gy, paid ministers, and church workers, the separation of church new information for the researcher. What they can give, however, and state should all be scrutinized closely from both the American is a broad perspective of the entire Protestant endeavor in Chinese and the Chinese perspectives. They all remain "live" questions, society from 1890 to 1950. The record, as presented by M. Searle which affect church life in both countries and could become the Bates, is vast, complex, and idiosyncratic. There are neither heroes basis for valuable and enlightening dialogue. nor villains. This writer personally feels that a day with these A final note about the manuscripts now housed at the Yale manuscripts would be time well spent. This collected body of in­ Divinity School Library: a number of people have asked whether formation confounds simplistic judgment, whether of praise or of the papers warrant a trip to New Haven by the researcher pursuing blame, and therefore should be useful to researchers looking for a a specialized subject. As .was noted in the beginning of this essay, balanced context in which to place their subject. the manuscripts are unlikely to yield a great many particulars or

The Provhet in Christian Theological Perspective

David A. Kerr

The real nature of the Muhammad (may God's mercy and blessing be upon him) is perhaps the central issue of Christian­ Muslim dialogue, for if Muhammad is a true prophet who delivered his message faithfully, what is there to prevent a sincere man to accept his call to ?

his question, put by a European staff member of the revealed from the beginning of human history, and identified T Islamic Foundation in Leicester (U.K.) in an article in the characteristically (though not exclusively) with ('Ibrahim; widely circulated Muslim magazine Impact Internaiional.t does in­ Q. 6:162), the "pure in faith" ihani]; Q. 3:67), the "leader ('imam) of deed direct us to one of the most critical areas of Christian-Muslim humankind" (Q. 2:124). Both before and after Abraham, however, debate. It raises direct questions about our respective theological the Qur'an attests to have been sent by God to human understandings of divine revelation and its human reception, and communities, and with particular frequency to the Children of Is­ as directly it raises issues regarding human responsiveness, both rael (banu 'isra 'fl). The Qur'an 42:13 gives special mention to Noah, individual and communal. So complex are these matters that few , and along with Abraham, and assures Muhammad Christians, however desirous many may be of cordial relations that God had ordained for him the same (dfn) as He had with Muslims, have been able to reply affirmatively to the age-old for them. At the close of Muhammad's ministry, the Qur'an de­ Muslim question: "Since we [Muslims] accept Jesus as a genuine clared Muhammad to have succeeded, by divine favor, in bringing prophet and messenger of God, can you [Christians] not recipro­ to perfection the religion of God revealed to all his prophets, and cate by accepting the genuineness of Muhammad's prophethood?" the designation al-'islam was confirmed (Q. 5:3). The Qur'an there­ However, it remains deeply hurtful to Muslims that Christians so fore propounds a doctrine of unity and universality in divine reve­ easily reply in the negative, and that their reply is prompted more lation from the beginning of human history, completed in the rev­ characteristically by an uncritical acceptance of a long Christian elation of the Qur'an to Muhammad as "the Messenger of God to polemical tradition than by serious historical and theological re­ you all" (i.e., to the whole of humankind; Q. 7:158) and therefore flection. "the Seal of the Prophets" (Q. 33:40). The depth of Muslim injury can be measured by the fact that Within this perspective the Children of Israel have consider­ the question and the reply are as old as the Qur'an itself, taking us able importance in the Qur'an as recipients of divine favor (Q. back to the experience of Muhammad in and . The 2:40; cf. 2:47) not as an "elect" people in a sense comparable to divine revelation that Muhammad believed had been vouchsafed Jewish or Christian thought, but as a historical case study of divine to him called for radical human obedience (= 'islam) to God (Q. revelation and human response-a case study full of instruction 6:163-66)* in the reordering of individual lives in congruity with for Muslims themselves. The Qur'an acknowledges the authentic­ the divine will (= muslim; fem. muslima; Q. 3:102), and the conse­ ity and truth of the revelations sent by God to the prophets of Is­ quent restructuring of human society ('umma) as the 'umma rnuslima: rael, particularly in the scriptural forms of the Torah (tawra), (Q. 3:104; cf. 3:110). This was not conceived in terms of the Psalms (zabur), and Gospel ('injfl), (Q. 3:3; 4:163). It criticizes creation of a new religion, unlike all that had previously and Christians, however, for in the most part refusing to recognize existed in human history. On the contrary, Muhammad clearly Muhammad as a genuine prophet (Q. 2:104-5). Given the Quranic understood his task as being, under divine guidance, the restora­ view of the unity and universality of divine revelation, Jewish and tion of primordial , the religion of God (Q. 3: 18-19), Christian obstinacy regarding Muhammad cannot be attributed to their Scriptures as vouchsafed to their prophets. Indeed, the Qur'an understands the coming of Muhammad as "the Seal of the Proph­

David A. Kerr is Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, U.K. This essay was prepared for *All references to, and quotations from, the Qur'an are from M. M. Pick­ study and discussion at a "Trialogue II ofJewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians in thall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New York: New American Library, Birmingham. n.d.).

112 International Bulletin of Missionary Research ets" to have been foretold in these Scriptures: for example, we read Once again it was John of Damascus who introduced the view of in Q. 61:6: "And when Jesus son of Mary said: a Children of Isra­ Islam, and by implication Muhammad, as the "forerunner of the el! I am the messenger of unto you, confirming [i.e., by the Antichrist," but he had not intended the term in an apocalyptic 'inji"l] that which was revealed before me in the Torah, and bring­ sense. In the Greek tradition it was a polemical description of any ing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name prominent political or religious figure-emperor or patriarch-who is the Praised One."2 This verse concludes with the complaint: was believed to lead others astray from the orthodox faith. For the "Yet when he [Muhammad] hath come unto them with clear Cordoban martyrs, however, the term was redolent of Daniel's vi­ proofs, they say: 'This is mere magic.' " Thus the Qur'an attributes sion of the fourth king who shall arise to inaugurate the millennial the refusal of most Jews and Christians to their own error, rather events preceding the second coming of Christ." This interpretation than to the judgment of their Scriptures, and this is the basis of the of Daniel, chapter 7 (especially vv . 24-27) became a standard fea­ Muslim allegation that both historical Judaism and historical ture of the Latin polemical tradition through the Crusades and in have deviated from the teachings of their original rev­ their aftermath, up to the polemical tracts of sixteenth-century elations and Scriptures." The result is portrayed in terms of Jewish Lutherans and Catholics, who likened one another to the Turks and Christian exclusivism, which, by distorting the true nature who had by that stage pressed the western frontier of Islam to the and history of divine revelation, seeks to reduce the latter to the Danube." proportions of confessional monopoly. Such exclusivism causes Even those medieval Christians who valued the philosophical Jews and Christians to deny salvation to anyone who is not a Jew richness of Islamic thought, for example, Thomas Aquinas (d. or a Christian (Q. 2:111; 5:18) and results in errors of belief, partic­ 1274), had little good to say of Muhammad."? With deference to ularly of Christians regarding the person of Jesus (Q. 5:17, 72-73, Muslim sensitivity I shall draw a veil over the absurdities and cru­ 116; 9:30), which blind them from appreciating the truth of Mu­ dities of the medieval Christian character assassination of Muham­ hammad's revelation (Q 5:19). For the Qur'an, and we can there­ mad in the polemical attempt to refute Islam. Suffice it to say that fore say for Muhammad, the issue was less one for polemics than the massive literature, exhaustively analyzed by Norman Daniel, for anguished appeal: "a People of Scripture! Why disbelieve ye in his Islam and the West: TheMaking cf an Image, 11 witnesses to an ab­ in the revelations of God when ye [yourselves] bear witness [to ject failure of Christian theology to deal creatively with a post-Je­ their truth]. a People of Scripture! Why confound ye truth with sus claimant to prophetic status as a recipient of divine revelation. falsehood, and knowingly conceal the truth" (Q. 3:70-71)7 This Theological enterprise gave way almost entirely to fabulous story­ appeal must be set within the invitation, a few verses earlier in the telling and slander. Qur'an, to the People of Scripture to "come to an agreement be­ The first major challenge to this polemical tradition in the tween us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that English-speaking world was Thomas Carlyle's famous series of we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall lectures in 1840, "On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in take others for lords beside God...." (Q. 3:64). History." For his lecture on "The Hero as Prophet" he took the ex­ This Quranic invitation to interfaith dialogue among Jews, ample of Muhammad, whom he esteemed as a prophet, though by Christians, and Muslims has rarely been heeded in the subsequent no means "the truest of the Prophets." Carlyle argued that the history of relations among the three religions. Very quickly the Quranic appeal "Why confound ye truth with falsehood, and knowingly conceal the truth" came to be interpreted by Muslim exegetes in terms of the willful falsification of Scripture (tahri"[) by "This Quranic invitation to Jews and Christians, and whether the alleged falsification was lit­ eral (la[zl) or interpretive (ma'anatois, it assumed pride of place in interfaith dialogue among Muslim polemics against Jews and Christians." Jews, Christians, and Polemics was the hallmark also of much of Jewish and Chris­ tian attitudes to historical Islam, particularly in terms of Christian Muslims has rarely been evaluations, to which this paper will confine itself. The earliest Christian theological critique of Islam was that of the Greek heeded in the subsequent church father, John of Damascus (d. 749), who in his major theo­ history of relations among logical compendium, TheFount cf Knowledge, included a section on Is­ lam in the second part, "On Heresies." Here he analyzed aspects of the three religions." Islam under the category of Christian "heresy," in the sense of its teachings being derivative but deviant from Christian orthodoxy. His interest was with the Quranic portrayal of Jesus more than with Muhammad per se, but on the basis of the former he conclud­ medieval polemical description of Muhammad was no way to ed that the latter must have been infected by the teaching of an evaluate his historical or religious significance; his moral teachings Arian monk who allegedly tutored him in what John termed "the were, in Carlyle's judgment, "the true dictates of a heart aiming deceptive superstition of the Ishmaelities."5 The same view is reit­ towards what is just and true." In Carlyle's audience sat the liberal erated by later Greek and other Orthodox Christians," and found Christian theologian Frederick D. Maurice, who was much im­ its way into Latin Christian appraisals of Islam in the writing' of pressed by what he heard, and later wrote: "I felt throughout how the twelfth-century Cluniac monk, Peter the Venerable (d. 1156), much more kind and tolerant towards the truth in all forms of for whom the word "heresy" assumed the more negative connota­ faith and opinion he can be, and should be, who does in his heart tion of modern English usage. Peter regarded Muhammad as a believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and that all systems are pseudo-prophet who manufactured a religious creed in pursuit of feeling after Him as the common centre of the world...."12 his real objective of worldly power." In the second half of the nineteenth century and in the twen­ In a more hysterical mood, some of the Latin theologians of tieth century many Christian scholars are to be numbered among tenth-century Spain, living under Muslim rule in Cordoba, sought those Western Orientalists who have tried, with varying degrees martyrdom by publicly identifying Muhammad as the Antichrist. of success, to rescue Muhammad from the fire of polemics and to

July 1984 113 restore him to the sight of history through careful analysis of the as a man of religious genius who affected the course of human his­ and Islamic sources. Preeminent in this field stands William tory under the sovereign rule of God; in this sense he was a man of Montgomery Watt, longtime professor of at Edin­ prophetic inspiration, but in the light of Christ and the gospel his burgh University and an ordained clergyman of the Anglican prophethood is attenuated by the ambiguities of temporal power church. His two volumes on Muhammad at Mecca and Muhammad at in Medina. Medina'? are unsurpassed as reference works, much valued by Contemporary Catholic thought has no more to offer. While Muslims themselves. But they are the work of a historian, and acknowledging that "the plan of [divine] salvation also includes beyond recognizing in Muhammad a man of religious genius who those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place among effected an enormous and positive socioreligious reform in sixth­ whom are the Muslims," the Vatican Council II constitutions Lu­ century Arabia, Montgomery Watt withholds theological evalua­ men Gentium (November 1964) and Nosfra Aerate (October 1965) pass tion, other than to consider Muhammad worthy of comparison over any specific reference to Muhammad or the Qur'an in prefer­ with the classical prophets of the Hebrew tradition.P One looks to ence to attributing the quality of Muslims' faith to their profession his contemporary, Kenneth Cragg, fellow Anglican cleric and "to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of Christian scholar of Islam, for deeper theological insight, but here God just as Abraham submitted himself to God's plan."23 One of we encounter an equivocality typical of Christian thought in the the principal interpreters of the council's statements about Mus­ twentieth century. In his book The Call of the Minaret.V' which lims, Father Maurice Borrmans, outlines in his book Orientations pour marks an important positive stride in Christian appreciation of un Dialogue entre Chretiens et Musulmans what the Vatican Secretariat Islam, Cragg portrays Muhammad as being a man of "a sure for Non-Christians sees to be the, most hopeful Christian attitude monotheism and a prophetic mission in which a divine relation­ toward Muhammad.P The advice is essentially of a moral order ship of revelation, through a scripture, created a community of and encourages Christians "loyally to respect the deep affection faith."16 Recognizing the historical importance of Muhammad's which Muslims feel and show towards their Prophet." In this spirit awareness of himself as a new and final figure in prophetic conti­ Christians should eschew the polemical tradition and attempt "to nuity, Cragg asks by what criteria his ministry is to be evaluated. discern 'in faith' [Muhammad's] inspiration, sincerity and fidelity Is it by those of Arabian , which would show Muham­ in the context of his personal response to the commands of God mad to be a great reformer? Or by those of early Islamic develop-: and, more widely, in that of a providential history of the world." ment, which would show Muhammad to be "one of the rarest Along these lines Borrmans speaks of Christians who "feel moved potentialities in human history"? Or by those of the classical He­ to recognize that Muhammad was a great religious, political and brew prophets, which would show in Muhammad "a strange and literary genius, and that particular graces were not lacking in him yet unmistakable shift in the whole concept and expression of pro­ for multitudes to be led to the worship of the true God." He adds, phethood"? Or by those of "the hills of Galilee and [udaea where however, that such specific graces may have been paralleled by there are criteria of almost insupportable contrasr'T'? As his anal­ "ignorances particulieres" or "erreurs invincibles." He emphasizes ysis proceeds Cragg clearly opts for the last, and in answering the what he terms the "prophetic accents" in Muhammad's ministry: question "How should prophethood succeed?" he makes the fol­ his faith in the One God, his call to justice and to respect of the lowing contrast: "The Muhammedan decision here is formative of ' human person, none of which should be ignored by Christians. In all else in Islam. It was a decision for community, for resistance, for conclusion he quotes the eighth-century Assyrian Patriarch Timo­ external victory, for pacification and rule. The decision of the thy who, in dialogue with the Abbassid Caliph al-Mahdi in Bagh­ Cross-no less conscious, no less formative, no less inclusive-was dad, declared his view as an oriental Christian that "Muhammad the contrary decision."18 followed the way of the prophets" (salulcuhu fl tariq al-'anbiya "), In drawing this sharp distinction Cragg focuses upon the Borrmans qualifies this, however, in terms of Muhammad's imitat­ Medina period of Muhammad's ministry as presenting Christians ing the example of the Hebrew prophets without fully meeting with the greatest theological difficulty, though he was not the first him whom they announced.P to ,do so. The Dutch Protestant missiologist who dominated mis­ Given the potentialities inherent in the documents of Vatican sionary thinking in the middle of the twentieth century, Hendrik Council II, one might wish that Borrmans had explored the issue Kraemer, wrote In his The Christian Message In a Non-Christian of Muhammad's prophethood more deeply from a Christian angle. World19 that "Islam is radically theocentric and therefore pro­ That he does not, and that no other Catholic theologian scholars of claims in the clearest possible way its prophetic origin.... Mu­ Islam have taken the matter further.s" may have contributed to­ hammad was possessed by two great religious aims-to proclaim ward what is beginning to appear as Muslim disappointment with God as the sole, almighty God, the Creator and the King of the the effects of the council.27 We must not detract, however, from Day of Judgement; to found a community, in Arabic called 'umma, the positive value of Borrmans' Orientations in the sense that they ruled by the Law of God and His Apostle. These two objects con­ encourage Christians to engage Muslims in a dialectical relation­ stitute the core of Islam, its strength and its weakness.r'-? The ship of two peoples of Scripture-a view that Kenneth Cragg strength of Islam Kraemer estimated in terms of the brilliance of its would certainly share. It may well be asked whether Christians can historical success; its weakness he judged to be Muhammad's pre­ be expected to go further in a positive appreciation of the Qur'an occupation with the affairs of the 'umma in Medina, which result­ and Muhammad without actually becoming Muslim in the fully ed, in his view, in "the externalisation and fossilisation of confessional sense of the word. This is what Borrmans means in revelation in Islam [which] seems to us to be one of the great reminding his reader that "dialogue invites a respect of different marks of its religious superficiality."2l In this connection Kraemer definitions of 'perfect prophethood'28 and should no more seek to quoted from Pascal's brief reflections upon Islam in his Pensees, constrain a Muslim to acknowledge Jesus with the Christie affir­ where he remarks: "Mahomet a pris la voie de reussir humaine­ mations of Christian belief than to require a Christian to accept ment, Jesus Christ celIe de perir humainement" (Muhammad chose Muhammad as prophet in the fullness of Islamic meaning attached the way of human success, Jesus Christ that of human defeat).22 to his designation 'Seal of the Prophets.' " In summary we may say that twentieth-century Protestant However, it might be asked whether the question "Can the Christian thought about Muhammad has conscientiously attempt­ Christian go further?" could not be otherwise put. Could it not be ed to step outside the polemical tradition in accepting Muhammad restated thus: "Can Christians go deeper into the biblical under­

114 International Bulletin of Missionary Research standing of divine revelation throughout human history, stripping away the sociopolitical overtones of medieval European thought, AL-MAHDI: What do you say about Muhammad? so as to avail themselves of new perceptions of the place of other TIMOTHY: Muhammad is "worthy of all praise" and "walked in the religions, Islam included, in providential history?" If so, the issue path of the prophets" because he taught the Unity of God; of Muhammad in Christian perspective may take on new, less he taught the way of Good Works; 'he opposed idolatry threatening proportions. and polytheism; he taught about God, His Word and His The question is implied by one of the more fascinating Ortho­ Spirit; he showed his zeal by fighting against idolatry with dox Christian (Chalcedonian) theologians in the contemporary the sword; like Abraham he left his kinsfolk rather than Middle East, Metropolitan Georges Khodr of Mount Lebanon. In worship idols.P" his challenging article entitled "Christianity in a Pluralistic World-The Economy of the Holy Spirit,"29 he mounts a major This quotation brings us full circle in this brief and necessarily su­ critique against what he sees to be the essentially Western (Latin) perficial essay, which began with early Eastern Christian views of understanding of salvation history. This, he criticizes, is based Islam and Muhammad, and progressed through the long centuries upon a merely linear view of history, bound up with a monolithic of turgid polemics into the more searching yet still hesitant spirit ecclesiology, which "while rightly rejecting the Graeco-Asian idea of modern Christian thought, returning finally to the early Eastern of eternally recurring cycles, turns its back on the idea of an eter­ church, though with the important difference that the Assyrians, nity transcending history.T'? According to this Western view, because of their persecution by Byzantium, lived outside the area which sees Christ chronologically as the end of what Christians of civilizational rivalry between Christendom and the Islamic ca­ too easily call "the Old Covenant," truth falls within the monopo­ liphate in the Mediterranean basin. The Assyrian Church, with a ly of the church, which is identified with the Christian empires of strongly biblical theology influenced by Theodore of Mopsuestia, the medieval age and more loosely with the West. This sociological Nestorius, and other early Syrian Christians, and much less con­ view of the church, rooted in the Constantinian era of the Byzan­ stricted by Mediterranean power politics than their co-religionists tine empire, was further emphasized as a result of the political and in the West, could accept Muhammad as being unquestionably "in social expansion of Islam from the seventh-century A.D. and its the way of the prophets." Their understanding of revelation was challenge to the Christian world-view. Thereafter Christians, like clearly inclusive of the wide and diverse religious expressions in Muslims, divided the world into realms of faith (dar aI-islam) and human history, and this without prejudice to-indeed because unbelief (dar al-leufr); each identified themselves with the former, of-their grasp of divine revelation as they perceived it in Christ. politically as well as religiously, and vied with one another in In similar spirit this essay would suggest, by way of conclu­ seeking to vanquish, subject, or at least control the latter. Hence sion, that a modern Christian theological response to the Muslim theology became enmeshed in the power politics of imperialism question "Do you accept Muhammad as a prophet?" might be for­ from which it has hardly yet been liberated. mulated upon the following considerations: As an alternative to this view, Khodr recalls us to the biblical 1. God's revelation of his word as the power over, within, and sense, in the Acts of the Apostles and some of the Pauline epistles beyond creation is universal, and is universally performative of his in particular, of the universality of divine revelation, which links purposes in achieving what the Bible terms "the kingdom of God" all humankind with the eternity transcending history, as signified (which in meaning is by no means strange to the vision of the in the economy of Christ-the universal sign that all human be­ Qur'an). ings are made participants in the creative and salvific activity of 2. Divine revelation is evidenced universally in nature and in God, a sign that is eternally present in the mystery of the omni­ human history, through communities and individuals, and in the present Holy Spirit. "To say mystery," he stresses, "is to point to deepest apprehensions of the religious traditions that have evolved the strength that is breathing in the event. It also points to the around them. freedom of God who in His work of providence and redemption is 3. The Bible, in its Hebrew and Greek parts, provides us with not tied down to any event."31 Hence Khodr appeals to Christians a centuries-long set of interpretations of divine revelation through to repossess a faith in God's revelation in Christ that is seen "not the graphic record of God's actions in the history of Israel, exem­ merely chronologically but also and above all ontologically,"32 as plifying the universal pattern of divine activity in the analysis of a expounded by such church fathers as Justin Martyr, Clement of particular people and, in the New Testament, a particular person, Alexandria, and Origen. Jesus, and the apostolic church.P" The only example that Khodr can offer of a Christian tradi­ 4. The gospel in Christ, for the Christian, signifies the perfor­ tion entirely independent of the stultifying Western ecclesiology is mative pattern of universal divine revelation of which the church that of the ancient Assyrian Church, one of whose patriarchs, is called to be the doxological sign in the world, pointing however Timothy, we have already mentioned. Khodr writes: wretchedly in its history to the ontological dynamics of the king­ dom of God. . . . the Nestorian [Le., Assyrian] Church ... is almost unique in its 5. As God has left no people without witnesses to his divine effort to nurture the spiritual development of the religions it en­ revelation, so the church in the power of the Holy Spirit should countered by "improving" them from within [Buddhism in Tibet and China] while not "alienating" them. Mission in this way spiri­ explore the many extra-biblical testimonies positively and with tually adopts the whole of creation. We find within the Persian imagination, searching them for complementary signs of the mys­ Church in Mesopotamia the boldest attempt at an approach to tery of divine providence and critically adopting them into its own Islam. The prophetic character of Muhammad is defined in Nestori­ doxology. an texts on the basis of a specific analysis of the Muhammadan 6. Muhammad is manifestly such a sign "in the way of the message. But there is no blurring of the centrality and ontological prophets," the Qur'an witnessing to the universality of divine rev­ uniqueness of Christ [esus.P elation, reiterating many of the fundamental perceptions of the Bible, and providing as it were a critical commentary on the more To illustrate this point we might usefully quote the relevant pas­ dogmatic aspects of particularly New Testament belief, and Mu­ sage from the dialogue between Patriarch Timothy and Caliph al­ hammad exemplifying the application of the Quaranic vision in Mahdi, which was mentioned by Borrmans in his Orientations: society.

July 1984 115 Along these lines may not the Christian with integrity join God, which challenges us to relive the"experience of all the proph­ with the Muslim in responding to the Qur'an's invitation to "ask ets, particularly Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad as they wrestled blessings upon him [Muhammad] and salute him with a worthy with the task of "creating peace in the city": Moses as he with­ salutation" (Q. 33:56) in the spirit of Jesus' own command: "Let drew from the tyranny of pharaonic Egypt in an exodus that there be no limit to your salutation as your heavenly Father's brought the Children of Israel to the land of Canaan and eventual­ goodness knows no bounds" (cf. Mt. 5:48, RSV and NEB). Such salu­ ly ; Jesus as, entering upon the climax of his ministry, tation commits us, however, to work together as Christians and "he drew near and saw the city and wept over it, saying: 'Would Muslims, together with all other human respondents to the uni­ that even today you knew the things that make for peace' " (Lk. versal divine revelation, for the fuller realization of God's rule on 19:41-42); and Muhammad as he made his hijra (migration) to Me­ earth. It is not a concession to the dogmatic postulates of a particu­ dina in his search for the 'umma muslima. Only thus, in the streets of lar religious tradition, nor is it to surrender one inadequate, chro­ our modern cities, laboratories of religious, ethnic, social, and po­ nological understanding of "finality" in revelation for another. litical pluralism, can we authenticate the meaning of prophethood Rather, it is to participate creatively in the universal activity of in the contemporary world.

Notes

1. A. von Denffer, "Muhammad-A prophet or I A Great Religious Lead­ 21. Ibid., p. 218. er'?" Impact International (London) July 11-24, 1980, p. 2. 22. Ibid., p. 223. 2. From the earliest years of Islam we have evidence of Muslim identifi­ 23. For a full analysis of these statements, see "The Muslim-Christian Dia­ cation of Muhammad with the Paraclete of St. John's Gospel, here ren­ logue of the Last Ten Years," Pro Mundi Vita Bulletin (Brussels) 74 (Sep­ dered in Arabic by ,ahmad, which is almost synonymous with the word tember-October 1978). . muhammad. 24. Maurice Borrmans, Orientations pour un Dialogue entre Chretiens ei Musul­ 3. See David Kerr, "The Problem of Christianity in Muslim Perspective," mans(Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1981; published for the Secretariat for International Bulletin ofMissionary Research 5, no. 4 (October 1981): 152-62. Non-Christians [Rome]). 4. See B. Utomo, "The Concept of tahrifin the Qur'an and Muslim Exege­ 25. Ibid., pp. 80-82. sis," unpublished M.A. thesis, Birmingham Univ., Birmingham 1982. 26. Mention must be made of the Second. Congress of Muslim-Christian 5. See D. Sahas, John of Damascus on Islam: The Heresy of the Ishmaelites' (Lei­ Friendship held at Cordoba, Spain, March 1977, bringing mainly Cath­ den: E. J. Brill, 1972). olic and Muslim scholars together to reappraise the prophets, and in 6. See A. Khuri, La Controoerse Byzantine avec l'Islam (Paris: Foi et Vie, Ca­ particular Muhammad. The papers dealt substantively with Muham­ hiers d'Etudes Chretiennes Orientales, 1969). mad in Muslim testimony and Christian evaluation, and to a lesser 7. See J. Kritzeck, Peter the Venerable and Islam (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton degree with Jesus. Clearly the discussions were "frank" and neither the Univ. Press, Oriental Series no. 23, 1964). papers nor' the proceedings of the conference have been published. For 8. See R. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, a summary report, see M. Borrmans, "The Muslim-Christian Dialogue Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 19-26. of the Last Ten Years," Pro Mundi Vita Bulletin 74 (September-October 9. See J. Bohnstedt, "The Infidel Scourge of God: The Turkish Menace as 1978): p. 30-31. Seen by German Pamphleteers of the Reformation Era," Transactions of 27. E.g., von Denffer, "Muhammad," p. 3. theAmerican Philosophical Society 58, (new series), part 9 (1968). 28. M. Borrmans, Orientations, p. 80. 10. See J. Waltz, "Muhammad and the Muslims in St. Thomas Aquinas," 29. World Council of Churches, The Ecumenical Review, April 1971, pp. 66 (1976): 81-95. 118-28; cf. Gerald H. Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, eds., Mission 11. Norman Daniel, Islam and the ~st (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, Trends No.5, (New York, N.Y.: Paulist Press. 1981), pp. 36-49 (to which 1960). reference will be made); 12. See J. Ferguson, "Carlyle, Maurice and Islam," Newsletter: Centre for the 30. Mission Trends No.5, p. 42. Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, no. 4 (November 1980): 31. Ibid., p. 43. 11-15. 32. Ibid., p. 42. 13. William M. Watt, Muhammad at Mecca (1953) and Muhammad at Medina 33. Ibid. (1956), both published by Clarendon Press, Oxford. The two volumes 34. W. Young, Patriarch, Shah and Caliph (Rawalpindi: Christian Study Cen­ are condensed in Muhammad, Prophet and Statesman (London: Oxford tre, 1974), pp. 202-203; cf. R. Caspar, "Les versions arabes du dialogue Univ. Press. 1961). entre le Catholicos Timothee 1 et le Calife al-Mahdi" (2nd/8th centu­ 14. Watt does address himself obliquely to the theological issue in other of ry) "Mohammed a suivi la voie des prophetes," Islamochrisiiana 3 (1977): his writings, notably Islamic Revelation in the Modern WOrld (Edinburgh: 107-75, (Pontificio Istituto Di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica, Rome). Univ. Press, 1969), where, in the conclusion, he suggests that all great 35. The universal aspect of living revelation is emphasized in the Genesis world religions "must be based in some sense on a divine revelation," account of creation and the Noahic covenant (chs. 1-9), and is never for which reason they should "advance in dialogue," learning "to ac­ being lost sight of thereafter, though the Bible focuses upon the Abra­ cept one another as complementary, at least for the time being" (pp. hamiccovenant through the lineage of Jacob (Israel) (Gen. 17). However, 126-27). the Abrahamic covenant is richly suggestive of a biblical perspective 15. Kenneth Cragg, The Call of the Minaret (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, upon Muhammad, whose lineage in the Islamic biographies is traced 1956). back through to the descendants of . The latter, in Genesis, is 16. Ibid., p. 75. placed firmly within God's covenant with Abraham, for which reason 17. Ibid., p. 91. he was circumised (17:26-27), and 17:20 records the divine assurance 18. Ibid., p. 93. that "I shall bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceed­ 19. Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (Lon­ ingly; he shall be father of twelve princes and I will make him a great don: Edinburgh House Press, 1938). nation" (cf. Isa. 60:7-8). 20. Ibid., p. 220.

116 International Bulletin of Missionary Research

------