"World's future hinges on peace between faiths"

This was the headline in today's Guardian newspaper after a group of leading Muslim scholars had written to Pope Benedict, Rowan Williams and others stressing the need for understanding between the Muslim and Christian faiths. The letter focusses in on the shared beliefs, quoting both the Qur'an and the Bible and argues for the two underlying principles of the faiths as "love of the one God and love of neighbour". The letter goes on to say that Mohammed was told the same truths as revealed to previous Christian and Jewish prophets. The sentiments are welcome and it is great to have Muslim leaders seen to build bridges like this. However, these are the kind of remarks that make many Christians run for cover from dialogue with other faiths. Yes, there is so much shared history, so many similar texts, many shared prophets.....But, there are some very crucial differences. It seems to me that the hope of peaceful co-existence rests on our ability to affirm and bless the other even when we hold such different versions of the truth. I'm probably overstating the point, but conscious of some comments on a blog elsewhere revealing  discomfort about the  whole business of  interfaith  dialogue, I'd want to reframe the argument in different terms. Yes, there is an especial responsibility between Christians, Jews and Muslims to live peacably because of their shared histories. What will actually enable them to do that will be the discovery of love through difference not dialogue that ignores difference....And this is an ever-so gentle nudge to my own evangelical tradition to say, "yes", we should be getting in on the act. When we do we're getting in on God's very actions displayed at the cross: love across the divide, love across difference.

Comments

[ste]

Excellent nudge!

I've also experienced this with my mulsim friends and colleagues, most clearly around Christmas with 'we believe the same thing about Jesus'.

I havn't yet found a way to move beyond this 'we should be together becasue we all believe the same' yet, without pushing so hard it's not beneficial.

How do you move forward in this way?

Steve

[David]

"Different versions of the *truth*"?

I know this is a tedius thing for me to say but could it not be that neither Christianity or Islam are "the truth", and that's why they can't be properly reconciled - they're both adament that their claims are the only way, yet neither accepts the more obvious alternative that there is NO god, so we can stop fighting about it now and get on with making THIS world a safer, less prejudiced place to live.

I'm not saying there is no god by the way, I'm just saying that in the face of it, that's more likely than these "truths".