Religious Stories in Transformation : Conflict, Revision and Reception

In Religious Stories in Transformation: Conflict, Revision and Reception, the editors present a collection of essays that reveal both the many similarities and the poignant differences between ancient myths in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and modern secular culture and how these stories were incorporated and adapted over time. This rich multidisciplinary research demonstrates not only how stories in different religions and cultures are interesting in their own right, but also that the process of transformation in particular deserves scholarly interest. It is through the changes in the stories that the particular identity of each religion comes to the fore most strikingly.

Alberdina Houtman, Ph.D. (1995), Utrecht University (the Netherlands), is lecturer of Semitic Languages and extraordinary professor of Jewish Studies at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam. She has published extensively on rabbinic literature, especially Targum.

Tamar Kadari, Ph.D. (2005), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), is senior lecturer of rabbinic literature at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan. She has published extensively on rabbinic literature, especially on midrash Song of Songs Rabbah.

Marcel Poorthuis, Ph.D. (1992), teaches interreligious dialogue at the Tilburg School of Theology. His dissertation dealt with the French-Jewish philosopher Immanuel Levinas. He has published on Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam. He is co-editor of the international series Jewish and Christian Perspectives (Brill, Leiden).

Vered Tohar, Ph.D. (2005), Bar-Ilan University, teaches Hebrew literature. She has published monographs and articles on the development and reception of the Hebrew story, including Abraham in the Furnace of fire: A Rebel in a Pagan World (Bar-Ilan University Press, 2010).

Contributors are: Meir Bar Ilan, Wout van Bekkum, Jan Willem van den Bosch, Frank Bosman, Michael Ehrlich, Margaretha Folmer, Alberdina Houtman, Albert de Jong, Adiel Kadari, Tamar Kadari, Gert van Klinken, Marjo Korpel, Shula Laderman, Paul Mandel, Leon Mock, Eric Ottenheijm, Marcel Poorthuis, Eyal Regev, Gerard Rouwhorst, Meir Seidler, Gé Speelman, Tomasso Tesei,Vered Tohar, and Eli Yassif.