Abstract
In making my remarks, I would like to speak neither as a theologian nor as a ‘representative’ of Christianity in any official sense, but in my professional capacity as an historian of religion. In situations of dialogue or colloquy between members of different faiths, the historian of religion can be most useful, as Wilfred Cantwell Smith put it, by serving as a ‘broker’, and trying to help the process of communication by pointing out areas and principles of mutual interest.1 With this in mind, I would like to point out some aspects of the Islamic tradition that should claim the attention of Christians, make some general remarks on the progress of the colloquy so far, and discuss the topic of the trusteeship of Adam as raised in Dr Badawi’s chapter. I would like to conclude with some historical observations on the tradition of spiritual exegesis of the Qur’an.
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Notes and References
Wilfred Cantwell Smith, ‘Comparative Religion: Whither — and Why?’ in Mircea Eliade and Joseph Kitagawa (eds), The History of Religions, Essays in Methodology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959; reprint edn, 1974) p. 51.
J. W. Sweetman, Islam and Christian Theology, 2 vols in 4 parts (London: Lutterworth, 1945–67);
Louis Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane, Essai de theologie comparée, Études de philosophic médiévale, XXXVII (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1948);
Louis Gardet, Dieu et la destinée de l’homme, Les grands problèmes de la théologie musulmane, Essai de theologie comparée, Études musulmanes, IX (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1967).
For a briefer presentation, see Annemarie Schimmel, ‘The Prophet Muhammad as a Centre of Muslim Life and Thought’, in Annemarie Schimmel and Abdoldjavad Falatūri (eds), We Believe in One God: The Experience of God in Christianity and Islam (New York: The Seabury Press, 1979) pp. 35–62.
Louis Massignon, The Passion of Hallaj, Harold W. Mason, (trans), 4 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982).
Cf. The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott (ed.) (New York: Guild Press, 1966) pp. 656–68, especially p. 663. See also Bassetti-Sani’s biographical work, Louis Massignon: Christian Orientalist).
Henry Corbin, ‘Theologoumena Iranica,’ Studia Islamica, 5 (1976) pp. 225–35.
Ibn Khaldun, The Mugaddimah, An Introduction to History, Franz Rosenthal (trans.) N. J. Dawood (ed.) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967) ch. 3, especially pp. 160ff.
S. M. Stern, Aristotle on the World State (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970) especially pp. 3–8, 78–84.
Alfarabi (sic), ‘The Political Regime’, Fauzi M. Najjar (trans.), in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (eds) (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1963; reprint edn, 1978) pp. 31–57.
Ralph Lerner (trans.), Averroes on Plato’s ‘Republic’ (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974) pp. 71ff.
Dante Alighieri, On World-Government or De Monarchia, Herbert W. Schneider, (trans.), A Liberal Arts Press Book (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1949; reprint edn, 1957).
Alfarabi, p. 41. ‘The Political Regimé,’ p. 41.
Paul Nwyia, Exégèse coranique et langage mystique, Nouvel essai sur le lexique techniques des mystiques musulmans (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq Editeurs, 1970).
Abdullah Yusuf Ali (trans.), The Glorious Qur’an (The Muslim Students’ Association of the United States and Canada, 1395/1975) p. 123, n. 348, emphasis mine. The present-day system of punctuation of the Qur’an is relatively recent. Today there are seven different recensions of the Qur’an, differing in very slight details of word-formation and punctuation, and at one time there were more; for details, see W. Montgomery Watt, Bell’s Introduction to the Qur’an, Islamic Surveys 8 (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1970) pp. 47–50.
Ruzbihan Baqli Shirazi, Sharh-i Shathiyat (ed.), Henry Corbin, Bibliothèque Iranienne 12 (Tehran: Department d’iranologie de l’Institut franco-iranien, 1966) pp. 57–8;
George F. Hourani (trans.), Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ‘E. J. W. Gibb Memorial’ Series, n.s. XXII (London: Luzac & Co., 1961) pp. 22–8 (‘Allegorical interpretation of Scripture’); Edward E. Salisbury, ‘Translation of Two Unpublished Arabic Documents Relating to the Doctrines of the Isma’ilis and Other Batinian Sects’, Journal of the American Oriental Society II (1851) p. 310.
Martin Pine, ‘Double Truth’, Dictionary of the History of Ideas, II, 31–7.
Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, Willard Trask (trans.) (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960), index, s.v. ‘tawil’.
Richard Joseph McCarthy (trans.), Freedom and Fulfillment (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980) Appendix I, ‘Faysal al-Tafriqa bayn al-Islām wa 1-Zandaqa’ (sic) pp. 145–74.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, West-Östlicher Divan, Goldmanns Gelbe Taschenbücher, Band 487 (Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 1958) p. 56 (‘If islam means submitting to God, in islam we all live and die’).
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Ernst, C.W. (1989). A Christian Response to Jamāl Badawi: The Earth and Humanity: A Muslim View. In: Hick, J., Meltzer, E.S. (eds) Three Faiths — One God. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09434-9_11
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