A Day Apart: How Jews, Christians, and Muslims Find Faith, Freedom, and Joy on the Sabbath

Christopher Ringwald has crafted a fine book that interweaves history, scripture, and personal experience to illuminate Sabbath traditions among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. His writing is intelligent and absolutely lyrical in many places. He manages to offer a comprehensive sweep of these religious traditions that's quite detailed without bogging the reader down.I agree with the reviewer who notes the value of this book for those interested in comparative religions. I'd add interfaith families as well.

I have read a lot of books about the venerable sabbath, but none of them was - sit venia verbo - as ecumenical as Christopher Ringwald's book on the subject: 'A day apart'. The subtitle of the book - 'How jews, christians, and muslims find faith, freedom, and joy on the sabbath' - evokes a harmony which could greatly benefit the Middle-East from Beirut to Islamabad and from Cairo to Kabul. Under the same title there is a book by Noam Zion e.a., but this is, with the subtitle 'Shabbat at home', really a jewish how-to-do-book rather than a pioneering study like the book of Ringwald. He describes the historical and spiritual interrelations of the three abrahamic days of rest and worship with a lot of information which has never been brought together in one book before. He also describes his personal impressions of abrahamic co-existence in his own environment in the USA, without even suggesting that one of those days is better than the other. The book is a happy mix of good scholarly research and personal testimony, highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the relations between jews, christians and muslims and, for that matter, in the future of mankind.

Christopher Ringwald, a journalist and scholar of religion, has used a deceptively simple difference as a lens onto the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. That difference is that the three religions all keep the Sabbath, but on different days. The Muslims on Friday, the Jews on Saturday, the Christians on Sunday. It's a great and very comprehensible device that allows the readers to enter into these three related, but also different and sometimes warring, faiths. As someone who considers himself spiritual but not religious, I found Ringwald's book extremely interesting. Until I read the book actually, I wasn't aware that Muslims kept their Sabbath on Friday. Ringwald's book is a great way to go deeper into these three religions, and also to understand how religion affects secular culture. For example, probably the only reason we have our beloved weekend, is because of its roots in religious faith and the commandment to have a day of rest. Very worthwhile book.

"A Day Apart" is an isightful study of not only the special day of observance in the three major religions of the world, but also a far-reaching journey to the spiritual boundaries of these faiths. This is a must-read for all students and teachers of comparative religion. The book presents the unbiased perspective of a devout Christian scholar. It has the potential to help bring about healing among the three cultures. The day-to-day experiences of the author's friends -- from all three faiths --lends both power and instruction to the narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed this powerful book.