One of Murphy’s Laws states that “everything takes longer.” We had hoped that the month of May would bring an offer of both cheap and free pre-publication copies of the book to members of this online community, trusting you to read, review, recommend, distribute and disseminate copies in your circle, institution, association or college. That will now happen in June.
Meanwhile, since you already know most of the contributors to the book itself, I thought you might also like to know those who are offering back cover endorsements. Rabbi Waskow, Dr. Jones and Professor Stackhouse have been with this project since its inception and have reviewed a finished pdf of the manuscript to their satisfaction. Sister Joan Chittister and Dr. Mark Toulouse joined the project part way through and likewise found themselves pleased with the finished product. This is what the back cover will look like:
The Scriptures of Abraham’s Family, Published Together for the First Time
"Since the medium is indeed a great part of the message, Three Testaments - bringing together the Torah, the Christian Scriptures, and the Quran in one volume - is already transformative, simply by challenging all of us to look each other in the face and to see in each face the Face of God." Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of The Shalom Center
"Three Testaments is appropriately inclusive in many ways. The use of inclusive scripture is entirely appropriate for the twenty first century, both scholarly and evokative. To leave women out of scripture in our time would be to distort the meaning entirely" Sister Joan Chittister, author of Called to Question, columnist in National Catholic Reporter
"What an interesting read! I am delighted to see the use of the calligraphy by Mohamed Zakariya in balance with the evocative Irving Kligfield collection of engravings in this splendid book." Dr. Serene Jones, President, Union Theological Seminary, New York
"Demonstrating the many ways in which Jewish, Christian and Islamic sacred texts manifest influences and parallels, Brian Arthur Brown and his associates turn to a deeper investigation of the common as well as the distinctive features of the monotheistic world faiths present in the Torah, the Gospel and the Quran, including some possible influence in each by Zoroastrianism. Max L. Stackhouse, professor of theology and public life emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary
"Three Testaments suggests new paradigms that could considerably enrich interfaith discussions for each of these three faiths: a new paradigm for Jews about the origin of monotheism in world religion, a new paradigm for Christians about the saviour of the world, and a new paradigm for Muslims about the people of the book." Mark Toulouse, Principal and Professor of the History of Christianity Emmanuel College, Victoria University, University of Toronto