Three Abrahams?
Click here (WallStreetJournal) to read a piece about the similarities vs. differences in heritage between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam...
What are your thoughts/reactions to Levinson's claims? Is he overly pessimistic? or realistic?
6 comments:
I think that Levinson is very realistic in his claims. The three major religions are not likely to ever come together and accept that they share more in common than they differ. This is an idea whose time has not yet come.
Bob
I think Levinson's article is respectfully thought out so as not to affend anyone. I believe his claims are correct. But getting the groups on the same page/seeing eye to eye on this subject is unrealitisic. Maybe in the future someone will hear from God and it can be cleared up. Then again maybe this is one question we are to ponder/wonder about not worry until the end.
Lisa
This sounds pessimistic, but in all likelihood, honest dialogue about the differences is not going to work either. In my experience, a persons faith is not something that can be negotiated, so pointing out the differences will lead nowhere. Just like pointing out the shared provenance will lead nowhere. The solution to this discord is in the distant future, and even that hope is optimistic.
John
There are many interesting parallels between Islamic, Jewish and Christian OT characters. Consider, for example, Gabriel’s role in the Christian NT and his role in Islam. In the Gospels he is the Angel of the Annunciation; he seeks and for all ages gets Mary’s permission (in the form of the Fiat: let it be done to me according to thy will). The theological implications of her ‘fiat’, as it is understood from the perspective of the Nicene Creed, a summary of the faith 350 years after the fact which is recognized by the universal church as a litmus test of orthodoxy. A virgin will conceive and beget a son who will be the son of God. What this entails is this: God will become flesh and walk the earth, not as an apparition or illusion but as an authentic human being who has all the characteristics of any ordinary homo sapiens. He will be subject to all of the vicissitudes of his humanity: sickness, fatigue, death, etc.. But he will be God nonetheless; he will possess all of the qualities and entitlements of the divinity: immortality, impassibility, and inerrancy being the foremost. True man, true God, he will arise from the dead and vanquish death. As for Mary, she will be known as theotokos, the God bearer, and venerated as such for or all ages. So thoroughly pervasive and central is the incarnational aspect of this idea that Catholicism, the most incarnational of all the Christian sects, not only is the invisible part of creation redeemed and made holy, but the visible part of creation is also redeemed. In Christ the all creation is sanctified and not only is it permissible to venerate holy images, it is encouraged.
As for Jibra’il, his Islamic twin and namesake, he is the angel who gave us, via the prophet Mohammad , the Quran. And what is the core message of the Qur’an? That Allah neither begets or is begotten! That the dogma of the Trinity is a polytheistic corruption! That the veneration of holy images and Mary as the Mother of God is idolatry! This is a pure form of Arianism, which the universal church after four centuries of debate and theological strife condemned and pushed out into the desert. Nevertheless, it managed to transmogrify in every age and emerge in new and very appealing forms, such as Islam, its most enduring and arguably most successful incarnation yet.
As far as most practical atheists and secular-minded people are concerned, it’s a matter of indifference who is right since it’s all nonsense. But as for the rest of us, who take theology seriously and believe that ideas have important consequences, comparisons between Islam and Christianity do little to mend the rift. All the Old and New Testament Muslim prophets are unrecognizable except for their names. As one of the old Alaska Jesuits once told me, “The Holy Spirit doesn’t contradict himself.” But if I understand it correctly, Allah transcends logic and not bound by its rules.
The differences that Levinson points our are large. However, a fundamental belief that I have as part of my own religion is that all Manifestations of God come from the same divine source. 'Abdul-Baha, a central figure of the Baha'i Faith, says "The divine prophets have revealed and founded religion. They have laid down certain laws and heavenly principles for the guidance of mankind. They have taught and promulgated the knowledge of God, established praiseworthy ethical ideals and inculcated the highest standards of virtue in the human world. Gradually these heavenly teachings and foundations of reality have been beclouded by human interpretations and dogmatic imitations of ancestral beliefs. The essential realities which the prophets labored so hard to establish in human hearts and minds while undergoing ordeals and suffering tortures of persecution, have now well nigh vanished. Some of these heavenly messengers have been killed, some imprisoned; all of them despised and rejected while proclaiming the reality of divinity. Soon after their departure from this world, the essential truth of their teachings was lost sight of and dogmatic imitations adhered to.
Inasmuch as human interpretations and blind imitations differ widely, religious strife and disagreement have arisen among mankind, the light of true religion has been extinguished and the unity of the world of humanity destroyed. The prophets of God voiced the spirit of unity and agreement. They have been the founders of divine reality. Therefore if the nations of the world forsake imitations and investigate the reality underlying the revealed Word of God they will agree and become reconciled. For reality is one and not multiple." (sorry for the long quote, but it all seemed relevant). So, to me, the religions fundamentally agree, and apparent contradictions are either in misinterpretations by people (after all, we are only human) or traditions that were given specifically to that people at the time, and do not necessarily apply now.
-Valerie
Outstanding comments & reflections. Valerie, I appreciate your contributions from the Baha'i Faith's perspective and its belief in Progressive Revelation. This goes directly to questions involving religious inclusivity vs. exclusivity. Muhammad's revelations strike me as originally aiming for a vast (indeed, all-encompassing) inclusivity of believers before Allah. Alas, as he soon discovered, Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and others were not particularly interested in abandoning their venerable traditions for the path of Islam. Christianity, of course, encountered something rather similar with respect to Judaism's attitudes.
Is there a difference between revelation as progressive vs. supersessionist??
pdk
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