What defines ‘humanity’ is a seemingly innocuous question and yet one which continues to attract controversy. Directed by this inquiry and bringing together theological insight in conversation with academic interreligious discourse, the present edited volume offers a unique contribution towards articulating the complex and myriad ways in which human life has been conceived and related to the greater vista of reality. Framed around Muslim-Christian theological dialogue, the volume results from a meeting of prominent international scholars, whose contributions investigate the origins of life through to death and beyond. Informed by classical and contemporary theological questions and interests, the volume offers scholarship in the humanities and sciences important insights into debates pertaining to human beings, their nature, future, and purposes.

Tim Winter: Introduction

Part I: Created in the Image: Human Wholeness
Christoph Schwöbel: ‘Theology … defines the whole and complete and perfect human being.’ Being Human in the Dispute between Theology and Philosophy: Variations on a Christian, Muslim and Jewish Theme – Recep Şentürk: Multiplex Human Ontology and Multiplex Self: An Alternative Understanding of Human Behaviour

Part II: Death and Human Becoming
Ivana Noble: Created to Be and to Become Human: A Christian Perspective – Lejla Demiri: ‘He Who has created death and life’ (Q 67:2): Death in Islamic Theology and Spirituality

Part III: Belief and Devotion
Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino: ‘The Prophet is closer to the believers than they are to themselves’ (Q 33:6): A Scriptural Inquiry into the Anthropological Foundation of the Ittibā ʿ al-Nabī (Sequela Prophetae) – Amina Nawaz: Mutual Influences of Christian and Muslim Anthropologies in History: A Case Study of Sixteenth-Century Morisco Devotions

Part IV: The Child in Human Becoming
Friedrich Schweitzer: The Anthropology of the Child: Opportunities and Challenges for a Neglected Topic in Christian-Muslim Dialogue – Mujadad Zaman: Children in the Medieval Islamic Imagination: A Path Towards Pedagogic Dialogue

Part V: Dignity and Sinfulness
Daniel A. Madigan SJ: ‘These people have no grasp of God’s true measure’ (Q 39:67): Does the Doctrine of Original Sin do Justice to God and to Humanity? – Ralf K. Wüstenberg: The ‘Fall’ of Mankind: Structural Parallels between the Narratives of Sin in Christianity and Islam

Part VI: Limits to Being, Limits to Naming God
Simone Dario Nardella: God, Man, Being: ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī’s Explanation of the Intellect’s Capacity to Know God in al-Wujūd al-Ḥaqq – Paul-A. Hardy: On Naming and Silencing – Conor Cunningham: Thomas Aquinas’ Anthropology: Stuck in the Middle with You

Part VII: Futures
Michael Kirwan SJ/Ahmad Achtar: ‘The wound where light enters’: A ‘Common Word’ for Being Human in Islam and Christianity