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M.O. Opeloye (Author), The Qur'an and The Bible: Common Themes for Peaceful Co-Existence by Published by Spectrum Books Limited: Ibadan, 2014
In an increasingly religiously polarized world, the need for all adherents of religions indeed Christians and Muslims all over the world to give peace a chance by consciously embracing interreligious dialogue becomes necessary. The good thing is that many well-meaning scholars of religion from both Christian and Islamic perspectives have continued to adopt different approaches through which the faith-communities might come to understand that all religions are basically pointing to the same thing. This is the truth that many adherents of Christianity and Islam all over the world are yet to accept and embrace.
In the entire book, which issectionalized into three broad themes (theological, social,and ethical), apart from the introduction and the conclusion, Opeloye, a professor of comparative religion and Muslim and Christian relations, engages a comparative study of Muslim and Christian Holy Scriptures (Qur'an and the Bible). He helps tobring out the common themes that would help the two Abrahamic faiths (Islam and Christianity), otherwise called two great world religions to live in peace and harmonious relationship together. In chapter one, Opeloye looks at the evolution of the Qur'an and the Bible and shows the conviction that both are inspired words of God. But while the Bible was not only initially planned to be written, it was later compiled in stages, the Qur'an was already in the mind of God, which was later dictated by Angel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed and was committed to memory. The argument of the author is that because Bible had to pass through different stages before it could be canonized, there seem to be few contradictions in it. But because Qur'an was a product of memorization, it is very straight forward. In essence the difference between Biblical evolution and Qur'an's is in the way they were originally composed or compiled. They are nevertheless inspired holy books.
In chapter two, Opeloye looks at the concepts of God and angelology. By engaging philosophical argumentation, he first examines the concepts by which God is known and then proceeds to the traditional arguments (though at surface level) for the existence of God from both Islamic and Christian's theological/philosophical perspectives (20-ff). Those...