www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Catholicism & Islam: worshipping the same "God"?

I agree to a certain extent. The Western church has not really had the experience of living under the Islamic yoke in the same way that the Eastern communities have.

Yet, at the same time, I hear the Master say something about turning the cheek, not seven times but seventy times seven times. And I hear "God is Love; whoever abides in love abides in God and God in him or her."

Now comes the rub: how can we fulfill the Master's command without at the same time allowing ourselves to get stabbed in the back? (Although once again I look at the martyrs and wonder how much we should endeavor to "preserve" our lives?)

T'is a puzzlement.

Blessings!

Dear Fr. Dn. Edward,

When I read this exact passage in an English translation of the Qu'ran (in that translation, it was called "The Exordium"), I loved it so much that for a while I added it into my private prayers. I should look it up again...

Ok, ok, I'm new to this. But if we are to believe that there is one God who created all of existance, then how can you believe that there are different Gods? I know this may sound overly simplistic, but it is a question that I've yet to have answered by the RC Chruch.

Let me back up, I am Cherokee, adopted by a RC couple. My father's family is still RC. My mother's is diverse. She has recently found the Byzantine Catholic Church and has asked me to take a look.

As for my Cherokee heritage, there is only one Creator/God, but he gave different peoples different ways to worship for his own unknowable reasons.

So, forgive me for asking such a simple question. But, really, if you beilieve there is only on God in all of existance, how can you argue that "your" God is not the same God that someone else believes in?

Unless you claify that you are arguing over "how" that God us understood. Which is VERY different from the argument of "what" God is the true God.

Again, forgive my innocence, but I don't understand what the different "Gods" thing is amoung those who claim there is only one God. Are you in fact dicussing "how" that God is, rather than "who" that God is?

So, what is the Byzantine stand on this?

Wado,
Ben Balser

Mor Ephrem,

I have two different translations of the Quran, in the one I used it's called "Al-Fatihah: Makki" and in the other it's "the Exordium" as you noted. In the first translation the word "Allah" is used, and I translated that from the Arabic to "God" for my post.

And, yes, I find it a beautiful way to start anything, especially a day that is to be filled with prayer.

Edward, deacon and sinner

Ben,

I think that this discussion on the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian religions is facinating!

To build on your point, I think one important thing to consider is how God has revealed Himself to humanity throughout history. Christian teaching, drawing on our Jewish roots, is that God has revealed Himself and His inner life gradually to humanity since our fall from Paradise. As humanity spread throughout the earth, each culture's understanding of God was to a certain extent dependent upon their relationship to one of the covenant mediators (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc...). This understanding of God's revelation, however, may not have taken into account the "new" ways in which God was revealing Himself. For instance, there were physical and spiritual descendants of Noah all over the earth who were not - and still are not - aware of God's revelation to Abraham.

With that said, due to the weakend and imperfect nature of man, many cultures were imperfect vehicles for revelation, and the covenant message that was inherited often times became corrupted or entirely distorted. Part of Israel's vocation, as the "blessed" physical and spiritual offspring of Abraham, was to spread the message of God - to be a leaven of revelation in the midst of the world. With the advent of the Messiah, the Christian Church has inherited that vocation as the "new Israel of God", spreading the message of God's new covenant mediator, Jesus Christ, throughout the earth.

My point? I agree with you and think that we need to tread cautiously when asserting that others do not worship "the same" God. I think we need to understand that within various cultures there are aspects of a primitive monotheistic revelation that may exist - even profoundly. While Christian revelation is eternally "new", it is founded on the pillars of previous covenants that others, with us, have also inherited. Our mission as Christians is to help complete and restore the revelation that others have inherited with the message of Jesus Christ and the new, final, and definitive Covenant, while discerning and integrating those aspects of personal and cultural belief that reflect either an earlier covenant revelation or the proper conclusions of reason in response to God's creation.

Islam, however, is something of a unique case. Islam post-dates Christianity, and in its explicit rejection of Trinitarian faith, takes a profound step "backwards" along the path of revelation. This much can be said about the teachings of Islam in relationship to the Christian revelation: To the extent that Muslims reject the Trinity, they do not worship the same God that we do. To the extent that they worship the one true God who created the universe, we do worship the same God.

Those are some of my rambling thoughts...

Peace,

gordo, sfo

[This message has been edited by e-bed (edited 07-09-2001).]

Dear Gordo,

Yours is one of the best explications of the relationship of culture to religion I've read in my life, and I am not kidding.

Your theme is developed also by those who see Islam as an approach to Monotheism from polytheism. While it is imperfect from the Christian point of view, it does contain many positive elements that are shared by Christians.

Lev Gillet, the Monk of the Eastern Church, once wrote that other religions can be a kind of "Old Testament" for Christianity.

Thomas Merton said that Christ is already present in other non-Christian cultures.

Our job as Christians is to point Him out to those who already know Him but do not acknowledge Him for what He truly is.

Salaam!

Alex