Charity in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Traditions

Charity in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Traditions presents wide-ranging and nuanced perspectives on the centrality of charity in the three Abrahamic religions, with a strong emphasis on the ways in which these traditions have influenced and shaped one another throughout history. These well-written and provocative essays offer equal parts theoretical framing and particularistic illustration. Each of the pieces included in the volume engages important questions that challenge simplistic formulations of faith and practice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. How is religiously applied charity both supported and contravened by the intervention of the state? Why must the proper conditions for the receipt of charity be so carefully delineated in sacred scripture? How do the discrete practices around tzedakah, caritas, and zakat (among other concepts of charity) reflect historic change, intercultural influence, and shifting definitions of generosity and need? I highly recommend this book as a source of insight not only into the history of faith-specific charity but into the evolution and development of religious thought and action in the modern world.

This is a deeply moving and timely book. In a world in which social justice too often devolves into posturing or verbal expressions of outrage, these authors analyze how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam use charity to attend to inequality and injustice and repair the world. Attention is paid both to the success and limits of charitable giving over the ages. This study should have wide appeal and utility not only because of its multi- and inter-denominational approach, but also because of its unique combination of theoretical, historical, and theological perspectives.

This interdisciplinary collection contains sophisticated perspectives on the underappreciated topic of charity. Theoretically fresh and historically sweeping, these essays offer rewarding case studies, cross-cultural and denominational comparisons, and insights into the workings, achievements, and limits of charitability. In these times of increasing political stinginess, we would do well to reconsider the kinds of exempla from the distant and recent past discussed in this study; their continued relevance and compelling lessons remind us that we so-called postmoderns also have not laid to rest the question of how to help one another.

For some, it may seem counterintuitive to suppose that delving into the particularities and differences of religious traditions may provide a path to common understanding, but what about the ways traditions show hospitality for the socially different, the vulnerable, the outcast? Might a tradition discover in its teaching on charity a way to think about the intercultural and the ‘stranger?’ These diverse and interesting essays examine the meaning, role, and history of charity in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, letting each speak on its own terms, and giving reason to think that our differences need not be a barrier to our humanity.

Julia R. Lieberman and Michal Jan Rozbicki have assembled a fine and diverse collection of essays by an international body of authors. Much ground is covered, from the religious–linguistic roots of charity in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions to historical and contemporary practices of charity in Europe, North America, Africa, and beyond. The reader helpfully discovers that many tensions inherent to the understanding and practice of charity, including secular–religious, insider–outsider, giver–receiver, generosity–selfishness, and beneficiary–exploited prove to be more alike than not among the Abrahamic religions.