How can Christians committed to the classical Christian tradition (Evangelicals and Catholics) address the issues raised by contemporary Islam? Along with and even prior to much needed dialogue between Christians and Muslims, Christians need to ask themselves how their Scriptures and traditions might bear on such dialogue. Do the divisions among Christians (Catholic and Evangelical) fracture the classical Christian tradition in ways that undercut "Christian"-Muslim dialogue before it starts? Or does that classical tradition provide resources for thinking out and working out their own divisions in ways that will ready them for authentic conversation with Muslim brothers and sisters in Christ? And what does this tradition have to teach us about what Christians can and must learn from Muslims about their own traditions? The essays in this volume begin to address these questions.

Michael Root is Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America and Executive Director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. He was formerly the Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France.

James J. Buckley is Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. He has recently contributed to and edited (with Frederick Bauerschmidt and Trent Pomplun) The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism (2007). He is associate director of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology.