Referring to God: Jewish and Christian Perspectives

‘An important contribution to inter-faith dialogue.’ – Gareth Lloyd Jones, The Expository Times

The bulk of the book contains important contributions on the topic of referring to God, together with responses to each of these. The contributions raise such questions as: Do Jews and Christians refer to the same God in their theological work and worship, despite the wide divergences between them? What is it to refer to God, and in particular for participants in two different traditions to refer to the same God? How might one decide such a question? By reference to historical continuity? Or by doctrinal consent? Or in some other way? How does one identify God in experience?

Two further papers explore the place of petitionary prayer in the Jewish tradition, and issues raised by it, and a comparison between representative Jewish and Christian thinkers (Moses Maimonides and John Calvin) on how our speech about God relates to his reality. The contributors to the volume include some of the leading philosophers of religion in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Israel.

The book encompasses both contemporary and historical themes. It will be of interest to anyone interested in Jewish thought, and in contemporary philosophy of religion, and in the basic philosophical and theological issues that must be raised in serious inter-faith dialogue.