BOOK REVIEW Opening the Qur'an: Introducing Islam's Holy Book by Walter H. Wagner

(University of Notre Dame Press, 2008  ISBN-13: 9780268044152)
Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan said in a recent New York Times article that the Qur’an “is the Book of all Muslims the world over. But paradoxically, it is not the first book someone seeking to know Islam should read” (January 6, 2008). Many non-Muslims would heartily agree, having stalled in their initial efforts to read the Qur’an because of its strangely dual nature. On the one hand, it speaks of familiar figures like Moses, Mary and Jesus, leading the reader to think that he or she is on more or less familiar ground; on the other, being arranged in no clear chronological or thematic way, and with passages that are obscure in their own right, it can seem almost impenetrable to the uninitiated.

Biblical scholar and Lutheran pastor Walter Wagner sympathizes, and has written a very helpful introduction to Islam’s holy book. Having a deep interest in the topic, and having field tested his thoughts about it while teaching a variety of courses on Islam and comparative religion as an adjunct professor at Moravian Seminary, he has written an introduction to the Qur’an that neither renders it overly familiar to the non-Muslim reader (no, it’s not “just like” the Bible) nor exoticizes it. Rather, he presents it as part of a living tradition, a book both determinative of and influenced by the concrete events of history and the lives of believers. In this respect, it is like the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, which he helpfully discusses in the same way, inviting serious interfaith conversation.

Methodologically, Dr. Wagner attempts to speak of his material in three voices: that of the “teacher-guide who provides information and context”; that of the practicing Muslim, as far as this can be done by a sympathetic outsider; and his own. The result is a fascinatingly “synoptic” look at the Qur’an that both respects and is not afraid to interrogate the text on such topics as the status of women, the meaning and role of jihad in Islam, the afterlife, and, most fundamentally perhaps, the nature and interpretation of scripture itself. This is not a book for the casual reader looking for a quick primer, but, with its extensive indices, notes and glossary of key terms, it is a very readable and comprehensive key to the Qur’an in its historical and literary contexts.

— Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Steve Simmons, Director of Continuing Education