The ethical connection: Christian‐Muslim relations in the postmodern age

Christians and Muslims harbour mutual distrusts. The Muslim distrust of Christians is based on the fact that Christianity has become a cult of Jesus, is too deeply embedded in Augustinian dualism and now largely serves the goal of secularism. The Christian distrust of Muslims is based on the fact that contemporary Islam appears to have lost its humanity and has degenerated into a cult of figh. To overcome these mutual distrusts, both religions should move forward to their monotheistic roots. The survival of believers as believers, in an increasingly meaningless postmodern world, depends on tackling some of the great social, political and intellectual issues of our time on the basis of a joint ethical programme that draws its conceptual and value parameters from the monotheistic sources of Islam and Christianity.     

Muhammad in Contemporary Christian Theological Reflection

After briefly surveying the generally polemical pre-modern Christian views of Muhammad, this essay considers a range of recent Christian approaches. Daniel Madigan explores often unrecognized complexities involved in the question; he considers Muhammad's message a “salutary critique” prompting Christians to a fuller understanding of their faith. Hans Küng insists that Christians should recognize Muhammad as a prophet; Islam is akin to early Jewish forms of Christianity, whose validity should be recognized. Jacques Jomier and Christian Troll are respectful of Muhammad but argue that, if Christians call him a prophet, they effectively deny their own faith. Kenneth Cragg presents a “positive, critical position”, encouraging sympathetic Christian interpretation of Muhammad's achievement in his context, but expressing reservations about the “political equation” in his ministry and contrasting this with Christ's way of redemptive suffering. Cragg's approach is upheld against criticisms as an exemplary model of Christian theological engagement with Islam.     

Some contemporary protestant theological reflections on pluralism: Implications for Christian‐Muslim understanding

Theological writings about the relationship of Christianity to other religions are often cast into one of three general categories: exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist. This essay reviews six twentieth‐century Protestant Christian theologians and academics who have reflected on ways in which Christians can understand their faith in the light of the religion of Islam. Some have spent their lives relating to Muslims and deal specifically with its implications for Christian understanding, while others treat Islam more generally as part of the larger issue of Christianity in the light of contemporary religious pluralism. As a whole they are representative of the range of theological responses suggested in the above categories.     

History, Community Milieu, and Christian-Muslim Differentials in Contraceptive Use in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the globalization discourse, Christianity and Islam are often construed as representing two traditions that are conflicted and incompatible. This study engages the "clash of civilizations" discourse by examining Muslim-Christian differentials in the use of modern contraception in Nigeria, where Christians have a much higher contraceptive prevalence, and Tanzania, where Muslims are somewhat more likely to use contraception. Employing data from six nationally representative surveys conducted in the two countries between 1990 and 2004 and multilevel logistic regression, we find that the effects of religion remain strong but operate largely through the community religious milieu. Contraceptive use tends to be highest in religiously mixed areas, but the "optimal" religious makeup differs between the two nations, reflecting the historically shaped configurations of their religious expressions and politics.     

Christian‐Muslim relations: Some current themes

The recent writings dealing with Christianity and Islam, written for very different audiences, point to some common current themes in Christian‐Muslim relations. Taking Bill Musk and Ziauddin Sardar as starting points, the article discusses the importance of secularism, mutual mistrust and the efficacy of religious faith to deal with contemporary problems as major concerns which must be addressed in any meaningful dialogue between Christianity and Islam today.     

A Clash of Civilizations? Muslims,Christians, and Preferences for Democracy

The incompatibility of Islam with democracy has been the focal point of many public and scholarly debates. However, very few studies have attempted to investigate empirically whether the followers of Islam are less favorable to democracy than the followers of Christianity. This study extends previous research by conducting empirical and representative analyses of whether Muslims in general and religious and practicing Muslims in particular prefer democracy less than their Christian counterparts. Using country fixed effects regression and data from the World Values Survey (WVS6) that include 52,326 Muslims and Christians, the analyses show that Muslims in general, as well as religious and practicing Muslims, endorse democracy to the same extent as do Christians. Thereby, this study is the first to provide comparative, individual‐level evidence of the influence these religions may have on democratic attitudes.     

Isma'il Al‐Faruqi on Muslim‐Christian dialogue: An analysis from a Christian perspective

Until his death in 1986, Isma'il al‐Faruqi was an active Muslim participant in the field of Muslim‐Christian dialogue. This article begins by outlining his many contributions to this subject and continues with an analysis of these sources. Al‐Faruqi understood the development of Christianity to be a corruption of the original teaching of Jesus which was instead preserved faithfully by Islam. He believed that Christains have hindered constructive dialogue through their involvement in mission and Orientalism. His primary basis for an academic dialogue was reason, yet this actually led to an affirmation of Islam. He regarded ethics to be the more appropriate area for discussion. The assessment here finds that al‐Faruqi essentially required Christians to abandon their Christian heritage in favour of the principles of a rationalistic Islam. Nevertheless, he may be commended for his commitment to dialogue and his ultimate vision of inter‐religious unity.     

Islam and Christianity: On “Religions of Law”

The pursuit of mutual understanding has not infrequently led Muslims and Christians to define their religious traditions in stark doctrinal opposition one to the other. In this regard, the “religion of law” (Islam)/“religion of grace” (Christianity) dichotomy has a particularly venerable history. This article sets out to re-examine and deconstruct a couplet that would strike many as a platitude, first by giving an account of the Sunni tradition of law-generation, situated in the broad context of the many options represented by different Islamic sects, and then by revisiting the paradigmatic understanding of law in the Christian dispensation worked out by Aquinas. This exposition leads to the conclusion that any simple opposition is to be avoided at all costs, obfuscating, as it does, much more than it elucidates. Furthermore, Christianity emerges from our chosen perspective as, in some sense, more essentially a “religion of law” than Islam ever could be.     

Islamic Daciva and Christian mission: Positive and negative models of interaction between Muslims and Christians

The history of relations between the Muslim and Christian worlds has been predominantly one of discord and confrontation. There have been instances of mutual acceptance and amicable co‐existence, but the influence of these has been lost under the cumulative, negative impressions gained from conflict. Of the positive and negative models of interaction between Muslims and Christians, it is the latter that have been most influential. This is especially to be seen in the matter of Islamic da^cwa and Christian mission which have become identified as part of the battle between the two religions, whether a theological contest over ‘truth’ or a political weapon of colonial rule. This paper looks at the political and historical contexts of the theological debate between Islam and Christianity and seeks to discover whether this is inherently negative or whether there is the possibility of a positive interaction between followers of the two religions.     

The roman catholic church and interreligious dialogue: Implications for Christian‐Muslim relations

At the Second Vatican Council, 1965, the Roman Catholic Church, in the declaration Nostra Aetate, opened a new and more positive relationship with Islam and other world religions. In 1984 the Vatican issued a second document, on mission and dialogue, which strongly encouraged interreligious dialogue and set out in detail the breadth of activities involved. Since then there has been in some Catholic circles a growing fear that the emphasis on dialogue has led to an abandoning of the. Church's missionary obligation to proclaim the full Christian Gospel to non‐Christians and to invite them to Christian faith. At the end of 1990 the present Pope issued the encyclical letter Redemptoris Missio, ’on the permanent validity of the Church's missionary mandate’. This was followed five months later by another Vatican document on Dialogue and Proclamation. This paper examines these four documents in the light of the wider debate taking place among Christians on the relationship of Christianity to men and women of other faiths. It concentrates on the specific case of Christian‐Muslim relations and concludes that there is even more need for Christians and Muslims to be religiously sensitive and open; to know and esteem each other's values, and to cooperate for the social, moral and religious well‐being of the whole human family.     

Fostering Mutual Understanding Among Muslims and Non-Muslims Through Counterstereotypical Information: An Educational versus Metacognitive Approach

Fostering interfaith tolerance may help to reduce religious tensions. The authors examined the attitudes of Christians, Muslims, and people with no religious affiliation toward different religions and explored whether their negative attitudes toward other faiths could be ameliorated. Participants (N = 298) were asked about their attitudes toward Judaism, Christianity, and Islam before they were randomly assigned to either a metacognitive intervention or an educational intervention. Information was conveyed in a simple narrative form in the educational condition. In the metacognitive condition, participants were first asked apparently simple questions that frequently elicited incorrect responses. This was followed by corrective information. Both Christian and Muslim participants appraised their own religion as the most peaceful and tolerant. The educational approach was more effective in reducing stereotypes about Islam among non-Muslims, whereas the metacognitive approach was more successful in lessening prejudice about Christianity among Muslims. Muslims displayed overconfidence in their responses related to religious topics.     

Toward a Christian‐Islamic Ecumenic Encounter

Abstract :  Ted Peters' framework for ecumenic engagement provides elements that will advance such an encounter with Islam. Applying several of Peters' terms to interreligious relationships, Walter Wagner looks at various meetings between Muhammad and Christians contemporary to him. He cites the contacts between Muhammad and the first Muslim communities with Christians (610–632 AD) as both negative and positive paradigms for subsequent relationships. Wagner then points to Surah 1 as the key Quranic text for understanding Islam in relationship to Christianity. Reflecting on past efforts at dialogue and predicting what will be important future issues, Wagner stresses the intense religious nature of Islamic political‐social expectations and projects three factors for future ecumenic encounters between Islam and Christianity.     

Trust and Trustworthiness of Christians,Muslims, and Atheists/Agnostics in the United States

Trust, a cornerstone of economic development, is promoted within religions. In a randomized controlled trial, we examine how trust and trustworthiness vary across religions (Christianity and Islam), religiosity, and atheists/agnostics in the United States. Three novel findings emerge. First, Christians are trusted more than Muslims and nonbelievers, which is due to a Christian ingroup bias––Christians trust Christians more than they trust Muslims and nonbelievers, while Muslims and nonbelievers trust all groups the same. Second, religiosity matters to trust. Religious people trust those of higher religiosity more, but only if they are of the same religion. In contrast, nonbelievers trust people of higher religiosity less. Third, trustworthiness among nonbelievers is somewhat lower than that of the religious, especially toward Christians. We speculate that the lower reciprocity originates in the prejudice toward nonbelievers. Our results may help explain discrimination against Muslims and nonbelievers, given that discrimination often originates in distrust.     

“Noxious Weed”: Persecution in the Development of Korean Christianity

The experience of persecution during the late Joseon and Japanese colonial period was not unusual for Korean Christians, who endured living as a minority faith within a hostile context. Like the pre‐Constantinian Christian communities and many Christians today who live in the global South, suspicion and persecution defined their world as openly confessing Christians, and they embraced, as part of converting to Christianity, the stark reality that their faith could incur personal harm in the form of hostility, incarceration, and even death. This article explores how conversion and maintaining Christian faith in a society adverse to Christianity shaped believers’ self‐understanding of the breadth of faith and acceptance of its mortal implications. Focusing on the Catholic and Protestant experience in Korea, Christian believers rigorously tested the country's attitudes against Christianity. In so doing, their experience provokes a critical reflection on the profoundness of the missionary mandate and illuminates the complexity with which their faith is forged as they must confront the brutal reality that they may be, at the very least, arrested. For many Korean Christians during Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), conversion to Christianity was part of the process that transformed for believers a religious identity that was understood to be potentially detrimental to their relationship with the state.     

Holiness, virtue, and social justice: contrasting understandings of the moral life.

Being a Christian involves metaphysical, epistemological, and social commitments that set Christians at variance with the dominant secular culture. Because Christianity is not syncretical, but proclaims the unique truth of its revelations, Christians will inevitably be placed in some degree of conflict with secular health care institutions. Because being Christian involves a life of holiness, not merely living justly or morally, Christians will also be in conflict with the ethos of many contemporary Christian health care institutions which have abandoned a commitment to Christian spirituality. In this regard, managed care raises the special question of how Christian institutions can act morally under financial constraints and maintain their character while under the control of secular managers. This question itself raises the further question as to why health care institutions need even pose this query when there are Christian physicians and nurses who could work for less, or Christian men and women who could become sisters and brothers and work for nothing. Contemporary challenges to Christians to maintain their integrity in a post-Christian world have much of their force because Christians have failed to maintain traditional Christian sprituality. In the face of that failure, Christian physicans and nurses will find themselves in greater conflict with health care institutions, because few will any longer understand the requirements of traditional Christianity. In its place, they will have put a generic spirituality, a value-neutral understanding of the role of the health professional, and an anonymous commitment to social justice.     

El,Baal, and Allah

This article compares the appropriations of the divine names El and Baal into the Yahwistic faith in ancient Israel with the Christian use of the word “Allah” in contemporary Indonesia. This study finds that, like El and Baal, “Allah” can function as both an appellative and personal name in contemporary Indonesia. However, the term “Allah” in Indonesia is at a crossroads to develop either to be more generic, like El, or to be more personal, like Baal. Learning from the peaceful appropriation of El as a generic name and the polemical appropriation of Baal as a personal name in ancient Israel, Indonesian Christians need to advocate the use of the name Allah as an appellative because it may prevent unnecessary conflicts in the Christian–Muslim relationship in Indonesia. Furthermore, the use of the common word “Allah” in Indonesia to refer to the supreme being is crucial for promoting interreligious dialogue between Islam and Christianity.     

Christians,Muslims, Jews,and their religions

Depending on the context, Christians, Muslims and Jews have constructed their own religion, perceived the religions of others, and articulated relations between religions in different ways. This paper examines the rise in history of the three communities, which came to identify themselves through their religions and have been highly sensitive to differences. It indicates common features and parallels of which adherents may have been more or less conscious. The central question in such research is what persons and groups mean in particular situations when they call themselves Christian, Muslim or Jewish. The variety of personal and group identities in the three religious communities has been concealed partly by religious leaderships concerned with the survival of their flocks, and partly by the use of the general concepts of Christianity, Islam and Judaism with which believers have been called to identify. These concepts have shut people into separate religious pigeonholes and could thus be used to support ethnic, social and other rivalries. This pigeonholing has also confronted more spiritually‐oriented people with problems of social identity, religious belonging and spiritual authenticity.