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| Jesus, a minature in 17th century Ottoman manuscript. |
Today I am able to publish the latest of the 'Position Papers' of the Una Voce Federation (FIUV), on the subject of Islam. These papers have not only sought to defend aspects of the Traditional liturgy which have been criticised, but also to point out the usefulness to the Church of this liturgy in making the Faith vivid, attractive, or comprehensible, to particular groups inside and outside the Church: in Africa, in China, in relation to the Oriental Churches, to children, to men, to people influenced by the New Age, and now to Muslims.
I have put some additional commentary on my own blog here.
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Positio 32: Islam
and the Extraordinary Form
The
question of this paper is the question of Catholics’ engagement with Islam:
intellectual, cultural, and personal. Such engagement is today, for many Catholics
in the West, as well as in Africa and the Islamic world, an unavoidable
practical reality. It can be positive, insofar as it fosters mutual
understanding, and, going beyond this, an exchange of ideas up to and including
evangelisation: the proclamation of the Gospel which is the mission of the Church.[1] Above all, as
noted by the Second Vatican Council Declaration Nostra aetate, this process must be founded on a proper ‘esteem’ (aestimatio)
for Muslims, and an acknowledgement of those elements of truth found in Islam.[2]
The
paper will put forward certain ways in which the Church’s traditional liturgy,
with its associated spirituality and discipline, can assist Catholics in
undertaking this engagement.
Islam,
which in a number of ways is experiencing a period of revival and expansion, is
also subject to interrogation and critique from two notable sources: from
liberal secularism, and from evangelical Protestantism. The latter is in
energetic competition for the same demographic groups in some parts of the
world, notably young black men in the United States and in Europe; evangelical
Protestants have also launched missionary activity in majority-Muslim countries.[3] Catholics’ engagement with
Islam must take account of these existing conflicts.
Islam and Secular Liberalism
The
most persistent and aggressive challenges to Islam in the West and in the
Islamic world alike have in recent decades come dressed in the garb of secular
liberal ideology. The debates about Muslim schools and Muslim dress, which have
recently been prominent in Europe, take place in the context of a campaign
against traditional gender roles, against legal and cultural restrictions on
sexuality, and against religion having a role in public life, which is waged in
the name of liberal secularism across the globe, including through the medium
of the United Nations.
The
common cause which has frequently been made by the Holy See with Muslim
countries in United Nations debates illustrates the common ground which exists
between Islam and the Church in these areas. The exact nature of this common
ground is complex: the Islamic view of the roles of the sexes, for example, or
of religion in public life, is clearly distinct from a Catholic view.
Nevertheless, the importance in Catholic thinking of the complementarity of the
sexes,[4] of the Church’s mission
‘to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel’,[5] and of the Church’s
defence of that Natural moral law which is the common heritage of mankind, give
Catholics a basis for discussion with Muslims which does not exist for secular
liberals. It is naturally only through discussion that any necessary reform or correction
can take place.
As
Pope Benedict XVI noted, with reference to Islam:
A reason which is
deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures
is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures.[6]
In a similar way, a
Christianity too much identified with secular liberal attitudes is not helpful
in this dialogue. As the scholar Samir Khalil Samir SJ has noted:
Muslims know that
modernity is coming from the West; this is a fact. Now they see the West as
having lost its ethics, especially on sexual questions. They’re very shocked by
what they see or hear.
...Then the
Muslims say, “Okay, the West is Christian, Christianity allows this, and so
Christianity is not the true religion; it’s a false religion. And we want to be
true, to stick to the Qur’an and to the tradition.”[7]
Those
aspects of Catholic teaching which contrast with secular liberalism are in
certain ways to be found more prominently manifested in the Church’s ancient
liturgy. This is most evident with respect to the complementarity of the sexes,
which is connected fundamentally both with questions of sexual morality and
with the transformation of the public sphere by religious values. The doctrine
of complementarity is very beautifully illustrated by the focus of the Nuptial
Blessing, in the Extraordinary Form, on the bride, as the heart or body of the
family, of which the bridegroom is the head,[8] and, in a different way,
by the exclusive use of men and boys in the service of the Altar.[9] Again, the wearing of head
coverings in church by women, which is widespread in the context of the
Extraordinary Form, has a very obvious echo in the adoption by many Muslim
women of head coverings as a sign of reserve, which has been defended in terms
of the sacredness of what is veiled.[10]
In
a somewhat different way, themes of sin and judgement, references to penance
and the false principles of the ‘world’, and explicit treatments of moral
issues, tend to be more prominent in the orations and the Lectionary of the
Extraordinary Form.[11] Equally, the value set on
family life as traditionally conceived, and openness to life displayed in large
families, is particularly evident among the Faithful attached to the
Extraordinary Form.
In
this respect it is useful to note the comments of the British Muslim Nadiya
Hussain, who sprang to fame as the winner of a television cooking competition,
noted in interviews the ‘stigma’ attached to the role of housewife in secular
British society, a role she saw herself as representing in the competition.[12]
Islam and Evangelical Protestantism
Islam
has certain obvious affinities with ‘Low Church’ Protestantism. It is not an
incarnational or sacramental religion; it rejects the use of images; and it
stresses the importance of its Holy Book. Black communities in the United
States and elsewhere, most often historically linked to Protestantism, have
proved a fruitful source of conversions to Islam, which seems, particularly to
the young men of these communities, a militant and masculine religion. In
response, Protestant apologists have drawn attention to those aspects of Islam
which do not accord with classical Low Church principles. These include the
practice of pilgrimage (the Hajj, to Mecca),[13] and the kissing of the
‘black stone’; the practice of fasting; the importance of ritual;[14] the practice of stylised
chanting of sacred texts; formal prayer; and the use of a sacred language.[15]
In
this context, there is clearly value in being able to stress a more positive,
Catholic, attitude to these things, which are, indeed, very prominent in the ancient
Christian churches of majority-Muslim countries. Unfortunately, social and
legal restrictions on converting from Islam to Christianity in many Muslim
countries are such that it is generally not possible for these ancient churches
to accept Muslim converts.[16]
In the West, the
Extraordinary Form, and the traditional spirituality and discipline associated
with it, serves to expand the common ground which is necessary for fruitful
dialogue to take place, because, like the Oriental churches, it affirms the use
of a sacred language in worship, the use of ritual and chant, the importance of
fasting and of pilgrimage, and, as already noted, the complementarity of the
sexes, and the wearing of head coverings by women.[17]
The spirituality
of the Extraordinary Form emphasises a popular form of mysticism, the longing
for which finds expression in the Sufi tradition in Islam.[18]
The
appeal to men specifically is also an area in which the Extraordinary Form and
the Oriental churches have something in common with Islam. As noted in another
Position Paper,[19]
this is connected with the stress on the transcendent, and reverence, dignity,
and ritual in worship, as opposed to a stress on spontaneity and the emotions,
and related factors.
Conclusion
It
would clearly be unfortunate for Catholics to represent the Church to Muslims
as lacking both the affinities which Protestantism has with Islam, and the
affinities which the Oriental Churches have with it: the net result would be
that we have very little common ground with Muslims in terms of religious
culture and practice.
Christianity’s
attractiveness to Muslims is, in fact, very real. The positive references to
Jesus (‘Isa al-Masih’) and the Gospel
(‘Injil’) in the Qu’ran,[20] though mysterious and in
part erroneous, serve to excite the curiosity of Muslims who today, to a
greater extent than in the past, are able to read translations of their own important
texts and of the Gospels, and can follow literally the Muhammad’s advice
concerning a disputed question: ‘Ask the followers of the Reminder [the
Scriptures] if ye know not?’[21]
Not only have a notable
number of Muslims sought reception into the Church in Africa,[22] in Germany,[23] and elsewhere, in recent
years, but Protestant efforts to evangelise in Muslim counties have not been
without their successes, creating a phenomenon of hidden Christians, who do not
openly profess their Faith.[24] The actions of Islamic
extremists can also prompt Muslims to reassess their commitments, especially
for those whose attachment is to a merely formal, or a ‘folk’, Islam.[25] The ‘Great Turning’ in
Indonesia, following the anti-Communist purge of 1965, provides a vivid
precedent for this.[26]
The conversion
stories of Muslims often include great sacrifice and suffering on their part,
and the active role of Providence. After torture, imprisonment, and exile, the
Iraqi Muslim convert Joseph Fadelle wrote of his first experience of Latin
Chant:
I was gripped by
the sonorities, which were much subtler and more musical than Arabic. Although
I did not understand it, I immediately felt an attraction for that language.
As I listened to that slow, profound
music, I also found again the prayerful atmosphere that I had experienced in
churches in the Near East. This chant touched me deeply; it immersed me in a
peace that I could not have imagined a few days before.[27]
[1] Code of Canon Law (1983), Canon
211: ‘All the Christian faithful have the duty and right to work so that the
divine message of salvation more and more reaches all people in every age and
in every land’ (‘Omnes christifideles officium habent et ius allaborandi ut
divinum salutis nuntium ad universos homines omnium temporum ac totius orbis
magis magisque perveniat.’) Cf. Canon
225 §1: ‘Since, like all the Christian faithful, lay persons are designated by
God for the apostolate through baptism and confirmation, they are bound by the
general obligation and possess the right as individuals, or joined in
associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation is made known and
accepted by all persons everywhere in the world. This obligation is even more
compelling in those circumstances in which only through them can people hear
the gospel and know Christ.’ (‘Laici, quippe qui uti omnes christifideles ad
apostolatum a Deo per baptismum et confirmationem deputentur, generali
obligatione tenentur et iure gaudent, sive singuli sive in consociationibus
coniuncti, allaborandi ut divinum salutis nuntium ab universis hominibus ubique
terrarum cognoscatur et accipiatur; quae obligatio eo vel magis urget iis in
adiunctis, in quibus nonnisi per ipsos Evangelium audire et Christum cognoscere
homines possunt.’)
[2] Second Vatican Council Declaration on the
Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions Nostra aetate 3; cf. Second Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church Lumen gentium 16; Second
Vatican Council Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church Ad gentes 9
[3] For a survey, see David Garrison A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is
drawing Muslims around the world to faith in Jesus Christ (Monument CO:
Wigtake, 2014)
[4] Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357; cf. 2333
[5] Second Vatican Council Decree on the
Apostolate of the Laity Apostolicam
actuositatem 5
[6] Pope Benedict XVI, Meeting with
the Representatives of Science, Regensburg, 12 September 2006
[7] Interview with Edward Pentin 19th
November 2015, National Catholic Register
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/middle-east-scholar-islam-needs-a-renewal-of-reason#ixzz3s23ama2A
[8] Annibale Bugnini notes that the
reformed Nuptial Blessing ‘has been suitably revised and adapted so as to apply
to both spouses’, although he does not explain why. See his The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975
(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1990) p704
[9] See Positio 1: The Service of the Altar by Men and Boys 4ff
[10] Fatma El Guindi Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance (Oxford:
Berg, 1999) p95; see Positio 22: Headcoverings
in Church in the Extraordinary Form 9
[11] See Positio 15 The Lectionary of the Extraordinary Form,
Appendix A. The lections given for the Nuptial Mass in the Extraordinary Form
exemplify the spirit of the ancient lectionary: it is difficult to imagine an
Epistle teaching the submission of wives to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-33),
and a Gospel passage teaching that that remarriage after divorce constitutes
adultery (Matthew 19:3-6), being used at a wedding celebrated in the Ordinary
Form.
[12] Daily Mail 27
July 2016:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3709047/Bake-champion-Nadiya-Hussain-reveals-misses-stay-home-mum.html
[13] Shia Muslims, and those influenced
by Sufi practice, recognise many pilgrimage shrines, the tombs of holy men; for
‘orthodox’ Sunnis the Hajj is unique as a pilgrimage destination.
[14] For example, the ritual washing
required of Muslims before prayer, and ritual in prayer itself.
[15] For examples of polemics on these
and related topics, see David Wood’s ‘Acts 17 Apologetics’,
http://www.answeringmuslims.com
[16] Joseph Fadelle, when living in
Bagdad under the government of Saddam Hussain, who as a Muslim sought baptism
with the established churches in the city, was repeatedly rejected. The contact
with Christians he eventually established put both him and them in mortal
danger. (He was eventually baptised in Jordan, before finding refuge in France.)
See his The Price to Pay: A Muslim Risks
All to Follow Christ (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015) pp49-52, p97. Cf. Garrison op. cit. p220. The ancient churches’ evangelising potential is
suggested by the work of Abouna Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest who, having
been exiled from Egypt in 1999 for preaching to Muslims, now broadcasts to
Egypt from abroad: see Garrison pp212-3; cf.
note 25, below.
[17] Cf. Position Paper 21 The
Extraordinary Form and the Eastern Churches
[18] Sufi tradition records that the
ascetic path to mysticism was revealed to the early Sufi, Ibrahim ben Adnam, by
a Christian hermit, Father Simeon, in Syria. See A.J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (London:
Allen and Unwin, 1950) p37.
[19] See Positio 26: The Extraordinary Form and Men
[20] For example, Qur’an, sura 5:46. Curiously,
‘Isa’ is not used by Arab Christians, who call Jesus ‘Yasu’.
[21] Qur’an sura 21:7 (Pickthall
translation) cf. Giorgio Paolucci and
Camille Eid: 111 Questions on Islam:
Samir Khalil Samir SJ on Islam and the West (San Francisco: Ignatius Press,
2008) p192; Garrison op. cit. pp247-8
[22] See http://www.ncregister.com/blog/armstrong/muslims-are-converting-to-christianity-in-record-numbers
[23] The Independent 9th December 2015
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/muslim-refugees-converting-to-christianity-in-germany-crisis-asylum-seekers-migrants-iran-a7466611.html
[24] David Garrison op. cit. p36 and passim.
[25] ‘Folk’ Islam being one mixed with
local pre-Islamic beliefs and practices, as was widespread in Indonesia at the
time of the ‘Great Turning’, see note 24 below.
[26] The killing of Communist
sympathisers (together with others caught up in the process, notably ethnic
Chinese citizens), and the insistence by the Indonesian state that every
citizen register as having one of the officially recognised religions, led to
the reception of 1.9m Indonesians into Protestant churches, and over 900,000
into the Catholic Church, between 1965 and 1971. By no means were all former
Muslims, but a proportion were. See Garrison op. cit. pp56-7.
[27] Faddelle op.c cit. p219. His first experience of Mass was at its celebration
in Aramaic (p63): ‘Despite that, I felt in that assembly an indescribable
spiritual atmosphere that warmed my heart and consoled me in my misery.’
