Ayad Akhtar Quotes

I studied scriptural interpretation, which is more about how people get meaning out of texts, looking at stuff in the Old Testament - Muslims, Christians, Jews, different interpretations of the same texts.

So long as the New Testament served to decipher the Old, it was taken as an absolute norm.

Judaism and Christianity in themselves are distinctly separate entities, to be sure; but when considering their influence on Western thought, we must bear in mind that Christianity alone, or almost alone, transmitted the Jewish share, simply by what it contained of it in its own, original constitution.

The earliest stories in Genesis were not written to tell primeval history. They were written to tell readers about themselves and about God.

God says in the Quran that there is only one true religion, God's religion. It's the same theme that God revealed to all of the prophets, even before Muhammad.

To me, the Quran is a research book.

The equation of religion with belief is rather recent.

The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Theology is anthropology.

Yes, I think that when the Bible refers to a horse or a horseman, that's exactly what it means.

It seems to me that Islam and Christianity and Judaism all have the same god, and he's telling them all different things.

I study religion because I find it fascinating and problematic. But I struggle with the idea of what religion is, what being religious means. A lot of people assume that if you write about early Christianity, you must be some kind of Sunday-school teacher.

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

One of the first courses I ever taught at Dartmouth was on the Bible as literature.

The Scriptures are the truth from God.

The word for knowledge appears in the Koran more often than any other except God.

The acknowledgement of the Judeo Christian God is not religion.

…the Qur’an has been remiss in nothing.

The Bible is not a history book.

A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution.

Women can perform many duties which are useful in the church, but they were not called for priesthood. We are not to be blamed for this because this is not our teaching, it is the, Biblical teaching. If you can find one single example in the Bible, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, we are ready to accept it. We are not against the words of God. We accept the words of God. But we cannot add new teachings.

Theologian — the only kind of scholar who has no knowledge whatsoever of his supposed object of study.

There must be no inventing or recounting to the people of new things … uncanonical and according to their own taste rather than the Holy Scriptures.

The Koran is a vast, vague book, filled with poetry and contradictions (much like the Bible). You can find in it condemnations of war and incitements to struggle, beautiful expressions of tolerance and stern strictures against unbelievers. Quotations from it usually tell us more about the person who selected the passages than about Islam.

The reason that Islamist militants can assert that jihad is necessary against the perceived enemies of Islam is that there is sufficient ammunition in the Quran to buttress their beliefs. The same could also, of course, be said for the Old Testament, which is full of scenes of violent death visited on the enemies of God.