PRIMARY SOURCES GUIDE
We are reading several "primary sources" for this class (i.e., original sources from within the religious traditions we are studying). You may be asked, on the mini-exams, questions about some of the more important of these sources. Questions related to these sources will also likely be related to the terms and identifications that have been flagged as important for the mini-exams.
In order to make your studying easier, listed below are those primary sources from which quotation questions will be drawn. Two notes: 1. You may not be asked about all of these sources, but when you are asked quotation questions these are the sources from which they will be drawns. 2. Listing here does not mean that all sources are not important: they are important, or else you wouldn't be asked to read them. You should read all of the primary sources for this course in order to learn as much as posssible about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Sources taken from the reader Western Ways of Being Religious are cited by page number. Descriptions are provided to give you context: it is highly recommended you also read the introductions to these texts in Western Ways of Being Religious. (This page is in progress; check back for complete updates.)
JUDAISM
Shema (WWBR p. 39; also discussed in JCM pp. 217-219)
The "monotheistic confession" of Jewish faith (taken from the Bible: Deuteronomy 6:4) that stands at the heart of one of the rabbinic prayer liturgies (for the entire Shema prayer-cycle, click here). This strong commitment to the one God of Israel creates a vertical relationship (between humans and God) and also a horizontal one (a sense of community among Jews). It was also, allegedly, recited by Jewish martyrs at their deaths at different points in history.
Wisdom of the Fathers (WWBR 67-68)
Taken from a chapter of the Mishnah, this intellectual genealogy stands at the heart of the theory of Oral Torah: that Moses received not only the written Torah at Mount Sinai, but also the Oral Torah, which has been passed down through the generations of Jewish leaders, to be introduced as a supplemental source of covenantal loyalty in the rabbinic period.
Genesis 17 (Covenant with Abraham) (WWBR 52)
Taken from the Torah, the first part of the Jewish Scriptures (TANAK). Jews look to Abraham (and his son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob/Israel) as their physical and spiritual ancestor, who was chosen out by God to strike a special deal ("covenant") with God. This chapter from Genesis contains the bare bones of that covenant (later elaborated through Moses), including the ritual seal of circumcision.
The Pittsburg Platform (WWBR 78-79)
Beginning in the modern period (as Jews became officially emancipated into European and American societies), some Jewish communities sought to reform what they viewed as religiously and culturally backwards traditions that detracted from the universal, rational principles of Jewish faith. This set of "platform positions," created in the 19th-century by U.S. Reformers, encapsulates the desires to rationalize and universalize Judaism, to make it like other (mainly Protestant Christian) religions.
CHRISTIANITY
Matthew 26:20-29 (The Last Supper) (WWBR 116)
Taken from one of the four canonical gospels (accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection considered part of the Christian Scriptures). Here Jesus passes out bread and wine, which he calls his body and blood, as the core of a "new covenant" between God and humanity. This event is memorialized among Christians as one of their central unifying rituals: the eucharist.
John 1:1-18 (WWBR 121-122)
Among the four Gospels, the Gospel of John seeks to emphasize the strict divinity of Jesus Christ: he is God's Word (cf. Genesis 1, where God creates through "speech") who "became flesh" ( = incarnation) in order to renew God's bonds with all of humanity. This prologue to the gospel emphasizes Christ's divinity, eternity, and the mystical and philosophical elaborations of the Jesus Movement and Christianity.
Nicene Creed (WWBR 127)
More than Judaism or Islam (which focus on orthopraxy, "correct action"), Christianity creates insider/outsider boundaries based on orthodoxy ("correct belief") and, from the time when the religion became widespread and public, enforced certain beliefs about God through the public recitation of a creed. The Nicene Creed (325 CE) emerged out of debates over Jesus' relation to God the Father (are they equally God?) and became the standard theological statement of principles for later Christians.
Genesis 3 (WWBR 51-52)
For Christians, Jesus came to renew God's relationship with humanity, which had been damaged really since the original moments of creation. Christians read Genesis 3 (the story of Adam and Eve's sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden) as the time when everything started to go wrong: the disobedience of Adam and Eve was (eventually) believed to be passed to all human beings through the transmission of that "original sin": only the rituals and practices of Christianity could remove that sin and allow for reunion with God (salvation).
ISLAM
"Allah Reveals Himself" (Sura 2:255-257, 112:1-4) (WWBR 182)
These two selections from the Qur'an (Sura 2 and Sura 112) emphasize God's omnipotence (he can do anything), his omniscience (he knows anything), and his unity (tawhid). God's monotheism is strictly enforced in Sura 112, emphasizing his absolute uniqueness and eternity. Sura 2 also mentions the Final Judgment that will come to those who refuse tawhid and embrace idolatry.
"People of the Book" (Sura 5:44-5, 65-78) (WWBR 183-184)
These selections from this long Sura address the other "peoples of the book," Jews and Christians. The sura emphasizes two things at once: the continuity of revelation that connects the three monotheistic faiths and the distinct perfection of the revelation in Islam. Sura 5:66 specifically states that if they "observe Torah and Gospel" (their scriptures) they will be rewarded at the Final Judgment. But there is also a strong critique of the disbelief of the Israelites in history and the mistaken notion of Christians that the "son of Mary" is also God ("Allah is the Messiah").
Rumi: Union and Separation (WWBR 207)
Rumi (Jalal al-Din Rumi, d. 1273) was a famous poet and mystic, known as the founder of a mystical order of Sufi Muslims. While his poems are often read as "love poems," because they have a strong lyric quality (a second-person address filled with love and longing), they are more properly viewed as the longing of the soul for union with God. In these poems, Rumi emphasizes the transience of this world: knowledge of God (full, total union with God) shows that what we consider "beautiful" in this world is really nothing. If this union with God is total ("I am God"), then the human self completely disappears.
"The Night Journey" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5:227) (WWBR 189-190)
In the Qur'an, Muhammad interfaces with God through the mediation of angels and revelation. But later traditions spoke of Muhammad's mystical journey to God (his "Night Journey"): he was miraculously transported to Jerusalem, from which site he was taken up to Heaven. He sees many of the prophets who came before him, highlighting the sense of continuity of revelation. But the perfection of Islam is also highlighted in Muhammad's interactions with Moses, who knows that Muslims will be more perfect receivers of God's revelation than the Jews (signalled by the higher burden of ritual orthopraxy--five prayers a day). God is revealed to be merciful (his burdens are not too great, having reduced fifty daily prayers to five), and Muhammad is revealed as the perfect prophet.