Friday 27th October 2006
Hugh Boulter is Chair of the Oxford Diocesan Committee for Inter-faith Concerns. Here he considers three books which, in different ways, deal with how Christians might respond to people of other faiths, and in particular Muslims.
Conviction and Conflict: Islam, Christianity and World Order (Continuum, £14.99) is based on the Scott Holland lectures which Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali gave in Oxford. It is a useful summary of the history of relations between Christians and Muslims and draws on Nazir-Ali's particular knowledge of Pakistan.
His approach to dialogue is less clear. He suggests that the classic definition of dialogue, 'arguments for the sake of reaching the truth', no longer holds good, but accepts that there is still merit in explaining one's own faith position and in listening to others. He gives examples of dialogue in which he has been involved and issues he considers ought to be discussed.
He mentions his own involvement in leading a team of Anglican theologians in dialogue with Al-Azhar, the Sunni seat of learning in Cairo, and discusses dialogue over political issues such as the role of democracy, human rights, responses to the 'just war' theory, and the relationship between faith communities and secular society. What Nazir-Ali does not address is how and why Christians and other people of faith should engage in dialogue at the local level.
By contrast, in Celebrating Difference, Staying Faithful: How to Live in a Multi-Faith World (DLT, £12.95), Andrew Wingate addresses the key issues which face individual Christians as they encounter people of other faiths. How do we engage in dialogue and what are we seeking to achieve? How do we handle conversions and inter-faith marriages? What about shared worship? How do we see the uniqueness of Christ in relation to those of other faiths?
Wingate does not duck the difficult issues and draws on his own wide experience to give examples of how he and others have responded. He is also open in showing how different Christian traditions have responded.
He contrasts a 'hard' and 'soft' approach to help people gauge where they stand. The 'hard' approach emphasises uniqueness, conversion, the necessity of either/or, human depravity, forgiveness, salvation, Jesus as Lord. A 'soft' approach places the emphasis on openness, diversity, both/and, the image of God, empowering and creating, God within, Jesus as friend. Most of us probably fall between the two extremes.
Islam: the Challenge to the Church (Isaac Publishing, £5.99). Patrick Sookhdeo clearly falls into Wingate's 'hard' category tending to see things in terms of black and white or either/or. His sweeping generalisations sometimes lead him into internal inconsistencies. On the same page he writes, 'Islam is basically totalitarian in nature,' then, 'Islam is multi-faceted in a way that is unlike any other religion,' but fails to explore the apparent contradiction.
Similarly he writes about his early childhood as a Muslim in Guyana where people of different faiths lived happily together, and contrasts this with Islamic hostility he experiences as a Christian in Britain today. He does not explain, although one suspects that it underlies his deep suspicion of engaging with Muslims in Britain. He is wary of accepting hospitality from them, suspicious of dialogue and reluctant to take part in inter-faith projects. Yet he recommends befriending Muslims in order to convert them.
Underlying these approaches is a differing view of the theology of love. A Hindu friend of the late Roger Hooker once asked him; 'Do you love me because you want to convert me, or do you want to convert me because you love me?' Addressing this question may help us to decide where we stand on the hard/soft scale.