Peter W. Ochs (born 1950)[1] is the Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia, where he has served since 1997.
He is series co-editor (with Christian theologian Stanley Hauerwas) of Radical Traditions: Theology in a postcritical key, published by Westview Press/Harper Collins and SCM Press/Eerdmans,[10] and series co-editor (with Stanley Hauerwas and Ibrahim Moosa) of Encountering Traditions, published by Stanford University Press.
[12] The goal of the organization is to build consensus and promote reconciliation among Christians, Jews, and Muslims through shared discussion of the scriptures.
[13] In a panel discussion on the Public Broadcasting Service with Muslim theologian Mehdi Aminrazavi, professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Ochs proposed scriptural reasoning as a new approach to achieving peace in the Arab–Israeli conflict.
He observed that all the religious Muslims, Christians and Jews involved in the conflict worship the same God of Abraham, and therefore might be brought together "to share what they believe and to act in relation to what's going on".
[14] In 2008[6] Ochs founded and became the director of the "1000 Cities Project" for the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, with the goal of establishing Christian-Jewish-Muslim study groups throughout North America.
[16] Ochs was one of the four drafters (together with David Novak, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, and Michael Signer) of a full-page advertisement which appeared in the Sunday, 10 September 2000 edition of The New York Times, titled "Dabru Emet (Speak Truth): A Jewish statement on Christians and Christianity", which publicized eight theological statements.