With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (review)

As a receiver and conduit of tradition, the religious exegete ever stands in relation to the sacred foundation-document of a particular culture. For the believer, this encounter makes the divine Word audible and present; the speech of revelation emerges thereby from the otherwise "majestic silence" of the text. Whether in regard to the Hebrew Bible in Judaism, the unified Old and New Testaments in Christianity, or the Qur'an in Islam, medieval religious thought revolved on the axes of holy Words, and diverse imaginaires functioned, first and foremost, as exegetical processes for the discernment of ultimate meaning. These sacred texts functioned as both anchor and compass for the different cultures; modalities of hermeneutical attitude formed the great lines of connection between them.

In the book presently under review, an outstanding group of scholars have collaborated to research the varieties of religious exegesis in the Middle Ages, and the result is a major contribution to the comparative study of religion and hermeneutics. Produced under the combined editorship of Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Barry Walfish, and Joseph Goering, With Reverence for the Word grew into a published volume from its origins as an international conference on the subject at the University of Toronto (see pp. vi–vii). Assembling the work of a wide array of leading researchers, the finished product is impressive in scope, depth of individual analyses, and thematic correlations. The book is divided into three parts of unequal length (190 pages are dedicated to Judaism, 111 pages to Christianity, and 150 pages to Islam)—each devoted to medieval exegesis in one of the three Abrahamic religions, and each begun with an introductory essay by one of the three editors (Walfish on Judaism, Goering on Christianity, and McAuliffe on Islam). These overview pieces are a significant asset to the symmetry and coherence of the volume as a whole—they set the stage for what the reader can expect in the ensuing articles, offer lines of connection between the various studies, and provide a very helpful starting point both for the general academic reader and for the specialist in one of the volume's subfields. In addition to their scholarly value, these introductory essays (along with selected other chapters from the book) would also be valuable for university courses on religious interpretation and comparative religion. Each article in the volume is followed by endnotes and useful bibliographies; the volume as a whole is followed by a detailed subject index, as well as an index to citations from the Hebrew and Christian bibles, rabbinic literature, and the Qur'an. From a cosmetic perspective, the book is only marred by its diminutive and dense page print.

One of the great strengths of this book is the ease with which the reader is able to discern the commonalities in concept and exegetical method that exist among the three traditions. It is this quality that illuminates the larger (cross-cultural) phenomenon of a belief in the sacrality of certain texts, and the ongoing process of interpreting those texts within a specific theological and social system. Through a long series of articles (most of which are, by necessity, deeply particularistic and relatively self-contained), this volume opens up issues of broader human concern and cultural attitude. It is in this sense that the best results of comparative study may be obtained: the interaction of diverse particularities (each grounded in the texture and symbology of an individual tradition) in quest of understanding the common human impulse to imagine and create religiously, to live a life saturated by a sacred text and its well of meanings, to think and theologize exegetically.

Following the introductory essay by Barry Walfish (chapter 1), the section on Jewish exegesis proceeds through consideration of the following hermeneutical issues and thinkers: a comparative assessment of Jewish and Christian attitudes toward interpretive authority and the validity of received tradition (Benin...