MEMPERTEMUKAN ALKITAB DAN AL-QUR’AN, DARI SUDUT PANDANG KRISTEN

Abstract

Reading scriptures or a scipture interreligiously has not quite often been done inIndonesia, despite the fact the country has been known as a place for many religions. Thisarticle is intended to show how such readings can be done. It is also suggested that thatkind of readings should be more encouraged, especially in the academic field. Three waysof reading al-Qur’an and Alkitab (the Bible) will be displayed, i.e., reading a shered storywritten in both scriptures, reading interculturally involving Islam and Christiancommunities, and, reading Alkitab from the perspective of a Moslem painter. This effortrelates not only Islam and Christianity but also religion and art. The readings have ahermeneutical basis which is not the same as the classic historical criticism. In historicalcriticism the task of the interpreter is just to excavate the meaning from the historicalbackgrounds of the text. The finding is not up to the interpreter but to the historicity liesbehind the text. Recent developments in Biblical Studies have shown a different paradigmof reading from that of historical criticism. In this paradigm, the readers are the focal pointof the readings. It is with this paradigm that this article is written. The three ways ofreading are usually called pragmatic readings with the readers being the central of theprocess and the focus of analysis.