LESSON 37
SPECIAL ATTRACTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY

Have you ever watched a Muslim pray? He starts out standing proud, in any public place, and proclaims that God is great (Allâhu akbar). Then he bows down and puts his forehead on the ground. By his body movements he tells us that God is great above all, and we should honour him, no matter what anyone else thinks. He is also telling us that all humans are but dust and ashes like the ground itself before the almighty greatness of God. This is the Islamic vision: a God who is all, separated by an infinite distance from his servants who are nothing.

Christians have or should have the same attitude, but they have something more: a sense that God has come down to us and lifted us up to share his intimate life. Baptism makes us share God's nature, makes us temples of his Spirit and gives us the dignity of brotherhood with Jesus Immanuel (God with us). We share his life in the sacraments, especially Communion, and meet his Spirit in prayer and whenever we do anything for our neighbour. All that is blasphemy to Muslims, who are proud to bow down to God in complete submission as nothing more than his servants and reject any notion of sharing or associating with God (shirk) as a sin.

The same plan of God by which his eternal Word took on a human nature, marrying the human to the divine, is the reason why Christianity gives full value to both the human and the divine. With the principle that grace builds on nature, Christianity emphasises the human by translating itself into every culture, purifying and uplifting it. The Bible and worship are in the language of the people and everywhere a religious culture develops which is far more attractive to people than Islamic ceremonies. Islam claims to be a complete and perfect way of life drawn up in heaven and sent down to earth (Arabic influence is denied). Sharî`a is fully formulated once and for all; it displaces culture and anything natural, which is deemed to have nothing to offer. Therefore Muslims never talk about adaptation or inculturation.

Christianity emphasises the divine by stressing the divine power which resides in the Church and every Christian: There is the supernatural life of sanctifying grace, nourished by the power of prayer and the gifts of the Spirit and manifested frequently in miracles and healings. Many people are attracted by this power rather than by the worldly power of Islam.

The guiding principle for all of Christian life is love, whereas for Islam it is obedience or justice. While Christians share with Muslims the basic norms of the ten commandments, Christian morality goes further, as detailed in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7). The beatitudes teach that God can be found in poverty and weakness; Islam finds God only in escaping from it.

Jesus warned against seeking power and privilege over others (cf. Mk 9:33-37 etc.). "The first shall be last" (Mt 20:16). He himself "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). Moreover, Jesus' love extends to all, even strangers and enemies. Muslims commonly understand that, because they give God his rights, he makes them the rightful masters of the earth and heirs of Paradise. Others are excluded from this reward and do not have the same rights. The wide distance between God and his servants entails a wide distance between believers and non-believers. Christian love is a more powerful principle for overcoming racism, tribalism and class discrimination than the justice of Islamic brotherhood, although in history Christians have not always lived up to the demands of love.

Jesus warned against the use of violence and preached swift reconciliation. (The Church understands this not to exclude measured self-defence as a last resort.) Islam is more concerned with the application of justice, and Muslims often mock the principle of "turning the other cheek", forgetting that violence breeds violence.

The Incarnation is a marriage of the human and the divine, but the two do not so merge that they lose their own identity. Jesus is one person with two distinct natures. The Church is composed of human personalities with the divine indwelling. This distinction is the basis of the autonomy of civil society and science. Christians are happy that they can be fully Christian and live by the Gospel while at the same time take full part in civil society with those who may not be of their faith. Even though there is sometimes conflict about principles of natural law (e.g. regarding abortion), non-Christians are happy that Christians cooperate with them without threatening to subjugate them. Christians are the "salt of the earth", giving flavour to existing values; they are not a society apart.

In the same way, Christian respect for human autonomy allows for academic freedom and general freedom of expression, even though we have seen (in Lesson 33) that historically Christian leaders have not always respected this autonomy. In the contemporary world we do not find Christian authorities seeking to arrest or kill dissident writers, as we do in the Islamic world.

QUESTIONS

  1. Explain the contrast between Christianity and Islam in our relationship with God.
  2. Explain the contrast between the Christian and Islamic attitude to culture.
  3. Explain how Christian morality goes beyond Islamic norms.
  4. Explain how Christians can adapt to and flourish in a secular world better than Muslims.
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