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Christian and Muslim Explorations Studies 01/10 Studies How can Christian and Muslim ethical and theological Studies 01/2010 reflection contribute to the wider discourse on human beings and actions, freedom and responsibility? The contributions in this book honestly name complex and often conflictual realities and point to seeds of hope in our societies and religious communities, thus deepening the understanding of human agency and freedom from a faith perspective. Freedom and Contributors include: Bernard Adeney-Risakotta (USA/ Indonesia), Reinhold Bernhardt (Switzerland), Suhadi Cholil (Indonesia/Netherlands), Hans-Peter Grosshans (Germany), Ignas Kleden (Indonesia), Oddbjørn Leirvik (Norway), Martin Freedom and Responsibility Responsibility Sinaga (editor, Indonesia), Simone Sinn (editor, Germany), Mark Swanson (USA), Siti Syamsiyatun (Indonesia), Sahiron Christian and Muslim Explorations Syamsuddin (Indonesia) and Amina Wadud (USA). LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY PRESS The Lutheran World Federation – A Communion of Churches DTS-Studies-2010-cover.indd 1 01/07/2010 16:05:43 PM DTS-Studies-201002-text.indd 10 02/03/2011 15:55:18 PM Freedom and Responsibility: Christian and Muslim Explorations LWF Studies, 2010 June 2010 edited by Simone Sinn and Martin L. Sinaga on behalf of The Lutheran World Federation Freedom and Responsibility: Christian and Muslim Explorations Simone Sinn and Martin Sinaga, Editors on behalf of The Lutheran World Federation Copyright © 2010, Lutheran University Press & The Lutheran World Federation. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in articles and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without permission. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Lutheran World Federation. Editorial assistance and layout: Department for Theology and Studies Design: Office for Communication Services Cover illustration: Pablo Picasso, “The Dance of Youth” © 2010 ProLitteris, Zurich Published by Lutheran University Press under the auspices of: The Lutheran World Federation – A Communion of Churches 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland This book is available in certain European bookstores using ISBN: 978-3- xxxx ISSN 1025-2290 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Freedom and responsibility : Christian and Muslim explorations / Martin Sinaga and Simone Sinn, editors, on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-932688-50-4 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-932688-50-1 (alk. paper) 1. Liberty--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Liberty--Religious aspects--Islam. 3. Responsibility. 4. Religious ethics. 5. Christianity and other religions--Islam. 6. Islam--Relations--Christianity. I. Sinaga, Martin L. II. Sinn, Simone. III. Lutheran World Federation. BT810.3.F73 2010 233’.7--dc22 2010023108 Lutheran University Press, PO Box 390759, Minneapolis, MN 55439 Printed in Switzerland Contents 5 Introduction Simone Sinn and Martin L. Sinaga 13 Freedom and Responsibility: Joint Theological Explorations by Christians and Muslims. Challenges Today Mark N. Swanson 23 Freedom and Responsibility: An Islamic Perspective Amina Wadud 31 Law, Freedom and Responsibility in Christianity and Islam Oddbjørn Leirvik 49 Foundations for Freedom and Religious Freedom in the Qur’an Sahiron Syamsuddin 61 The Freedom of a Christian According to Evangelical Lutheran Theology Hans-Peter Grosshans 81 Freedom and Responsibility in Society Ignas Kleden 87 Freedom, Responsibility and Shame in Indonesia Bernard Adeney-Risakotta 101 Women’s Freedom and Responsibility in Islam: A Brief Review of Texts and Contexts in Indonesia Siti Syamsiyatun 117 Freedom of Religion or Belief in Indonesia and the Challenge of Muslim Exceptionalism Suhadi Cholil 4 Freedom and Responsibility: Christian and Muslim Explorations 135 Vox Helveticorum—Vox Dei? The Swiss Ban on the Construction of Minarets: Acid Test for Christian—Muslim Relations Reinhold Bernhardt 151 Sponsoring institutions 153 Contributors 5 Introduction Simone Sinn and Martin L. Sinaga Interfaith dialogue and cooperation have become important in many societ- ies, providing a vital platform for mutual learning, support and commitment. Such dialogue in life encouraged religious communities further to deepen their dialogue in theological reflection. One of the many examples for such theological dialogue is the 2007 initiative by 138 Muslim leaders from around the world, A Common Word, which triggered a series of dialogue consulta- tions on the Christian–Muslim commitment to the love of God and love of the neighbor. Through interfaith dialogue, people of faith deepen their understanding of one another. Furthermore, they contribute to the discourse on current challenges in the wider society and key issues in human life. This publication explores Christian and Muslim understandings of freedom and responsibility. The experience of freedom is one of the most powerful experiences in a person’s life, foundational for human agency and the understanding of the human being. In many different societies, the issues freedom and responsibility are urgent and vital. People long for freedom in several areas of life: freedom from political oppression, freedom from economic injustice, freedom from patriarchal dominance and freedom from ideological hegemony to mention but a few. For years, Christians and Muslims have contributed to the discourse on freedom and on responsibility in relation to their specific contexts. Today, the question is whether they can enter into a common discourse on freedom and responsibility. In June 2009, Christians and Muslims from different contexts came together to explore the anthropological and theological dimensions of free- dom and responsibility. The LWF Department for Theology and Studies (DTS), together with the Centre for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) at the Gadjah Mada University and the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) invited twenty-three theologians, religious thinkers, church leaders and Islamic ulama (clergy) jointly to discuss the issue. The meeting was held at CRCS in Yogyakarta and involved people from Africa (Ethiopia and Tanzania), Europe (Germany and Turkey), USA and Indonesia. Among the participants were Luther- ans, Catholics, Mennonites, Presbyterians as well as Sunni Muslims (of traditional and modern Islam). A selection of some of the papers for this consultation is gathered in this book. 6 Freedom and Responsibility: Christian and Muslim Explorations Freedom in various contexts When people from different religious, cultural, economic and sociopolitical backgrounds sit together they realize how much the discourse on freedom has to do with their respective experience of freedom, be it personal or communal. Freedom has a different ring to it if you have had access to an excellent education and the media than if you have had to start working as a child and later on have had to try to find the means to feed your own children. The taste of freedom in Switzerland with its centuries-old tradi- tion of direct democracy is different from that in Indonesia with its new democratic opening since 1998. There where discussions on freedom take into account concrete experiences, freedom obviously cannot be reduced to a liberal Western concept and cannot be owned by those who most eloquently speak about it. Freedom, just like bondage, can be detected in very different corners of this planet. In inter- faith dialogue, participants do not discuss mere concepts, but look at actual historical and current challenges related to it, quite aware of the contentious impact it has. Christine Helmer rightly says, “Freedom is actualized in the reality of history as struggle. Freedom’s articulation in language is visionary, but its concretization is in the ambivalence of power and suffering.”1 Discourse on freedom is based on the notion, either imagined or real, that there is an alternative. By this, discourse on freedom fundamentally opposes the ideology that “there is no alternative,” that “this is the only possible way.” In 1520, when Martin Luther wrote his treatise “The Freedom of a Christian,” he showed his fellow Christians that there is an alternative way of being Christian, based on an alternative way of imagining God’s relation to us and an alternative way of relating to our neighbors.2 Since then, Lutherans as well as other Christians, have been inspired in many ways and, indeed, set free by this alternative option. The emergence of Is- lam, in its own right, has been described as a new religious discourse that offers an alternative: the invitation to a new way of life where injustice and oppression will be overcome.3 Many Muslims today share that spirit that they present an alternative way of life. 1 Christine Helmer (ed.), The Global Luther. A Theologian for Modern Times (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2009), 12. 2 See further explanations in the contributions by Oddbjørn Leirvik and Hans-Peter Grosshans, in this publication, 31ff; 61ff. 3 See further explanations in the contribution by Sahiron Syamsuddin, in this publication, 49ff. Introduction 7 Relational freedom In times of crisis—the economic and ecological crises being the most urgent ones—the question whether or not there are alternative worldviews and ways of life is once again a major concern. We have realized that the way in which some have exercised their freedom by exploiting natural resources and creatures, including
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