THE PROBLEM OF GOD’S SELF-EXPRESSION

God spoke — and from that echo it was not truth that arose, but religions. The same word took on different meanings in different mouths and set brother against brother. But what if the problem lies not in the human ear, but in the very form of revelation? This book lays three great books — the Qurʾān, the Gospel, the Torah — side by side, not to play them against one another, but to show that one has long been speaking of the other. The titles the Qurʾān ascribes to God — the Word, the Trustee, the First and the Last — intersect strangely with the roles the Gospel gives to Jesus. "In the beginning was the Word" and "Jesus is the Word of God" hold two halves of the same mystery. The Qurʾān calls Jesus "the Word of God and a Spirit from Him," yet does not deify him. It is along this fault line that the book proceeds — from the Bismillāh to the Qurʾān's enigmatic letters, from the Logos to the Kalimatullāh. This text passes judgment on no religion; it calls each one back to the origin of its faith, to that single silent source. A hand that reaches out to the church as to the mosque. The second volume of the series "Rereading the Qurʾān."