Christianity and the Qur'an

A leading Quranic scholars revisionary account of how Islam emerged in dialogue with Christian traditions Challenging the dominant narrative about the history of the Quran and the emergence of Islam in a predominantly pagan context, Gabriel Said Reynolds reveals that the Quran is a text born within a largely Christian culture. As he examines the ways the Quran engages with Christian traditions and Christians themselvesnot only those of the New Testament but also those of late antique Christian literatureReynolds also draws on recent scholarship of pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions suggesting that monotheism, Christianity in particular, was a significant presence in the pre-Islamic Hijaz, the region in which Muhammad preached. This study re-situates the Quran as a text thoroughly concerned with Christianity, not just the longer narratives of individuals such as Noah and Jesus but also passages that do not mention Christians explicitly. The Qurans stance toward Christianity is on occasion controversial, aiming to advance Islamic theology and undermine Christian apologetical arguments, yet the Quran is not always polemical. At times, the text makes use of the audiences knowledge of the Bible to advance its own vision of God and Gods relationship with humanity.