Sharing Lights on the Way to God: Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Theology in the Context of Abrahamic Partnership

406 Pages·2006·1.33 MB·English

by  Pim Valkenberg

Sharing Lights
On the Way to God
CURRENTS OF ENCOUNTER
STUDIES ON THE CONTACT BETWEEN
CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS,
BELIEFS, AND CULTURES
GENERAL EDITORS
REIN FERNHOUT
JERALD D. GORT
HENRY JANSEN
LOURENS MINNEMA
HENDRIK M. VROOM
ANTON WESSELS
VOL. 26
Sharing Lights
On the Way to God
Muslim-Christian Dialogue
and Theology in the Context
of Abrahamic Partnership
Pim Valkenberg
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Cover illustration: ©Wladimir Zbynovsky, Ner Tamid, c/o Beeldrecht
Amsterdam 2006
Cover design: Pier Post
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
“ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for
documents - Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 90-420-1799-6
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Printed in the Netherlands
Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IX
INTRODUCTION XI
CHAPTER 1 1
Hospitality: The Threshold to Interreligious Dialogue 1
1.1 Hospitality: An Underdeveloped Virtue 1
1.2 Friendly Manners – Unfriendly Faith 4
1.3 Receiving the Stranger: A Biblical Perspective 6
1.4 Hospitality: Philosophical Reflections and Political
Consequences 1
1.5 Companionship at Table: Hospitality and the Holy 20
CHAPTER 2 29
Small Beginnings: Dialogue in Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2.1 An Unfinished Bridge: From the Study of Dialogue to
Participation in Dialogue 29
2.2 Passing over the River: Encounter with the Islam and
Dialogue Foundation 34
2.3 Building the Structures of Interreligious Dialogue in
Nijmegen 4
2.4 The Situation of Muslims in the Netherlands 46
CHAPTER 3 5
The significance of Dialogue Between Abrahamic Religions
3.1 The Necessity of a Third Partner in Dialogue 55
3.2 Monotheistic and Abrahamic Religions 57
3.3 Not Abraham but the God of Abraham and Sarah and
Hagar 62
3.4 Muslim-Christian Dialogue and the Role of Abraham,
Hagar and Ishmael 72
3.5 Awraham and Sarah: a Jewish Interruption 76
CHAPTER 4 81
Contexts and Meanings of Interreligious Dialogue
4.1 The Dual Sources of Contemporary Dialogue 83
4.2 Forms of Dialogue and the History of Apologetics 87
4.3 Inequality in Dialogue: A Contextual Analysis 97
4.4 Levels and Aims of Dialogue: The Approach by the
Roman Catholic Church 101
4.5 Dialogue in Practice: The Contribution of the World
Council of Churches 108
CHAPTER 5 13
The Future of Interreligious Dialogue: Multiple Belonging
5.1 Interreligious and Interfaith Dialogue 113
5.2 Theological Universalist Approaches to the Future Of
Religion 17
5.3 Phenomenological Approaches to Religion: Multiple
Belonging 124
5.4 The ‘Inter-’ of Interreligious Dialogue: Syncretism or
Separation? 134
5.5 Practical Consequences 1: Prayer and Fasting 148
5.6 Practical Consequences 2: Emulating in Good Deeds 150
CHAPTER 6 163
Three Theologies of Religions and the Role of Comparative
Theology
6.1 Children of Noah: A Jewish Theology of Religions 164
6.1.1 Classical Sources 165
6.1.2 Three Contemporary Interpretations 169
6.2 Word and Spirit of God: A Christian Theology of
Religions 171
6.2.1 Jacques Dupuis 172
6.2.2 Gavin D'Costa 177
6.2.3 S. Mark Heim 180
6.3 People of the Book: A Muslim Theology of Religions 183
6.3.1 Ismail Raji al-Faruqi 185
6.3.2 Farid Esack 188
6.4 Theology of Religions, Theology of Dialogue,
Comparative Theology 193
6.4.1 Christian Theology of Religions: Sources and Models 193
6.4.2 Theologies of Interreligious Dialogue and Religious
Pluralism 196
6.4.3 Comparative Theologies 200
CHAPTER 7 21
Lights on the Way: Spiritual and Theological Masters of the
Past
7.1 On Sharing Lights 211
7.2 Thomas Aquinas and the Hidden Presence of God 213
7.3 Abu Hamid Muhammad al-GhazƗlƯ (1058-1111) 219
7.3.1 Approaches to his Life and Work 221
7.3.2 Deliverance from Eror 227
7.3.3 The Niche of Lights 235
7.3.4 The Beautiful Names of God 239
7.3.5 Faith and Trust in God 243
7.3.6 On Knowing and Loving God 251
7.4 An Interlude on MuhyƯ al-dƯn ibn al-ǥArabƯ (1165-1240) 254
7.5 Maulana JalƗl al-dƯn RnjmƯ (1207-1273) 257
7.5.1 Life and Context of JalƗl al-dƯn RnjmƯ 259
7.5.2 RnjmƯ as the Poet of Love 260
7.5.3 God's Hidden Presence and the Dialectics of Self 262
CHAPTER 8 269
More Lights on the Way: Spiritual and Theological Masters of
the Present
8.1 Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) 271
8.1.1 Life and Context 271
8.1.2 The Damascus Sermon 274
8.1.3 Signs of Miraculousness 278
8.1.4 The Epistles of Light (Risale-i Nur) 282
8.1.5 The Nurçuluk Movement and Interreligious Dialogue 301
8.2 Interlude: Nada te Turbe (How to Find Your True Home 304
8.3 Fethullah Gülen (1938) and the Neo-Nur Movement 309
8.3.1 Gülen's Life and Context 309
8.3.2 Fethullah Gülen on Tolerance and Dialogue 312
8.3.3 Education as Central Concept in the Gülen Movement 319
8.4 Tariq Ramadan and the Future of Islam in the West 321
BIBLIOGRAPHY 329
INDEX 367
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Acknowledgements
No book on interreligious dialogue can be written without the collab-
oration of many people. The most important people have been those
Jews, Christians and Muslims who shared their faith experiences with
me in several forms of dialogue. While their names will not be men-
tioned many times in this book, their faces have often been before my
eyes in the process of writing. The same holds true for many of my
students in religious studies and intercultural theology, both in Nij-
megen, the Netherlands and in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since
there is no lecturing without learning, students often teach their lec-
turers as well.
I am fortunate to have many colleagues in the Department of
Theology and Religious Studies with whom I could discuss several
topics related to interreligious dialogue and theology. Frans Wijsen,
Aad de Jong, Frans Jespers, Hedwig Meyer-Wilmes and Paul van der
Velde are among them. Johannes A. van der Ven and Hermann Häring
awakened my interest in the relations between religions long ago, and
they continued to follow my thoughts on these matters critically.
Georg Essen, who holds the chair of dogmatic theology in Nijmegen,
has always encouraged me to go my own way. In fact, he convinced
me of the necessity to write this book at this moment of my life.
I am grateful to the board of the Faculty of Theology for granting
me a sabbatical leave that made it possible to finish the book. It was a
pleasure to be able to do some real research once again after several
years of mainly management tasks. The University of Notre Dame in
the United States gave me the right inspiration to do it. It was an ad-
venture to go abroad together with my family, but we made a great
many friends there: first of all, my mentor David Burrell, who was a
real friend in his own inimitable way, but Mary Doak, Patrice
Brodeur, Michael Signer, Marianne Farina and Asma Afsaruddin as
well.
Some of my fellow travellers along the path of dialogue and theo-
logy between Muslims, Christians and Jews have helped me greatly