How can rational, generous conversations on scripture bring together Jews, Christians and Muslims?

Minding Scripture is a podcast where divine word and human reason meet. We explore questions that believers and skeptics alike ask about the Bible and the Qur’an. In their conversations on scripture and its interpretations, Francesca Murphy, Gabriel Reynolds, Mun’im Sirry, Tzvi Novick, and guest speakers reflect the deep intellectual diversity of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a world marked by irrational discourse about religion, this podcast seeks to demonstrate that faith sharpens and quickens the ability to reason in friendship.

Minding Scripture is sponsored by Notre Dame’s World Religions World Church (WRWC) program, located in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame, which is dedicated to the study of global religions and the global Church.  Our faculty and students research world religions in all of their dimensions, in addition to the Church and its theological expressions in diverse cultural settings.  Through our work, we seek to serve our students, the Church, and society.

Podcast Team

Gabriel Reynolds

Moderator

Gabriel Reynolds is Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the World Religions World Church Program at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur’an and the Bible (Yale, 2018) and Allah: God of the Qur’an (Yale, 2020).  

Francesca Murphy

Christian Scholar

Francesca Aran Murphy is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Notre Dame.  She is the author of many books, including most recently her Commentary on I Samuel (Brazos), the monograph God is not a Story (Oxford University Press), and her forthcoming novel, Gnosis and the Theocrats from Mars (Bloomsbury Academic).

Tzvi Novick

Jewish Scholar

Tzvi Novick is Professor of Judaism in the Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity Program at the University of Notre Dame.  He is the author of specialized books in early Jewish law and ethics, biblical interpretation, liturgical poetry, and most recently, a general Introduction to the Scriptures of Israel (Eerdmans, 2019).

Mun'im Sirry

Muslim Scholar

Mun’im Sirry is Assistant Professor of Theology in the World Religions and World Church program at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Scriptural Polemics: The Qur’an and Other Religions (Oxford, 2014).

Milanna Fritz

Podcast Administrator

Milanna Fritz is a graduate student in Notre Dame’s M.T.S. program in Historical Christianity. She serves as the administrative assistant for Minding Scripture and coordinates the podcast’s social media presence.

Featured Guests

Amy-Jill Levine

Vanderbilt University

Dr. Levine discussed the Jewishness of the New Testament with our team in Episode 10. She is the Mary Jane Werthan professor in Jewish Studies and professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is the co-editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament.

Nathan Eubank

University of Notre Dame

Dr. Eubank, associate professor at the Notre Dame Theology department, joined our team in Episode 7, in a conversation on Bible criticism. He is the author of Wages of Cross-Bearing and Debt of Sin: The Economy of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel. 

David Bentley Hart

University of Notre Dame

Dr. Hart joined the Minding Scripture hosts for Episode 4: Translation of Scripture. He has most recently published a translation of the New Testament (2017) and The Hidden and the Manifest (2017).

John Meier

University of Notre Dame

Dr. Meier joined the Minding Scripture hosts in discussion for Episode 2: The Historical Jesus. The William K. Warren Professor of Theology, Emeritus, at the University of Notre Dame, his most recent major publication project has been a detailed study of the historical Jesus, A Marginal Jew.

Robert Alter

University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Alter joined the Minding Scripture hosts for Episode 4: Translation of Scripture. He has written extensively on literary aspects of the Bible. Two of his most recent books are Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (2007) and Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible (2010).

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IMAGE CREDIT: Minding Scripture host photos were captured by Shannon Lacy Photography.

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