The Community of Believers offers the proceedings of the 2013 Building Bridges seminar, a dialogue between leading Christian and Muslim scholars under the stewardship of Georgetown University.

These essays consider such themes as the Church as mystical body of Christ versus the Church as proclamation; the roots and uses of the term ummah and its development over time; Christian desires for communion, experiences of division, and approaches to unity; the history of Muslim disunity; twentieth-century Christian ecclesiology and its responses to a post-Christendom and post-Christian world; and the Arab Spring as a case study for contemplating accommodationism, conservatism, reformism, and fundamentalism as Muslim strategies to address the pressures of modernism. The volume also includes texts and commentaries used in the seminar’s discussions of each topic and a concluding essay summarizing the tone, content, and style of participant exchanges throughout the seminar.

Lucinda Mosher is faculty associate in interfaith studies and director of the Multifaith Chaplaincy Program at the Hartford Seminary and assistant academic director of the Building Bridges Seminar.

David Marshall is associate professor of the practice of Christian-Muslim relations at Duke Divinity School and academic director of the Building Bridges seminar.

ParticipantsIntroductionPart I: The Nature and Purpose of the CommunityThe Nature and Purpose of the Christian Community (the Church) The Nature and Purpose of the Community (Ummah) in the Qur’an Scripture Dialogue I: God’s People Israel and the Church Scripture Dialogue II: The Umma and Earlier Religious Communities Scripture Dialogue III: The Nature and Purpose of the Church Scripture Dialogue IV: The Nature and Purpose of the Umma Part II: Unity and Disunity in the Life of the CommunityPerspectives on Christian Desires for Communion and Experiences of Division (or, The History of the Church in Half a Chapter!) Unity and Disunity in the Life of the Muslim Community Scripture Dialogue V: Unity and Disunity in the Church Scripture Dialogue VI: Unity and Disunity in the Umma Part III: Continuity and Change in the Life of the Community Continuity and Change in the Life of the Community: Muslims’ Changing Attitudes to Change The Christian Church Facing Itself and Facing the World: An Ecumenical Overview of Modern Christian Ecclesiology Scripture Dialogue VII: Continuity and Change in the Church Scripture Dialogue VIII: Continuity and Change in the Umma Part IV: ReflectionConversations in Doha Index