The volume deals with polemics between Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as with internal polemics in these religions. It includes subjects such as the doctrinal debates in the early centuries of Christianity, concluding that they must be understood as "rational discourse employed for the purpose of identity formation"; the debate on the question of why King David was prevented from building the Temple; Christian theology in Germany in the nineteenth century; "spatial" or "visual" polemics in a religiously mixed Israeli city and at Rachel’s tomb; and an analysis of the polemical contents of Pope Benedict XVI Regensburg address.

Held together by the central theme of religious polemics, the volume’s chronological and geographical spread – from Late Antiquity through the modern period, and from Europe to the Middle East – will make it of interest to a wide range of scholars and interested laypersons.