Author: Linda Thayer

Growing up Christian, Dr. Linda Thayer came to realize in her teens, that Jesus as 'divinity' and Jesus as the second 'person' of a 'Godhead' (the doctrine of the 'Trinity') were philosophical constructs, evolved later and not part of the New Testament Gospel books' portrait of the Son of Mary. In her 30's, when working as Bible translations consultant and linguistic advisor in West Africa, she had already added all things Islamic to her reading list, along with Biblical Studies. She has three university degrees in linguistic science (BA, MA, PhD), with a minor in anthropology. She believes that her fellow Muslims need to be current with the thinking and findings of modern Biblical Studies in order to meet Christians halfway in understanding the prophetic mission and personal nature of Jesus. To this end, she writes of the historical phenomenon of the Jesus movement from an interfaith perspective that dovetails with the Quran and ahâdîth.

Monotheism in Interfaith Exchange – Part 2 | Linda Thayer

Mainline Christians today speak of the One God as consisting of three ‘persons’: ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ and ‘Holy Spirit’—a doctrinal explanation hammered out by the institutional Church but found nowhere as such in Christian Scriptures. How is it that a major Christian doctrine…

Monotheism In Interfaith Exchange -18 | Linda Thayer

We continue here with what the Muslim needs to know for understanding the formation of the Christian ‘canon‘ [1] (the writings which were to become the New Testament) —as it relates to the story of shaping Christian ‘orthodoxy.’ Page numbers in this…

Monotheism In Interfaith Exchange -13 | Linda Thayer

CONTINUING IN THIS installment, we look further at Richard E. Rubenstein’s book, When Jesus Became God, The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome so as to elucidate the 4th CENTURY ARIAN CONTROVERSY that divided the dominant Christian Church…

Unpacking Our Dietary Paradigm

We all aspire to be more ‘healthy,’ more ‘wealthy,’ more ‘wise.’ How do we attain to the ‘more’? When does ‘less’ turn out to be more? Our dietary practices are a strong key to reaching our full potential—as individuals and as a…

Learning to Fast with Optimal Benefit

FASTING (Arabic ṣawm) has been used, in various forms, as a spiritual practice for thousands of years at least. It has been trod as a pathway to God through the ages; abstention from food and drink is woven into the fabric of…

Monotheism In Interfaith Exchange -14 | Linda Thayer

CONTINUING IN THIS installment, we look further at Richard E. Rubenstein’s book, When Jesus Became God, The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome so as to elucidate the 4th century Arian controversy that divided the dominant Christian Church…

Rectifying Monotheism In Interfaith Exchange – Part 30 | Linda Thayer

We continue from Part 29 our look at issues arising with Christian writer, Robert F. Shedinger, in his book, Was Jesus a Muslim? Questioning Categories in the Study of Religion (2009) Fortress Press: Minneapolis. In Part 29 we saw how Christianity has…

Rectifying Monotheism in Interfaith Exchange – Part 29 | Linda Thayer

In the last segment we took up Robert R. Shedinger’s discussion of ‘religion-ization’ in his book, Was Jesus a Muslim? Questioning Categories in the Study of Religion, 2009 (Fortress Press: Minneapolis). He describes how Christianity has been ‘religion-ized’ in Western society.He noted…

Rectifying Monotheism in Interfaith Exchange – Part 28 | Linda Thayer

We continue from Part 27 our look at the question, Was Jesus a Muslim?— as answered by Christian writer, Robert F. Shedinger, in his book by the same name. Page number references refer to this book. Jesus Supported a Sharica-Based Religious Community…

Rectifying Monotheism in Interfaith Exchange – Part 27 | Linda Thayer

We continue our reading of Dr. Richard F. Shedinger’s book, Was Jesus a Muslim? Page numbers herein refer to this book. Jesus Was Not a ‘Religious’ Figure After considering whether the term ‘religion’ as understood, in the stripped-down sense of its modern…