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{{short description|Religious studies of scriptures}}
'''Scriptural Reasoning''' ("SR") is one type of interdisciplinary, [[interfaith]] scriptural reading. It is an evolving practice of diverse methodologies in which [[Christians]], [[Jews]], [[Muslims]], [[Hindus]], [[Buddhists]], [[Sikhs]], [[Baháʼís]], and members of other faiths, meet in groups to study their sacred scriptures and oral traditions together, and to explore the ways in which such study can help them understand and respond to particular contemporary issues. Originally developed by theologians and religious philosophers as a means of fostering post-critical and [[narrative theology|postliberal]] corrections to patterns of [[modernity|modern]] reasoning, it has now spread beyond academic circles.
== Method ==
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'''8. Be respectful when handling the texts.''' Remember that the different traditions have different views on how the scriptures should be treated and some faiths consider their scriptures to be sacred. This means that care should be taken when handling them; for example, don’t place them on the floor or put drinks on them. If you’re in doubt about how to treat or dispose of the texts, speak to a fellow group member.</blockquote>
== Purpose ==
It is impossible to give a definitive or authoritative account of the purpose of SR.
Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish three commonly-cited and not mutually-exclusive purposes.
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=== 1. ''L'shma:'' For its own sake or for God's sake ===
According to David Ford, one should practice SR because studying scripture is intrinsically valuable. On this view, one practices SR for the same reasons and in the same spirit that most traditional Abrahamic readers have studied their scriptures. David Ford makes this point using the Hebrew term "''l'shma''":<blockquote>''This practice of shared reading could be done for its own sake—or, better, for God’s sake.'' Each of the three traditions has its own ways of valuing the study of its scriptures as something worth doing quite apart from any ulterior motive. Scriptural Reasoning might of course have all sorts of practical implications, but to do it above all for God’s sake—as Jews say, ''l’shma'' — encourages purity of intention and discourages the mere instrumentalising of inter-faith engagement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ford|2011}}</ref></blockquote>
Study ''l'shma'' is motivated by desire, by love for the scriptures and/or for God. For this reason, by inviting participants to share ''l'shma'' study together, SR provides what Ochs calls "a venue for members of different traditions or modes of inquiry to share their affection for scripture." This affective aspect of SR, in turn, contributes to SR's capacity to form unexpected interreligious friendships.<blockquote>The most likely source of these friendships is that ''the style of Formational Scriptural Reasoning tempts participants (often unawares) to reveal at least a bit of the warmth and ingenuousness they display in intimate settings of scripture study among coreligionists at home.''<ref>{{Harvnb|Ochs|2013|p=631}}</ref></blockquote>
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==== Hearth ====
Scriptural Reasoning has been compared to gathering around the warmth of a hearth, where - Ochs explains - the hearth represents "those dimensions of life that members of a religion turn to in times of crisis, tension, or uncertainty in the hope of drawing nearer to the source of their deepest values and identities."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ochs |first=Peter |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1129027890 |title=Religion without violence : the practice and philosophy of scriptural reasoning |date=2019 |others=David F. Ford |isbn=1-5326-3893-0 |___location=Eugene, Oregon |pages=18 |oclc=1129027890}}</ref> SR, in this view, becomes a prototype of a broader family of "hearth-to-hearth" engagements.
In this vein, James and Rashkover write:<blockquote>The same sacredness and life that rewards ''l'shma'' study can also be the cause of absolutism and violence when a community feels under threat. Scripture is ''powerful'': "Is not my word like fire, says the Lord?" (Jer. 23:29). The same fire that warms and gives life can also kill and destroy. Ochs discerns that the impulse to guard the sacredness of scripture, even violently, is often an index of the community's ''love'' of their sacred scriptures as a primal source of divine life. Rather than unleashing the destroying fire of scriptural passion, SR is a practice of offering a measure of scripture's warmth to others.<ref>{{Harvnb|James|Rashkover|2021|p=23}}, with reference to {{Harvnb|Ochs|2015|p=489}}.</ref></blockquote>More recently, Ochs has generalized his concept of scripture into that of a ''hearth,'' "those dimensions of life that members of a religion turn to in times of crisis, tension, or uncertainty in the hope of drawing nearer to the source of their deepest values and identities."<ref>{{Harvnb|Ochs|2019|p=18}}. Ochs develops an extended account of a "hearth" in the same book.</ref> SR, in this view, becomes a prototype of a broader family of "hearth-to-hearth" engagements.
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One early fruit of Scriptural Reasoning was ''[[Dabru Emet]],'' a document on Jewish-Christian relations published in 2000 in ''[[The New York Times]].''<ref>The full text is available [https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/documents-and-statements/jewish/dabru-emet here], at the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations.</ref> This document, authored by four Jewish scholars--Peter Ochs, David Novak, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, and Michael Singer--and signed by over 200 rabbis and scholars from most strands of Judaism, aimed to lay the groundwork for more sympathetic and productive engagement between Judaism and Christianity.<ref>For more on Dabru Emet eee {{Harvnb|Ochs|2007}} and {{Harvnb|Rosen|2001}}. The authors also produced a companion piece containing extended scholarly reflection on Jewish-Christian relations: {{Harvnb|Frymer-Kensky|Novak|Ochs|Sandmel|Signer|2002}}.</ref>
The [http://www.rosecastlefoundation.org/?hsLang=en Rose Castle Foundation] was founded in 2014 to equip leaders for peace and reconciliation work between the Abrahamic religions, with Scriptural Reasoning being central to its training. The Rose Castle Foundation also maintains a database of SR groups around the world.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scriptural Reasoning|url=http://www.rosecastlefoundation.org/scriptural-reasoning|access-date=2022-02-13|website=www.rosecastlefoundation.org|language=en}}</ref>
== Criticisms ==
=== Christian ===
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=== Muslim ===
Muslim theologian, [[Timothy Winter]], argues that the presuppositions and motivations of Scriptural Reasoning are alien to the Islamic context. He states, "Scriptural reasoning is not method, but rather a promiscuous openness to methods of a kind unfamiliar to Islamic conventions of reading". He also asserts that Scriptural Reasoning's claims to correct secular reasonings through a re-engagement with traditional reading have little resonance for Islam that has not experienced such changes in any meaningful sense. He writes, "There cannot be a 'return to Scripture' in Peter Ochs's sense, since the Qur’an has nowhere been abandoned, and Muslim interlocutors in SR are much more likely to feel part of an unbroken tradition than advocates of a latter-day ressourcement". He asserts the closer proximity of Jewish-Islamic traditional exegesis: "The three-way dynamic helps to reduce binary polarisations, but it does carry a bias towards the ‘Semitic.’ Muslim-Jewish relations turn out to be privileged for several reasons which may relate to this traditional category". He goes on to state, "The cognate quality of Arabic and Hebrew, which frequently enriches the practice of comparative SR", but states, "If SR tends to exclude the search for precision, and to celebrate an ‘irremediable vagueness’ (Ochs), Muslims may demur".<ref>{{Harvnb|Winter|2006}}</ref>
== Footnotes ==
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* {{Citation | last=Adams|first=Nicholas|date=July 2006|title=Making Deep Reasonings Public|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0025.2006.00324.x|journal=[[Modern Theology]]|volume=22|issue=3|pages=385–401|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0025.2006.00324.x|issn=0266-7177}}
* {{Citation | last = Afzaal | first = Ahmed | title = Rendezvous in Orlando | journal = The Qu'ranic Horizons: Quarterly Journal of the Qu'ranic Academy | pages = 3–12 | date = October–December 1998 | url = http://www.ionaonline.org/Internal_Pages/Periodicals/Year_1998/The_Quranic_Horizons_October-December_1998.pdf | access-date = 2009-03-19 }}
* {{Citation | last = Anglican Communion Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON) | author-link = Anglican Communion | title = Generous Love: The Truth of the Gospel and the Call to Dialogue; An Anglican Theology of Inter Faith Relations | place = London | publisher = [[Anglican Consultative Council]] | year = 2008 | url = http://nifcon.anglicancommunion.org/resources/documents/generous_love_A4_with_foreward.pdf | isbn = 9780955826108 | access-date = 2009-03-19 }}
* {{Citation | first = Jeffrey W. | last = Bailey | title = Sacred Book Club: Reading Scriptures Across Interfaith Lines | journal = [[The Christian Century]] | date = September 5, 2006 | url = http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2332}}
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* {{Citation | last = D'Costa | first = Gavin | contribution = Catholics Reading the Scripture of Other Religions: Some Reflexions | title = Mission in Dialogue: Essays in Honour of Michael L. Fitzgerald | editor-last = Belo | editor-first = Catarina | editor2-last = Pérennès | editor2-first = Jean-Jacques | pages = 33-43 | place = Louvain | publisher = Peeters | year = 2012 | isbn = 904-2-926171 |ref=none}}
* {{Citation | last = Donnelly | first = Phillip J. | title = Milton's Scriptural Reasoning: Narrative and Protestant Toleration | place = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-521-50973-2}}
* {{Citation | last = Ford | first = David F. | author-link = David F. Ford | title = An Interfaith Wisdom: Scriptural Reasoning Between Jews, Christians and Muslims | journal = [[Modern Theology]] | volume = 22 | issue = 3 | pages = 345–366 | date = June 2006 | doi = 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2006.00322.x}}
** Also published as {{Citation | last = Ford | first = David F. | contribution = An Interfaith Wisdom: Scriptural Reasoning Between Jews, Christians and Muslims | title = The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning | editor-last = Pecknold | editor-first = C.C. | editor2-last = Ford | editor2-first = David F. | pages = 1–22 | place = Malden, MI / Oxford | publisher = Blackwell | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-1-4051-4630-2 |ref=none}}
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* {{Citation | last = Rosen | first = David | year = 2021 | title = Dabru Emet: Its Significance for the Jewish-Christian Dialogue | url = https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/resources/articles/rosen.htm | access-date = 2020-02-13}}
* {{Citation | last = Sarisky | first = Darren | title = Religious Commitment in Scriptural Reasoning: A Critical Engagement with Gavin D'Costa's “Catholics Reading the Scripture of Other Religions” | journal = [[Modern Theology]] | volume = 36 | issue = 2 | pages = 317–335 | date = May 2019 | doi = 10.1111/moth.12521}}
* {{Citation | last = Slater | first = Gary | year = 2015 | title = C.S. Peirce and the Nested Continua Model of Religious Interpretation | place = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press}}
* {{Citation | last = Smith | first = James K.A. | title = How Religious Practices Matter: Peter Ochs' "Alternative Nurturance" of Philosophy of Religion | journal = [[Modern Theology]] | volume = 24 | issue = 3 | pages = 469–478 | date = July 2008 | doi = 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2008.00469.x | author-link = James K. A. Smith}}
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* [https://jtr.shanti.virginia.edu/ The Journal of Textual Reasoning]
* [https://abraham.lib.virginia.edu/ The Children of Abraham Institute]
* [http://www.rosecastlefoundation.org/rcf/scriptural-reasoning Rose Castle Foundation]
[[Category:Interfaith dialogue]]
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