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Distribution Agreement in Presenting This Thesis Or Dissertation As A Distribution Agreement In presenting this thesis or dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Emory University, I hereby grant to Emory University and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive, make accessible, and display my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known, including display on the world wide web. I understand that I may select some access restrictions as part of the online submission of this thesis or dissertation. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of this thesis or dissertation. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. Signature: _________________________ _________________ Joshua B. Ralston Date Law and the Rule of God: A Christian-Muslim Exchange By Joshua B. Ralston Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Division of Religion Theological Studies –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Ian A. McFarland, Ph.D. Advisor –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Steffen Lösel, Th.D. Committee Member –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Richard C. Martin, Ph.D. Committee Member –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Joy Ann McDougall, Ph.D. Committee Accepted: –––––––––––––––––––––––––– Lisa A. Tedesco, Ph.D. Dean of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies ––––––––––––––––––– Date Law and the Rule of God: A Christian-Muslim Exchange By Joshua B. Ralston M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 2008 M.Th., The University of Edinburgh, 2005 B.A., Wake Forest University, 2003 Advisor: Ian A. McFarland, Ph.D. An abstract of A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Division of Religion Theological Studies 2015 Abstract Law and the Rule of God: A Christian-Muslim Exchange by Joshua B. Ralston This dissertation leverages political theology and comparative theology to engage longstanding debates over the place and function of law in Muslim-Christian relations. By adopting a comparative approach, I seek to avoid two routes that dominate most discussions of political theology in Christian-Muslim exchange. One leans strongly on the legal apparatuses of secularism, and thus too quickly silences religious commitments and their critiques of modernity; and the other attempts to reassert the ultimacy of religious community over and against the secular state largely through reinscribing old battle lines between Christendom and the dār al-Islām. Instead, I argue that debates regarding Sharī‘a, secularism, and law can be productively reframed by attending to the history of debate over the law in Christian-Muslim encounter and also the nuanced perspectives regarding public law within the theo-legal discourse of both Islam and Christianity. To advance this comparative political theology, I first offer a critical evaluation of two dominant Christian perspectives on Sharī‘a, arguing that both misconstrue Sharī‘a as inherently legalistic and politically theocratic. By dismissing Sharī‘a, Christian thinkers fail to engage with Islamic political ethics and Muslim critiques of secularism, the modern nation-state, and Christianity. The third chapter attempts to address this lacuna by tracing shifts in Muslim judgments of Christian views of law from their initial focus on taḥrīf to modern arguments that connect the lack of a Christian Sharī‘a to the rise of secularism in the West. Ibn Taymiyya proves to be pivotal, combining early rhetoric with an emerging legal-political criticism of Christian power. Engaging with Islamic thought demands that Christians present a more integrated account of the relationship between their political and theological accounts of law. Chapters four and five offer a constructive response to these challenges through a reading of the relationship between divine and public law in Justin Martyr, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Karl Barth. Building on Barth’s theology of witness, I contend that public law is properly understood as a provisional and indirect witness to the divine rule. This theo-legal account allows for the primacy of theological identity and an affirmation of a morally grounded and communally oriented law that outstrips the claims of the state—but also maintains that God’s rule does not depend on political establishment or public recognition for its legitimacy. I conclude by arguing that this Christian position resonates with Islamic concerns regarding the distinction between Sharī‘a and fiqh, the importance of divine sovereignty over all of life, and the demand to examine legal rulings in light of the higher purposes of the law. As such, a comparative analysis of debates in post-colonial Arab Islamic Thought and Western Christian political theology presents mutually enriching possibilities for understanding the limits of the secular and the relationship between divine and public law. Law and the Rule of God: A Christian-Muslim Exchange By Joshua B. Ralston M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 2008 M.Th., The University of Edinburgh, 2005 B.A., Wake Forest University, 2003 Advisor: Ian A. McFarland, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Division of Religion Theological Studies 2015 Acknowledgments This dissertation began during the halcyon days shortly after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the President of Egypt. During the spring of 2011, I lived in Egypt— teaching courses at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo to Arab Christians (and one stray Italian Nun) on Christian-Muslim Dialogue. It was in Cairo and then later for two years in Jerusalem and Ramallah that I began to wrestle with the central ideas and to write—in fits and starts— this dissertation. The work began when the possibilities of a renewed political and social vision, beyond the confines of either theocracy or dictatorial nationalism, seemed not only possible but imminent. I write this acknowledgment as ‘wars and rumors of war’ engulf much of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of North Africa: the Syrian War continues to displace and kill millions; the chaos unleashed by the US invasion of Iraq seems worse than ever; millions of Palestine still lack the basic dignities offered by citizenship. Writing would have been easier had I heeded Karl Barth’s advice to write as if nothing happened. But how could I when my Palestinian neighbors were crossing countless checkpoints daily to get to work? How could I write about law being a witness to God’s rule when the law was being invoked to justify the eviction of Palestinians from their own homes? How could I dare offer a sympathetic approach to Sharī‘a when Da‘esh (ISIS) or the al-Nusra front invoked divine law to justify murder? How could I write hopefully about Christian-Muslim relations when the Egyptian pastors that I had taught in Cairo were posting on Facebook about their churches being burned down? I still have no answers to these persistent realities, but I have worked diligently to write about texts and ideas without ceasing to hear the constant interrogations offered by human beings and societies. Even though the arguments of this dissertation only tangentially names or discuss the current socio-political realities of Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, the issues—no the people and their hopes, joys, dreams and sumūd—form the deep motivation of my work. I have found myself in the (un)enviable position of trying to finish a dissertation after beginning an academic position as a theologian at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. I am grateful to the search committee, President Brian K. Blount, Dean Stanley Skreslet, and the Board of Trustees for having the confidence to take a risk in hiring me and having the patience as I struggled to finish. Thanks are in order for my wonderful and hospitable colleagues turned friends at UPSem, especially Dawn DeVries, Paul Galbreath, and Christine Luckritz Marquis. When I began seminary at Candler in 2005, I could not imagine what a varied, interdisciplinary, and truly world-class education awaited me. I can only begin to list the teachers that indelibly formed my scholarship and teaching—Thomas G. Long, Jonathan Strom, Lewis Ayres, Luke Timothy Johnson, Wendy Farley, and Mark D. Jordan. A shukran jazilan to Abdullahi An-Na‘im, whose seminar on Islamic Law and participation in my comprehensive exam committee provided the intellectual foundation for much of my research into Sharī‘a and fiqh. The inchoate ideas for this comparative dissertation began in a directed study with Richard C. Martin on Modern and Contemporary Islamic Thought. I am grateful to Professor Martin for introducing me to the complexity of Islamic debates, for his engagement with my work and his willingness to join a host of theologians on this committee. Rich, I apologize if it has caused any negative flashbacks to your own days in seminary. Joy Ann McDougall’s energy and commitment to her students are nearly without parallel. For almost a decade now, Joy has been teaching me the value of a close reading of a text and the importance of theological passion; she has been an intellectual sparring partner and fellow lover of a long coffee break. She pressed me to share publically my ideas far before I felt ready and introduced me to the broader theological community. More than anything I am thankful for your commitment and confidence in me and for your willingness to let me go my own way, even as I wandered aimlessly. Steffen Lösel introduced me to theological conversations and debates, particularly in the German and Catholic worlds, that continue to open my thinking to new possibilities. Your demand that I push myself to say something other the obvious Christian political opinion is a continual prod.
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