Documentation: The challenges facing Christian‐Muslim dialogue

During his visit to Cairo in early October 1995, Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave a lecture at Al‐Azhar University, the oldest and one of the most prestigious Islamic universities. Given on 4 October, the lecture was widely reported in both the Egyptian and British press. Following is the full text of the lecture as delivered, reproduced by the kind permission of Dr Carey.     

Implications of the Islamic revival for Christian‐Muslim dialogue in Asia

Abstract

After a review of the demographic balance between Christians and Muslims in Asia, this article looks at the different factors which influence the relations between them. A review of the growth of Christianity in Asia is then followed by an outline of the four phases of the spread of Islam and a survey of the causes of the contemporary Islamic revival in the region. Particular attention is devoted to the influence of Wahhabi ideas from what is now Saudi Arabia, the hopes engendered by the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the influence of the Palestinian struggle, the legacy of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the consequences of the Gulf War of 1991, and the impact of al‐Qa'ida and the events of 11 September 2001. Recent tensions between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia and the Philippines are discussed, and the significance of the revivalist critique of modernity and the clash of values between anthropocentric liberalism and the theocentric system of revivalist Islam is assessed.     

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.     

Social and religious factors affecting Muslim‐Christian relations

The question of Christian‐Muslim relations can be approached in various ways. Historical studies have traced the shifts and changes in the place in society of Christians and other minority groups in the Middle East and Asia in general and in specific countries. Other studies have treated diplomatic relations between the Vatican and predominantly Muslim states or have analyzed, compared, and contrasted the policies of the churches on political issues such as the Palestine question and the state of Israel. Still other works have treated polemical and theological controversies between Muslims and Christians as well as efforts at dialogue and mutual understanding.

In this paper, the focus is on the factors and issues that have affected Christian‐Muslim relations in the twentieth century, particularly in the Middle East and in Asia. I intend to approach the subject from the viewpoint of the religious and human relations between the communities of Christians and Muslims, outlining both the factors that favour positive living and working relations between the two communities, those that have raised tensions in the recent and more distant past, and those which present challenges yet to be resolved.     

Islamic theology of Christian‐Muslim relations

As Islam becomes an important source for re‐assessing modern international order it needs to engage in a dialogue with its normative tradition to retrieve a relevant theology for the twenty‐first century. This paper undertakes that intellectual dialogue to evaluate the available concepts and ideas within the Islamic tradition and assess them critically to show whether they can become substantial resources for Christian‐Muslim relations in the twenty‐first century. The conclusion of the paper is that unless Muslim thinkers are willing to recognize the necessity to go beyond the epistemes provided in the classical sources, Islam will continue to remain unresponsive to the emerging pluralism in the global community today.     

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.     

Challenges and developments: Christian‐Muslim relations in the Middle East

Abstract

After surveying the Christian period in the Middle East, this article outlines the coming of Islam and the process of conversion to Islam, before summarising the situation in Christian‐Muslim relations in 1800 and the new developments that unfolded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The main body of the article surveys recent (that is, post‐1950) developments, focusing on challenges such as the impact on local Christian‐Muslim relations of the creation of the state of Israel and the ‘Islamic revival’, the problems of Christian emigration, conversion and inter‐community clashes, and more positive developments such as the concern for more accurate analysis and reporting of Christian‐Muslim issues, the growth of dialogue between the communities through meetings, publications and efforts to educate future generations, and the establishment of Christian churches in regions where they have not existed for many centuries, particularly in the Gulf.     

Christian‐Muslim relations in the African context

Abstract

The course of Islam and Christianity in Africa as well as statistical figures suggest a wide variety within, as well as considerable divergence between, both religions in the many African contexts. Though the majority of African Muslims still stick to a ‘traditional African Islam’, we observe a resurgence of Islam reflecting a growing religious awareness, on the one hand, and tendencies towards an ideological re‐interpretation (Islamism), on the other. Trends in resurgent Islam are highlighted by the examples of Islamic internationalism and da'wa, the modernisation of Islamic education, and the proliferation of Islamic political groups all over the continent. Various dimensions of Christian—Muslim relations in Africa today show areas of conflict as well as of cooperation and exchange. Against the background of the economic and social disintegration of many African societies, there is no alternative to inter‐religious dialogue which must be based on an authentic African theological foundation, being rooted in the African heritage shared by Muslim and Christian communities alike.     

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.     

Muslim anti‐secularist discourse in the context of Muslim‐Christian relations

This article observes and critically evaluates some of the main components of Muslim anti‐secularist discourse: the assumption that there is ‘no separation between religion and politics’, that the Shari^c a represents the antithesis of secularism, that secularism is a specifically Western or Christian phenomenon, and that secularism is causally related to a crisis of values in contemporary Western civilization. After observing some recent attempts to justify secularism on Islamic grounds, the article draws conclusions not just with respect to the discourse but also with regard to the underlying issues. The relevance of this topic to Muslim‐Christian relations emerges in two ways. Firstly, attention is paid to the way in which Christianity, or the West (the two are sometimes conflated), provides a significant Other for the purposes of self‐definition; and secondly, a comparative perspective on certain issues reflects shared concerns between Muslims and Christians on the role of religion in the modem nation‐state.     

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.     

The seventh century in Byzantine‐Muslim relations: Characteristics and forces

The seventh century Muslim‐Byzantine relations are revealing and paradigmatic of the political, religious and “national” forces (Persian, Greek and Arab), each striving to dominate the land and the heart of the region. Notwithstanding the deeply‐rooted Christian tradition, orthodox or heretical, among the populations of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empire, integrally Arab in temperament and Greek in appearance, the Muslim expansion outside the “island” of Arabia proper must be seen as part of a larger phenomenon of rising Arab, rather than Muslim solidarity and self‐consciousness; thence the unique, in many ways, character and content of the interaction of the Christian and Muslim community. The theological divisions alone among the Christian population do not explain the successful expansion of Islam; they underline the dynamics and the characteristics of the seventh century.     

Christian‐Muslim theological encounter: The priority of tawhid

Both Islam and Christianity are monotheistic faiths, yet the one God proclaimed and worshipped by each appears to be a different deity by virtue of the different conceptual construct that applies in each case. For Islam the defining motif is the idea of tawhld, for Christianity it is the notion of Trinity. In respect to theological dialogue between these two faiths the onus lies with the side holding the more complex construct to relate that back to the simpler and less complex, especially where the simpler motif is deemed to be contained within ike complex. Thus it behoves the Christian side to examine critically the trinitarian and related doctrines concerning the understanding of God, with a view to a clearer restatement of the essential oneness of deity which, after all, is the undergirding conceptual reference. In attempting this task, the ‘problematic of unity’ inherent in the Christian concept of God is addressed and a theological revision is suggested. The intention is to rethink critically aspects of Christian doctrine so as to further Christian‐Muslim theological dialogue, without in any way diminishing the essential insight of either side, but rather with a view to opening new lines of expression that each might equally affirm.     

The Bible in early Muslim anti‐Christian polemic

During the early centuries of Islam, the Bible did not usually receive specific attention from Muslim polemicists. Among those who did refer to it, some rejected the text on the grounds that it was corrupt, and developed accounts of how the original injil had been lost and replaced by the canonical Gospels. The majority, however, have left no expressed view, but do not appear to have experienced difficulty in employing suitable verses in their arguments as illustrations and proofs. A few scholars were in a position to use the Biblical texts to good effect in their arguments. The Christian convert ^cAli b. Rabban al‐Tabari employed a distinctively Muslim method of exegesis, and demonstrated how predictions of the coming of Muhammad and Islam are scattered throughout the biblical books. The Zaydi theologian al‐Qasim ibn Ibrahim al‐Rassi followed a more radical method in translating parts of Matthew's Gospel into Arabic, and altering words and phrases and omitting sections in order to make the original conform to Islamic beliefs. This Islamicization of the Gospel is symptomatic of the confident early third/ninth‐century belief that Islam provided the criteria for true teachings.     

The return of the displaced and Christian‐Muslim integration in postwar Lebanon

This study attempts to explain the slow cadence of resettlement of Lebanese Christians displaced among their Druze neighbors by a survey of DPs contemplating resettlement or already resettled in seven contiguous villages in the Harf district of Mount Lebanon. Considering that the causes and results of forcible internal displacement and resettlement are part of a single interwoven process, it identifies two factors that might impede or enhance the return — fear of those whose actions caused their exodus and financial and material considerations related to reconstruction as a result of war damage. In both cases it is hypothesized that government measures could intervene to condition the effect of these factors on resettlement decisions and would, in such a case, play a strong role in promoting Christian‐Muslim integration after the lengthy civil war. The results of the survey indicate that despite the trauma of displacement and a certain coldness toward the Druze, the major obstacle to rapid resettlement is DPs’ lack of adequate financial assistance from the state and delays in infrastructure and social institution repairs. The study suggests that if a comprehensive plan for mountain reconstruction were established international donors and emigrants might be more forthcoming with the contributions necessary to repair the torn social fabric of the mountains by bringing Muslims and Christians into each other's daily orbits once again.     

Critical issues in Muslim‐Christian relations: Theoretical,practical, dialogical,scholarly

In treating some critical issues in Muslim‐Christian relations at present and in the near future I would like to say something on the basis of what may be qualified as ‘critical realism’ on the one hand and ‘constructive partnership’ on the other. My purpose here is to identify some issues with which we have to cope when we want to improve relations between Muslims and Christians for times to come.     

Muslim‐Christian encounters: Some factors at play

The frequency and intensity of Muslim‐Christian encounters increase by the day. Their hazardous nature is concealed by differences in self‐identification. Muslims will be Muslims; not all Westerners identify as Christians.

Problems arising in the West are dealt with by practitioners receiving scant scholarly support. The problem for scholars is that this requires a novel approach, in terms of intercultural interaction. Setting out from this need the present paper envisages interaction between Islam and Christianity, as variants of monotheistic ontology, in terms of determinants and ensuing modalities.