CSI Monday Majlis: Gabriel Said Reynolds
A Faithful Dog and a Clay Bird: The Qur'an in its Christian World
Register please on this link: https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/3uYLlGdRRcGlh0sgg2JnOw
| An Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies seminar | |
|---|---|
| Date | 19 January 2026 |
| Time | 17:00 to 18:30 |
| Place | Online Only |
| Organizer | IAIS |
Event details
Abstract
Abstract:
The Qur’an’s engagement with Christian stories, including the story of young men and their miraculous “sleep” in a cave, and the story of a clay bird brought to life by the breath of Jesus, points to its emergence in a late antique Christian world. In this talk I will argue that the Qur’an competes with Christian claims by reshaping these stories for its own theological program, thereby undermining their Christian apologetic uses. The clay-bird miracle, for example, was popular among Christians for its presentation of Christ’s divine nature (even as a child). In the Qur’an it becomes simply one of the signs that God works through prophets. These case studies reveal a scripture at once deeply conversant with and strategically resistant to its Christian world.
Bio:
Gabriel Said Reynolds the Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur’¨¡n and Its Biblical Subtext (Routledge 2010), The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective (Fortress, 2012; 2nd ed. 2023), The Qur’¨¡n and the Bible: Text and Commentary (Yale 2018), Allah: God in the Qur’an (Yale 2020) and Christianity and the Qur’an: The Rise of Islam in Christian Arabia (Yale 2025), translator of ?Abd al-Jabb¨¡r’s Critique of Christian Origins (BYU 2010), editor of The Qur’¨¡n in Its Historical Context (Routledge 2007), New Perspectives on the Qur’¨¡n: The Qur’¨¡n in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge 2011), and co-editor of The Qur?¨¡n Seminar Commentary (De Gruyter, 2016).