Volf Lecture 1: A Common Word

Here is the first installment (read 2, 3, and 4) of my notes taken during today’s Kistemaker lectures by Dr. Miroslav Volf. This first of four lectures introduces the Islamic open letter entitled, A Common Word (ACW). (My own brief remarks are [in brackets] throughout the following.)

Introductory Remarks

To help locate his own identity within the wide ocean of Christianity, Volf labels himself as a member of “engaged orthodoxy.” This means he stands within classical Protestantism, but stands as one engaged [in culture]. (A few times during the day he may have used “Evangelical” in a self-referential way in passing remarks.)

In light of the pressing nees of our times, Dr. Volf’s goal is to encourage us to engage the Muslim-Christian relations issue in our future ministries, regardless of whether we agree with his opinions or the ACW initiative.

Background and Context: What is A Common Word?

In Dr. Volf’s opinion, Muslim-Christian relations are at their lowest point since the time of the Crusades. Thus ACW represents a very important interfaith document (perhaps the most important interfaith document in the last 40 years). ACW’s importance is seen in the eminence of the many Muslim scholars and leaders who signed the document.

ACW calls for unity among Muslims and Christians on the basis of (a) the unity of God, (b) man’s love to God, and (c) man’s love to neighbor being commonly-held, foundational beliefs of both Islam and Christianity. Significantly, ACW does not try to mix the religions (Judaism, Christianity, or Islam) together or deny differences between them, but rather clearly calls them “different religions.”

Two items help to understand the historical context to ACW: First, Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 speech on faith and reason, and, second, Islam’s internal identity crisis.

Pope Benedict’s 2006 Speech

First, the letter grows out of Muslim’s response to Pope Benedict’s 2006 speech on the relation of faith and reason. In the introduction to this speech, Pope Benedict quoted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus (~1391) who was debating an “educated Persian.” The Pope said:

…he addresses his interlocutor [an "educated Persian"] with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness that we find unacceptable, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Though this quote was not a part of the main point of the speech, Muslims were greatly agitated, so much so that they produced An Open Letter to Pope Benedict in 2006. This Open Letter, according to Dr. Volf, provided the seed bed for the more detailed ACW initiative in 2007.

Islamic Identity Crisis

The second historical contextual factor behind ACW is that Islam, in Dr. Volf’s assessment, is currently in an identity struggle with itself. Several streams of tradition are vying for the right to define Islam by answering, What does it mean to be a Muslim in the 21st century? This identity struggle centers on one key issue: Is Islam essentially a religion of law (i.e. Sharia) or a religion of mercy? The majority Wahabi stream of Islam holds to the primacy of the former while the minority Sufi stream gives primacy to the latter.

It is significant that most of the signers of ACW are Sufi Muslims. In the Q/A times, Dr. Volf admitted that the Sufi position is the minority, although he insisted that it is singularly important that so many prominent Muslim leaders are supportive of ACW. In light of Islam’s own Sunni-dominated history and current world events, the lingering question is whether or not ACW is a mere public relations maneuver to re-cast Islam to the West as a peaceful, loving religion, or whether ACW is a genuine interpretation of Islam. Dr. Volf encouraged us to take the Muslim leaders at their word–who are we to tell the Muslims how to interpret theri own faith? If they act out of accord with ACW, then Christians ought to lovingly remind them of their signatures.

One way to look at the ACW initiative, then, is to view it as an attempted hermeneutical self-adjustment, a re-casting of Islam’s image.

[For more on the identity crisis within modern Islam, see Mecca and Main Street by Geneive Abdo. -L.O.]

Man’s Love of God in ACW

In contrast to the traditional definition of Islam as “submission” to God, ACW casts Islam as being at the core a religion all about loving God completely (i.e. with wholehearted devotion). [This perhaps evidences ACW's Sufi influence.]

In contrast to many Evangelical leaders’ lack of viewing Christianity as an all-encompassing way of life, Dr. Volf has been humbled by meeting Muslim leaders who are wholly devoted to loving God as an entire way of life.

Man’s Love of Neighbor in ACW

For Muslims, benevolence and beneficence are highly important, as is displayed thorughout ACW.

Striking Features of ACW

• While many Christians think Islam is a war-mongering religion, ACW is strikingly a non-aggressive display of what Islam is all about.
• Historically speaking, it is highly interesting to note the shift [i.e. the Sufi influence] away from Muslims defining their religion primarily as Sharia-based toward being belief- and nearness- [i.e. existentially] based. There seems to be a more pronounced highlighting of faith, ethics, and personal transformation in ACW’s definition of Islam. In other words, Muslims are beginning to give God’s mercy priority to his wrath.
• In light of this Muslim identity shift we are forced to ask, Is this the real Islam? Questions that arise here include:
  • How far back does the Sufi tradition go? [Volf thinks that the Sufi tradition does have a long and venerable place in Islamic history.]
• The Western press does not like to cover good Muslim news to the same extent that it covers bad Muslim news. [I think Dr. Volf was trying to say that since 9/11 ACW, and Muslim peace initiatives like it (i.e. the 2004 Amman Message which decries terrorism), do not get fair media coverage.]
• The unique, deliberate interpretation of the phrase “God has no associate” in a way that de-polemicizes the traditional anti-trinitarian interpretation of this Koranic phrase. ACW casts this phrase to refer to God’s aseity and sovereignty, which demands wholehearted human devotion, rather than understanding this phrase as proof that Jesus is not God’s Son. Considering the long history of Muslim polimics against Christian trinitarianism, this subtle move is highly significant.

Related Volf Reads