Jewish-Muslim Relations in the Past and Present

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue illuminates the manifold close connections and commonalities between the Jewish and Muslim traditions in order to approach the problem areas of our present on this basis. To this end, the various contributions offer an overview of the central historical, hermeneutical, philosophical–theological, religious–legal, political and pedagogical aspects of Jewish–Muslim relations. Theological, scientific and social perspectives allow for a differentiated and varied consideration of the topic.

This Special Issue aims to highlight how close and productive the relations between Jews and Muslims have been throughout history and what strong connections there are, with regard as well for the structures and contents of the two religions. By exploring both the mutual significance of the two traditions to each other in the past, as well as specifically analyzing the current situation with its particular challenges and opportunities, this Special Issue aims to explore the possibilities for a positive dynamic of coexistence between Jews and Muslims for the present without denying differences and conflicts.

Since the emergence of Islam, Jewish and Muslim history have been characterized by close links, resulting in deep and still insufficiently explored interactions in the fields of hermeneutics and jurisprudence, theology and philosophy, and education. We are pleased to invite you to explore these interactions, which mark moments of rapprochement as well as demarcation, scientifically in a way that can advance today's discourses on common ground.

This Special Issue aims to promote interreligious dialogue and understanding between Jews and Muslims, as well as the joint critical engagement with Jewish and Muslim sources in a way that is mutually beneficial to scholarly and societal concerns. The critical anamnesis of the interrelations between Judaism and Islam is thus aimed at removing the ground from the mutual attributions of imaginary identities that sustain the ideological discourses of the present and at establishing a positive confrontation in the joint appropriation of historical and cultural experiences.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

The exploration of the theological–philosophical development since the intensive Jewish–Muslim encounters in the Middle Ages, with a view to the possibilities of engagement with the present. Of concrete relevance would be studies on how the images of God and man of these traditions are reflected in different concepts of universalism and particularism, as well as regarding the possibilities of being able to conceptualize secular or rather profane social spaces from Jewish and Muslim theology, or to develop concepts of secularization or laïcité that do not stand in a Christian genealogy.

The study of the history of law and the understanding of law in Jewish and Muslim history in their interdependencies in order to also illuminate possible positions in the encounter with liberal or (post-)secular modernity on this basis. The question of the compatibility of or tension between Jewish and Islamic (legal) traditions is to be posed anew by exploring the possibilities inherent in these traditions to reflect worldliness and to conceptualize society in profane categories.

An investigation of the commonalities and differences regarding educational and didactical approaches. Already in the early phase of Islam, synergies between Jews and Muslims in the field of education can be demonstrated based on common anthropological but also philosophical–theological premises. In the period of the early Middle Ages and modern times, similarities between Muslim and Jewish educational goals and methods, as well as in educational philosophy, can be illustrated especially in the writings of scholars such as Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) and Maimonides (d. 1204). The possibilities of cooperation between Jewish and Muslim educational approaches in plural contexts are to be revived in order to conceptualize educational offers that focus on interreligious and ideological aspects and on dealing with challenging topics.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat
Dr. Asher J. Mattern
Guest Editors

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• Jewish–Muslim relations
• concepts of God and man
• theology
• philosophy
• jurisprudence
• pedagogy
• sociology
• hermeneutics
• ethics