THE CROSS & THE CRESCENT

An Interfaith Dialogue between . Christianity and Islam

"As recently as last century, it was not uncommon to find Christian men and women prefacing a book by invoking . the name of God. Today, that is a rare occurrence, and often the cause of a raised eyebrow in what is becoming an increasingly secular world. Within Christianity, such a formal invocation of the name of God has become anachronistic and out of fashion. In contrast, most publications by Muslim writers commence with the invocation "Bismillah al-Rahman ai-Rahim", which reads "in the name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful". As such, one still finds within the Muslim world the continuation of a practice that was formerly quite common within the Christian world. Similarly, in days gone by, Christians frequently interspersed a statement of their intentions or of their predictions by saying "God willing". This served as an acknowledgment by Christian men and women that, in the final analysis, their intentions and predictions would be fulfilled only with the grace of God. Such Christian verbiage is now considered a relic of the past. However, Muslim men and women still constantly pepper their statements with the phrase "insha 'Allah", meaning "God willing".

This manner of invoking the name of God, and of acknowledging the sovereignty of the Almighty God in all that we do and plan, serves to highlight the central tenet of this collection of essays, which draws close parallels between Islam and Christianity. Further, as one investigates historical Christianity, and gets closer to the roots of Christianity, that shared commonality and the interrelationship between Islam and Christianity becomes ever stronger and more pronounced. Unfortunately, this close interrelationship between these two religions is often overlooked. For many Occidental Christians, Islam is seen as being decidedly foreign, as being the religion of another place and of a foreign people, i.e., Arabia and the Arabs. In reality, this perception is far from being accurate. Islam, no less than Christianity, claims to be a universal religion, which cannot be appropriated by any national or ethnic group nor by any geographic area. Arabs represent only a minority of the world's Muslims, and Islam has spread far beyond the borders of the Middle East. Moreover, at present, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, having approximately seven million adherents. Clearly, the need for mutual understanding and appreciation between Christians and Muslims becomes ever more imperative..."

"... I find it useful to introduce myself to the reader, so that he may have some understanding of my qualifications to discuss the issues at hand. I hold a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, and was formerly an ordained minister (deacon) in the United Methodist Church. My personal experience of the interrelationships between Christianity and Islam and their common roots covers a journey of many years, that has evolved in depth and breadth with time. It began almost thirty years ago in a course at Harvard on comparative religion. It developed further during the last two decades as I studied the history of the Arabian horse, and grew to fruition as I started moving within the Muslim communities in America and in the Middle East.

In writing this book, I would like to touch the lives of those Christians who have not been given the knowledge that I have gained, both about Islam from my direct contact with Muslims and about Christianity from my seminary education. I want to share with those Christians who are willing to listen what is so often known by their clergy and church leaders, but seldom finds its way into their knowledge of their own religion. Likewise, I would like to reach out to the Muslims, in order to help them understand the religious commonality that they share with Christians. While a good deal of the information presented within these essays is somewhat obscure, such information highlights much of what was once common between Christianity and Islam, but which has subsequently been altered and misrepresented to affect a gulf between these two religions.

Given these somewhat challenging goals, the readers may at times, feel that the author is addressing in a particular essays, two different audiences, each with its own language and with its own conceptual frame of reference. To a certain extent, this has been intentional on my part, for I find it the optimal way of reaching the goals set in this book.

The first essay in the book is a simple recounting of my own personal experience of the commonality to be found between Christianity and Islam, and is entitled "Parallels between Christianity and Islam". Its targeted readership includes both Muslims and Christians, but for each group a separate message has been intended. The second essay, "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Origins and Relationships", seeks to resolve certain barriers to communication existing among members of these three religious groups. In that regard, Muslims may better understand the conceptual and communication barriers which separate Christians and Jews from them, while Christians and Jews may appreciate those conceptual and communication barriers separating Muslims from them. The third essay presents a comparison and analysis of the structure and provenance of the Qur'an, the received Torah, the Psalms, and the canonical gospels of the New Testament. This essay presents some fairly technical information, which sheds signiftcant light on the formation of these sets of scripture, and thus illuminates some aspects of the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam not covered in the prior essay.

The next five essays focus on speciftc topics in the Judeo-Christian tradition. These essays contain a great deal of information regarding the basic foundations of Christianity, and how they relate to Islam. To a great extent, this consists of information not known to the Christian laity, but information that is known.to the better educated of their clergy. The primary reason behind writing these essays is to educate Christians about the origins and foundations of their own religion, in the hope that this may lead them to appreciate the heritage, which they so closely share with Islam. Additionally, Muslims may gain a much better appreciation of just how similar certain branches of early Christianity were to the teachings of Islam.

The last essay, "A Concise Introduction to Islam: Articles of Faith and Pillars of Practice", is an introduction to Islam for the Christian reader. In that respect, I have attempted to bridge the Judeo-Christian tradition and Islam wherever possible, in order to help the Christian reader gain a better understanding of Islam and of its similarity to his or her own religious tradition. As such, this introduction to Islam approaches certain issues from a slightly different perspective than most such presentations on Islam do. In conclusion, while this final essay was written primarily for the Christian reader, its my sincere desire that the Muslim reader may also find it a worthwhile reading..."