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Christianity Today, February, 2007 |

Can We Dialogue with Islam?

What 38 Muslim scholars said to the pope in a little-known open letter.

J. Dudley Woodberry | posted 1/31/2007 08:37AM

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No, meaningful dialogue does not require that the participants relinquish a witness concerning their faith. Nor does it mean we can't disagree about how they understand their history and faith. But it does require that we listen and learn what they really think. These 38 Muslim leaders have given us an extraordinary opportunity to do just that.

J. Dudley Woodberry is professor of Islamic studies at the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He served at the Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and as a pastor in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Related Elsewhere:

The Vatican website has posted Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg lecture and an explanation (translated into English about halfway down the page) of his comments on Islam.

The clerics' open letter is available in translation to English from Islamica Magazine.

Christianity Today's collected articles on Islam are on our site.

Christian History & Biography interviewed J. Dudley Woodberry for the issue on Christians and Muslims.

He also wrote a review of Why the Rest Hates the West.

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February 2007, Vol. 51, No. 2

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dale	Posted: February 12, 2007 9:59 PM

It is good to read this and get various perspectives. But even more questions arise than are answered. Bernard Lewis, Princeton professor and Islamic expert whom even Muslims admire for his fairness toward their faith, says that it is difficult to extrapolate the political from the religious in Islam. There is not theology in Islam of 'church and state.' Both are one. That these Muslim scholars do separate them as noted above, causes me to question what is really going on. I am willing to engage in dialog, for sure. But I come from a tradition that says YHWH is not able to break his promises. Allah, on the other hand, is allowed to break his treaties and so are his followers. There is no easy answer. I hope the dialogs can continue with both faiths standing in their truest allegiance without tinkering their religion to fit modernity.

George M.

Posted: February 08, 2007 1:43 PM

I do not think that dialogue with Muslims will do any good. For the Christian, the bridge to God is Christ; as a refresher, read Matthew 7:15, and of course John 14 so that we can generally understand what God's Formula is; Islam rejects this, so no dialogue of any kind will bridge the gap, and conflict ultimately results. Yes, common good and world peace should dictate tolerance between religions (and other values), but eventually, when there are only two powers standing face-to-face, one will always try to step over the other. Yes Islam is tolerant, but on its own terms until, once more, an opportunity will come to justify conquest by the sword. Peace always works when you have no opponent. However, as Islam rejects Jesus as the resurrected Saviour (and they obviously do not respect the words of Jesus in the New Testament) they will always find us to be an opponent. The depth of this subject unfortunately goes far beyond the scope of this commentary...

Sarah

Posted: February 06, 2007 11:28 PM

If you want to understand Islam it is important to read the whole Koran. It is vastly different than the New Testament. Jihad in the koran is not described much as a struggle but it is described as bloodshed for the sake of either subduing or eliminating any opposition to Islam. Violence has indeed has been done by Christians even in the name of God and it is wrong, but you cannot find anything spoken by Jesus to justify the violence, nor did he ever do violence unless you call driving out the money changers at the temple violence. Virtually all Muslim Nations have horrible human rights violations and though Muslim's religious freedom is protected in Western nations, Christians in Muslim nations can be put in jail, even executed if they talk about Jesus to a Muslim (see www.persecution.com) Yes there are Muslims who are peaceful and not all follow the violent practices of Muhammed, but sadly plenty in the Koran encouraged Bin Laden type actions.

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