CRITERIA AND PROCESSES FOR WORK SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION OF PUBLICATION ON THE SCRIPTURAL RESONANCE PROECT WEBSITE
1. Criteria for Submission to, and Potential Publication on, the Project Website:
1.1 Submissions may be made for consideration of publication on the project’s website of papers up to a maximum of 5,000 words, and which address the overall aim of the Scriptural Resonance Project, the aim of which is:
To promote the educational and/or religious exploration of resonance between Bible, Qur’an and Tanakh.
1.2 Submissions addressing the overall aim of the project above will be considered for publication if they also, in the judgement of the project’s Steering Group or delegates from it, meet the following criteria, and which closely reflect the project’s overall main working principles, namely that submissions should:
(a) be not only of historical, linguistic, or doctrinal comparative interest; and/or should not claim that the meaning of one verse/surah/aliyot is “the same” as another except for its cultural and religious clothing, but rather:
(b) address and explore how distinctive "calls" to humankind made in and through each of the scriptures might find a "resonance" both with each other and with readers who are either culturally shaped by these scriptures, and/or who personally and in their communities draw upon them as living points of reference for their belief and practice,
(c) be fully informed by scholarly work on the scriptures but also understandable by a wide range of readers, including believers and practitioners within each of the traditions; as well as with those who would not describe themselves in these ways, but who recognise historical and/or cultural connections to these traditions.
(c) acknowledge the existence of diverse of understandings, interpretations and definitions of the scriptures associated with different “denominations” and movements within each of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions.
(d) acknowledge how these diversities of understandings, interpretations and definitions can sometimes become conflictual, but avoid promoting factional understandings in ways that might lead to, or reinforce conflicts within, the traditions.
(e) recognise the importance of the historical contexts, cultures and languages of scriptures by being as faithful as possible to the author(s)’ understandings of these, while also exploring and addressing the potential meanings of these scriptures in current contexts, cultures and languages.
(f) focus on the main aims of the project, as set out at 1.1 above, rather than on other issues, however important such may more generally be for the three traditions concerned and/or for the relations between them.
2. Review & Decision-Making Process on Submissions for Publication on Project Website
2.1 Following receipt of a submitted article, it will be circulated to all members of the project Steering Group with an invitation to participate in peer review of whether the article can be judged to meet the above criteria; and for responding Steering Group members additionally to offer any detailed feedback on the text that they feel it appropriate for the submitting author(s) to consider prior to a final decision on publication.
2.2 Any or all members of the Steering Group may respond, in the light of which the Project Co-Ordinator will, after taking into account any recommendations and responses made by Steering Group colleagues, make a decision and communicate that and any associated feedback to the submitting author(s).
2.3. If no Steering Group colleagues return comments within four weeks of the submitted article being sent to them, the project Co-Ordinator will undertake the review, and arrive at a recommendation.
2.4 In the circumstances of 2.3 above, the project Co-Ordinator will then invite one Steering Group colleague from within the tradition from which the submission is mainly written, and/or one of the traditions that it mainly addresses, to confirm their agreement or disagreement with the Co-Ordinator’s recommendation, in the light of which the project Co-Ordinator will make a decision and communicate that and any associated feedback to the submitting author(s).
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