aimed at youth / young adults. The story
of a young Puerto Rican convert to Islam who moves to Pittsburgh,
trying to make a living as a rap performer and a hospital
chaplain. There are problems with security clearance at the prison and
an FBI raid on the mosque. Productive interaction with Jews. The
problems of a young married couple.
Children of Abraham. DVD.
Short DVD to encourage interfaith discussion, produced jointly by the
Union for Reform Judaism and the Islamic Society of North America.
Sayyed Hossain Nasr: God, The Reality
to Serve, Love, and Know. DVD
Lecture at Trinity Church Conference, New York, 2000.
Sunshine. DVD.
The life of a Hungarian Jewish family from before World War One
to after the fall of communism. An outstanding commercial movie,
unfortunately with much too much sex.
Azadeh Moaveni, Honeymoon in Tehran . In the early
2000's, an Iranian-American reporter for Time goes to Tehran to be a
journalist, falls in love, marries, and stays for two years. very good
not only on Iranian politics, but on the relations between religious
and secular Iranians and day-to-day life in the Islamic Republic.
Avraham Burg, The Holocaust is Over, We Must Rise From
its Ashes. Burg is the Israeli-born son of Holocaust
survivors, and a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset. He feels that
by identifying itself too stongly as victim, Israel is losng sight of
the Jewish prophetic message.
Samuel G. Freedman, Upon this Rock. The story of
a Black Baptist church in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. Used in
a Univrsity of Memphis course about community organizing and inner-city
anthropology.
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea. Lost in a
mountain-climbing accident in the Himalayas, Mortenson was rescued by
Pakistani villagers. Learning of their needs, he has devoted his life
to building schools - espacially for girls - in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. A major best-seller and thrilling to read.
Madeleine L'Engle. The Rock that is Higher: Story as Truth.
Another
Balmoral
Presbyterian
Church
Sunday
School book, a good book
for group discussions. How we tell stories, read stories, listen to
stories, and how we use stories to build community. Many examples from
the Gospel parables, as well as other stories.
Hanan Ashrawi, This side of Peace. Ashrawi is a
professor at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, a Christian
Palestinain woman who was long a spokesperson and negotiator for Fatah
and a member of the Palestinian parliament. 1995, so dated, but
wonerful for its image of Palestine and Palestinian politics of the
time.
Arthur Waskow, Godwrestling. Long out of
print, but used copies are readily available. A rabbi who suggests ways
that people can meet and talk informally about God, taking God's
message seriously but without the need for heavy scholarship or
professional leadership. Look at a passge in the Bible or Koran:
what does it mean to us today?
W. Guther Plaut, Torah: a Modern Commentary,
a
typical
modern
commentary
on
the
first five books of the Hebrew
Bible, the Torah, often used for discussion in the Saturday morning
discussion group at Temple Israel. Compare Ali's Koran commentary.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of the Holy Koran.
A
widely
used
Koran
commentary,
almost
identical in layout and spirit
to the Plaut Torah commentary. This one is frequently used for
the
Sunday afternoon Koran classes at Masjid As-Salam.
Safiur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri (ed.
and
abridged
by). Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (Vol. 1) For Jews who wonder
what the Muslims have instead of the Talmud, it is the Hadith;
the recollections of the companions of the prophet as to what Mohammed
said and did. There are also very elaborate commentaries on the Koran,
almost as elaborate as the Talmud. This is one of the best
presentations of some of this
material in English that I've found for sale locally.
(more coming shortly)
(page edited 1/30/2010)