Qurʼān's legal culture, The
Book Description
Holger M. Zellentin presents a fascinating exploration of the shared spiritual and legal foundations that connect the Qur'an with earlier religious traditions. This scholarly work reveals how the Qur'an preserves elements of ancient Jesus movements that many Christian communities later abandoned or transformed, particularly regarding ritual purity and Jesus's role as a divine lawgiver.
Through careful analysis, Zellentin demonstrates the remarkable parallels between the Qur'an and the Didascalia Apostolorum, an early Christian church document. Both texts share similar legal narratives about the Israelites and Jesus, along with comparable theological vocabulary, suggesting they emerged from a common cultural and spiritual environment rather than one directly influencing the other.
The author argues that these connections point to a shared legal culture that existed across different religious communities in late antiquity. By examining how the Qur'an both connects with and diverges from contemporary Jewish and Christian practices, readers gain deeper insight into the spiritual community the Qur'an originally addressed.
This work offers valuable perspectives for those interested in understanding how religious traditions evolve and interact. Zellentin's research illuminates the continuity of spiritual practices across faith boundaries while showing how the Qur'an developed its distinctive message within this broader context of shared religious discourse and law.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Medium (200-400 pages) (~8 hours)
📄 Length: 287 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore Qurʼan
- ✓ Explore Islam
- ✓ Explore Relations
- ✓ Explore Islamic law
- ✓ Explore History
- ✓ Explore Christianity
- ✓ Explore Canon law
- ✓ Explore Comparative religious law
