Paper short abstract:

This paper charts the varying trajectories and contexts of the true dream tradition within the Abrahamic faiths with a view to analysing and explaining historical and contemporary continuities and discontinuities in dream interpretive practices.

Paper long abstract:

One of the fascinating areas of convergence and difference in the Abrahamic faiths is their historical and contemporary discourses on night dreaming and the imagination; each Abrahamic faith has seen dreaming at some time as a potential portal to divine revelation from the story of Joseph and his dream interpretations in both the Hebrew Bible and the Koran, to the mystical kabbalah and Islamic Sufi dream traditions, and to the many dream accounts recorded at the time of the birth of Jesus and continued to this day, particularly amongst African Christian churches. This paper will chart the varying trajectories and contexts of the true dream tradition amongst these faiths with a view to analysing and explaining historical and contemporary continuities and discontinuities.