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375 Kenneth Cragg on Shi'a Islam and Iran: an Anglican ARAM, 20 (2008) 375-391. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.20.0.2033139CHR. BROWN 375 KENNETH CRAGG ON SHI’A ISLAM AND IRAN: AN ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO POLITICAL ISLAM Revd. CHRISTOPHER BROWN (Colchester) Bishop Kenneth Cragg has written over forty books since his foundation volume, ‘The Call of the Minaret’ was published in 1956, and now, at the age of ninety-four, is, I understand, preparing yet another volume for his publisher. This same publisher has commented that they regard him as a poet, with a wide imagination and deep roots in English history and culture in all its vari- ous facets. He is seen as a profound religious thinker, bringing a lifetime of reflection and experience to the relationship between Islam and Christianity. For this reflection I will refer to some of his earlier works and also use his two latest volumes, ‘The Tragic in Islam’, published in 2004 and, ‘The Qur’an and the West’, published in 2006. Such is his productivity that it is difficult to keep up with him! His works are not an easy read. One analogy compares him to a gifted and challenging composer whose works require serious listening, where the key frequently changes and the ‘tunes’ are not immediately apparent. But the reward comes with study and concentration. ‘Evangelical faith was the breath of our being, deep but not demonstrative, assured but not boisterous’1 is how Kenneth Cragg describes the atmosphere of his family home in Blackpool during his childhood. His father had a shop and the family walked three miles every Sunday to attend Christ Church, pre- sumably passing on their way other churches offering a rather different tradi- tion in worship and theology. At the church the tradition was firmly rooted in the Protestant inheritance of the Church of England, with the Authorised ver- sion of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer as its pillars. His evangeli- cal zeal found expression in some local preaching engagements and assisting at the annual mission on the Blackpool sands. It was there that he heard William Temple, at that time Bishop of Manchester, who made a profound impression on him. The mission and other experiences made him realise that his own faith and local church were part of something much larger and truth may even find a place in other traditions. Before he progressed to Jesus College Oxford in 1931, the seeds had been planted of a firm faith, and although this had been in the uncritical ambience 1 K. Cragg, ‘Faith and Life Negotiate: A Christian Story-Study’ Norwich, The Canterbury Press, 1994, p. 21. 07-0398_Aram20_22_Brown 375 09-16-2008, 17:29 376 AN ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO POLITICAL ISLAM of Christ Church, Blackpool, already there is a strong sense of someone em- barking on a lifelong journey. He loved Oxford and his time was taken up be- tween his study of history and the Christian Union. Whilst waiting for the re- sults of his finals, he bought a copy of Constance Padwick’s ‘Temple Gairdner of Cairo’ with little realisation of the major part the author and her hero would play in his own future. After training and ordination, whilst serving his curacy, he continued his theological studies and made a successful submission for the Ellerton Theo- logical Essay Prize to Oxford in 1937, on the subject of ‘The Place of Author- ity in Matters of Religious Belief’. The focus of the essay appears to have arisen from the sometimes harsh experience of the disputes taking place within the Church concerning the place of scripture, how it is to be interpreted and applied in contemporary situations. The seeds sown by his reading of Constance Padwick led him to offer himself for work with the British Syria Mission, which had a strong focus on education and welfare. After a very important formative period in Beirut where he taught in the Bible College and became attached to the American University of Beirut where he taught philosophy, he and his wife ran a hostel for Arab students. They both made lasting friendships during this period, leading to a love of Arab culture and language. Also during this time he studied Arabic and began his life-long study of and commitment to Islam and its relationship to Christianity. His philosophical studies led to a high level of competence and the award in 1947 of a further Oxford prize – the T.H. Green Moral Philosophy Prize on ‘Morality and Reli- gion.’ By this stage serious academic study beckoned, not as some abstract activity, but arising from his experience and love for the people he met in Bei- rut and his increasing competence as an Arabist and student of Islam. He re- turned to Oxford to study for his D.Phil.2 This major work for his doctorate confirmed his credentials as a theologian and partly reveals some of the main influences upon him at this time. By 1950 when he completed his thesis, it is clear that the Lux Mundi 3 essay by Charles Gore on the doctrine of Kenosis, or Christ’s voluntary self-limitation, based on Philippians 2: and 2 Corinthians 8:9, played a considerable part in his theological understanding. This concept, which incorporated the suffering of the Spirit within humanity recurs in Cragg’s thinking through many of his books. For example in his early and im- portant work, ‘Sandals at the Mosque’4 he writes, ‘What room then for aught save humility in a situation at once so involved in the lowliness of God in 2 ‘Islam in the 20th Century: The Relevance of Christian Theology and the Relation of the Christian Mission to its Problems’ D. Phil. Thesis, Oxford University, 1950. Unpublished. 3 Lux Mundi A ‘Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation’ ed. By Charles Gore 1889. 4 Sandals at the Mosque – Christian Presence Amid Islam, SCM Press, 1959, p. 87. 07-0398_Aram20_22_Brown 376 09-16-2008, 17:29 CHR. BROWN 377 Christ by the Spirit? Outside a comparable lowliness the Christian has no valid status. His being in reconciliation and in ministry hinges upon the self-giving of God. All his relationships must be in the truth of his own inner Christian existence’. All Cragg’s subsequent books have been shaped by his initial substantial thesis. Commenting on ‘The Call of the Minaret’5 published in 1956, Bard Maeland, writes, ‘Already in this study there is present an impressive interest in modern and contemporary Muslim intellectual activity, an overview of the relation between religion and political/social issues…this initial work of Cragg may be characterised as a fundamental and strategic study in Christian mission to Muslims’.6 It is very significant that this work came after his experience in Beirut and the drive and energy it required seems to have been provided by that initial contact with the people of the region. The political upheavals of the time, following the Second World War and the establishment of the State of Israel, helped shape the book that has been described by Hugh Goddard as ‘still highly significant and worthy of the most serious consideration by Chris- tians who wish to think about Islam’.7 After his appointment in 1956 as a residentiary canon of St George’s Cathe- dral in Jerusalem, he spent three hectic years travelling the vast area of the Middle East covered by the Anglican diocese. This included visits to Iran and contact with Shi’a Islam. Lasting friendships were formed and he was able to deepen his knowledge of Islam and the fast moving political scene in which the church had to function. There followed a period as warden of St Augustine’s College Canterbury and teaching in Nigeria and Cambridge. Cragg was consecrated Assistant Bishop in the Jerusalem Archbishopric in February 1970 and spent about three years in Cairo. He resigned in 1973 on principal, believing strongly in an in- digenous ministry with the appointment of an Egyptian bishop. After further academic and pastoral appointments he moved to Oxford in 1981. To describe him as ‘retired’ would only reflect the barrenness of categorising people ac- cording to their status as pensioners! This brief sketch illustrates his lengthy commitment to the Christian faith and its relationship with the Muslim world. It is a story full of variety and en- gagement with many people and cultures over a very long period. Also, as Christopher Lamb comments, it shows how the Anglican Church, for whatever reasons, has not been ‘well organised to make maximum use of a man with the 5 The Call of the Minaret OUP 1956 2nd ed. London, Collins, 1986. 6 Bard Maeland Rewarding Encounters – Islam and the Comparative Theologies of Kenneth Cragg and Wilfrid Cantwell-Smith London, Melisende, 2003. 7 Hugh Goddard The Significance of The Call of the Minaret for Christian Thinking about Islam, in ‘A Faithful Presence’ Essays for Kenneth Cragg, Edited by David Thomas with Claire Amos, London Melisende, 2003, p. 93. 07-0398_Aram20_22_Brown 377 09-16-2008, 17:29 378 AN ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO POLITICAL ISLAM particular combination of gifts that he possesses’.8 In view of the substantial level of immigration by Muslims to the U.K., it is particularly regrettable that his skills were not used more effectively in the task of building bridges with the growing Islamic community from the 1970’s. Possibly this was because his expertise had led him to be identified with what was perceived to be a narrow and specialist area of concern. Or it could be that his rare scholarship threat- ened those who were more comfortable in the territory of domestic church af- fairs and the niceties of Christian history and biblical study.
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