Introduction: Exploring a New Trajectory in Interreligious Encounter 1. A. Christian Van Gorder, No God but God: a Path to Musli
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Notes Introduction: Exploring a New Trajectory in Interreligious Encounter 1. A. Christian van Gorder, No God But God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Dialogue on God’s Nature (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003), backcover. 2. Martin Forward’s analysis of the meaning of the term “dia-logue” is helpful here. He affirms that “dia-logue signifies worldviews being argued through to significant and potentially transformative conclu- sions, for one or more participants.” See his Inter-religious Dialogue: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001), 12. Interreligious dialogue entails a conscious effort to think and grapple with one’s reli- gious identity and its concomitant credentials. It involves consciously thinking through one’s own tradition. It is not a sloppy affirmation of religious doctrines. Rather, it is an attempt to engage in deep theologi- cal reflections. 3. Israel Selvanayagam, “Inter-Faith Dialogue: A Clarification of Perspectives and Issues,” Current Dialogue 23 (December 1992): 20. 4. Arvind Sharma, “Towards a Theory of Dialogue,” Current Dialogue 32 (December 1998): 36. 5. For an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, see David Daniels, “Reterritorizing the West in World Christianity: Black North Atlantic Christianity and the Edinburgh Conferences of 1910 and 2010,” Journal of World Christianity 5 (2012): 102–23. 6. Diana L. Eck, A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation (New York: HarperCollins, 2001). 7. “President Addresses the Ghanaian Parliament in Accra,” July 11, 2009, Accra, Ghana, http://www.uspolicy.be/headline/obama’s- speech-ghana. 8. Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (New York: Modern Library, 2003), 5. 9. See “Hold Your Nose and Talk,” The Economist, September 29, 2012. 184 NOTES 10. Farid Esack, quoted in Union Now, 3 (Summer 2013): 24. 11. For a good study on this phenomenon, see Daniel Smith-Christopher, ed., Subverting Hatred: The Challenges of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007). 1 Interpretations: Toward a New Approach in Christian-Muslim Encounters 1. For detailed studies of different models and voices in Christian- Muslim relations, see Nasir Khan, Perceptions of Islam in Christendom: A Historical Survey (Oslo: Solum Forlag, 2006); A. Hourani, Western Attitudes Towards Islam (Southampton: University of Southampton, 1974); B. Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches Toward the Muslim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984); Michael Frassetto and David R. Blanks, eds., Western Views of Islam in Medieval and Early Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999); Montgomery Watt, Muslim-Christian Encounters: Perceptions and Misperception (London and New York: Routledge, 1991); Yvonne Y. Haddad and Wadi Z. Haddad, eds., Christian-Muslim Encounters (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995); Jean-Marie Gaudeul, Encounters & Clashes: Islam and Christianity in History, 2 vols. (Rome: Pontificio Instituto di Studi Arabi e Islamici, 1990); N. A. Newman, ed., The Early Christian-Muslim Dialogue: A Collections of Documents from the First Three Islamic Centuries (632–900 A.D.) (Pennsylvania: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1993) Kate Zebiri, Muslims and Christians Face to Face (London: Oneworld, 1997); Hugh Goddard, A History of Christian-Muslim Relations (New Amsterdam Books, 2000); O. N. Mohammed, Muslim-Christian Relations: Past, Present, and Future (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999); M. A. Anees, S. Z. Abedin, and Z. Sardar, Christian-Muslim Relations: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (London: Grey Seal, 1991); and H. P. Goddard, Christians and Muslims: From Double Standards to Mutual Understanding (London: Curzon, 1995). 2. This is the title of the two-volume compilation of the various ways Christians and Muslims have interacted with each other since the seventh century. 3. A good study of the demographic distribution of Muslims all over the world is Byron L. Haines and Frank L. Cooley, eds., Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians (Philadelphia: Geneva Press, 1987) 4. For a good introduction to the global dimension in world religions, see Mark Juergensmeyer, ed., Global Religions: An Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). 5. Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion Is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2003), 56. NOTES 185 6. See Richard W. Rousseau, Christianity & Islam: The Struggling Dialogue (Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 2005). 7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “Islamic-Christian Dialogue: Problems and Obstacles to be Pondered and Overcome,” Islam and Christian- Muslim Relations 2 (July 2000): 213. 8. Runnymede Trust (Commission on British Muslims and Islamo- phobia), Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All (London: Runnymede Trust, 1997). 9. Mark Juergensmeyer has theorized that warfare organizes people into a “we” and a “they.” This way of looking at reality “organizes social history into a storyline of persecution, conflict, and the hope of redemption, liberation, and conquest.” See his Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 173. 10. Wole Soyinka, “Religion against Humanity,” lecture at the 2012 Conference on the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, United Nations Headquarters, New York, September 21, 2012, 1. 11. Desmond Tutu, cited in www.excellentquotations.com, accessed on March 13, 2013. Charles Kimball adds more emphasis to this dimension. According to him, “within the religious traditions that have stood the test of time, one finds the life-affirming faith that has sustained and provided meaning for millions over the centu- ries. At the same time, we can identify the corrupting influences that lead toward evil and violence in all religious traditions.” See Charles Kimball, When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 5. 12. In a terse reference to the manipulative tendency of religion, Zhara, the heroine in the movie The Stoning of Soraya M remarked that the Mullah can “make a snake to swallow its tail.” This comment underscores the volatility of religion and how it can be used to orchestrate and validate selfish and narrow motives. Set in the con- text of post-Khomeini Iran, the movie is a gripping account of the pernicious potential of religion. The conspiracy to publicly stone an innocent woman accused of adultery was sanctioned by the religious authority. 13. Gavin D’Costa has argued that religious conflicts are often tainted by political considerations. See his Christianity and World Religions: Disputed Questions in the Theology of Religions (Chichester: Wiley- Blackwell, 2009), 87–91. 14. Ninian Smart, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000), 5. 15. The word “encounter” captures the complexity and the dynamism of the interaction among Christians and Muslims in Africa. The word can be traced to the Latin contra, meaning “against,” or to the old French encontrer, which refers to the meeting of rivals. The word underscores the ambivalence that is involved in relationships and 186 NOTES interactions. For a good analysis of this perspective, see Benjamin F. Soares, “Muslim-Christian Encounters in Africa,” in Muslim- Christian Encounters in Africa, ed. Benjamin F. Soares (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 3. 16. For a good analysis, see Martin Buss, “The Idea of Sitz in Leben— History and Critique,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 90 (1978): 157–70. 17. Kenneth Cragg, Sandals at the Mosque: Christian Presence amid Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959), 19. 18. A firm affirmation of diversity is affirmed in the Qur’an. See Surat Al-Hujurat 49:13: “O mankind, indeed we have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is knowing and acquainted.” 19. For a good analysis of this perspective, see Dale T. Irvin, Hearing Many Voices (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993). 20. Paul F. Knitter has developed four models to account for the vari- ous Christian responses to Islam. They are: replacement, fulfillment, mutuality, and acceptance. This first acknowledges that Christianity is the only true religion. The second model affirms the elements of truth and grace in other religions. The third states that there are many true religions, without saying that one religion is superior to the other. The last model affirms the diversity of religions with- out the need to create a common ground among them. See Paul F. Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religions (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002. 21. Sulayman S. Nyang, Islam, Christianity, and African Identity (Vermont: Amana, 1984), 84. Lamin Sanneh has however cautioned that Sudan is the only black African country where these two pro- cesses worked effectively. He affirms that in the rest of the continent, one can only speak of the use of the sacred Arabic language as the most visible sign of Islamization. 22. Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983), xvi. 23. Kwame Nkrumah, Conscientism (London: Heinemann, 1964), 93–94. 24. Ali Mazrui, “Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. John L. Esposito (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 264. 25. See Madeleine Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections