Scholars' Corner
The Institute for
Christian & Jewish Studies
presentsIslam and the Jewish-Christian Encounter Response by
Dr. Rosann M. CatalanoI would like to thank you, Dr. Nyang, for your paper and for your generosity and willingness to join us tonight in this important discussion that we are just beginning. In terms of my response, I would like to do two things in the minute and a half that Chris has given me. First, what I'd like to do is to comment briefly on some points that Dr. Nyang has made that struck me as I was listening to the paper and reading along that were points of either difference or similarity in our traditions. Sec-ondly, what I'd like to do in the second hour of my presentation is to try, standing on one leg, to answer the question of the night from a Christian perspective, namely, what is it that God requires of us?
I was struck, Dr. Nyang, when you commented in the very beginning of your paper that Muslims are told that, though Allah has opened channels of communication "with His human creation through prophecy," humans cannot fathom the nature of Allah, and that humans, according to the Quran, are created for the sole purpose of worshiping God. I was struck by both of those, (1) that humans cannot fathom the nature of God, and (2) that humans are created for the sole purpose of wor-shiping God. I'd like to take a moment to comment on those points and hopefully to be able to have a bit more conversation later.
The two central doctrines of Christian faith, as you know, are the Incarnation and the Resurrection, neither of which I was going to explain here. And now that Dr. Nyang has explained the Trinity, I don't have to worry about that ever again. But I do want to comment for a moment on the doctrine of the Incarnation, because it seems to me that the insight that Christianity recognizes and tries to articulate in the doctrine of the Incarnation is something different, if you will, from what Dr. Nyang has mentioned in the beginning of his paper. Namely, this: that the Incarnation is a doctrine that tries to articulate the idea that human being, that is to say, being human (whatever it means to be human), includes the capacity to reveal or to disclose who God is. So we would say that in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and in the person of the Risen Lord, in the person of Jesus Christ, Christians come to know [who God is]. Jesus is the mediator, which is to say, Jesus mediates, is able to disclose to us who God is; and that disclosure is possible in and through human nature.
We make a more radical statement even, and it is that that is the nature of God, that there are not two na-tures in that regard. Whatever it means to be God, being human has the potential to disclose it. I mean, that's really quite mind-boggling; we just probably don't talk about it a whole lot. It's a matter of faith, of course, but nonetheless, it is indeed the case. This means as well that Jesus also mediated to God what it means to be human. So it goes in both directions. Jesus is capable of mediating or disclosing to humanity the nature of God, and to God the nature of being human. Which is to say, that in and through the man Jesus, the Holy Other came to know in a way the divine Other cannot know primally what it means to be a human being, what it means to be finite. The Infinite can't know that, whatever else the Infinite might know. The Infinite can't know what it means to be finite -- and that's part of the doctrine of the Incarnation -- until the mystery of the Incarnation reveals to the heart of God what it means to be what we are. All of which is to say that humans can indeed fathom the nature of God, that humans can indeed imagine the possibility of living in such a way that our words, our thoughts, and our actions mirror the holy purpose. So that's one point.
The second point: humans are created for the sole purpose of worshiping God. Surely worship is an impor-tant aspect of being human, being a creature made in the image of God. But I think our purpose is other than that, meaning it is to continue the work begun by God as collaborators in that project. I suppose one could argue that that's worship in its broadest category, but I'm thinking of worship as we hear it in a narrow cate-gory. If that's what this means -- the sole purpose is worshiping God -- then I would have to say that I would take not exception so much, but that I would want to expand or press that notion that the creation is ours to redeem and to hand over to the Holy One made perfect. So those are two points that I would love to spend more time in talking to you about. That's my first minute.
To the question, "What does God require of us?" let me make a couple of very quick comments. First, it seems to me, addressing this question requires our struggling with a prior question, namely, by what criteria do we know this? How do I decide that this is what God re-quires of me? The question of criteria, it seems to me, is a very important question and, if we had all the time in the world, we would break up into little groups to do that work before we answer the question. As an aside I have to say that the question of criteria also requires the question, "Who decides the criteria?" That's a sort of a feminist turn, but an important one nonetheless. So, not only by what criteria, but who decides the criteria?
I'd like to try to answer that very briefly. When I ask myself the question, "What does God require of me?" there are several sources available to me to assist me in answering. One, what do the sacred texts of my tradi-tion say? Two, what is the history of the interpretation of those texts? Three, what does my religious commu-nity today say about that, because it is, after all, the living voice of the living God, who continues to live and speak in our time to our community of faith? Four, what is the world saying? On occasion the Roman Catholic Church has been so arrogant as to say, whatever God has disclosed, what God will disclose, whatever God re-vealed, has been given us. Well, I would like to suggest that the world outside the church also belongs to the living God, and that God will disclose what God wants, where God wants, and to whom God wants. And it seems to me incumbent upon women and men of faith to look in the world and say, "Where is God working, and how do I know that?" Well, you know the ways we know that. Where is the struggle for justice? Where is the struggle for equality? Where is compassion being shown? So, fourth, what the world suggests. The fifth source to answer the question, with all humility she said, I would like to suggest is me, or you, in the case of your an-swering the question. Not me alone, but me obviously in this conversation with these other four sources. Why? Because the voice of the living God lives in me as well, guides me, and directs my life.
So it seems to me that part of the task of answering the question is really to take time with those five sources. Maybe the most difficult thing in our age -- although after the events of September 11, it may be a tad easier -- is to take the time for ourselves and really to believe that we are a source of answering that question. That the human imagination, I would like to suggest to you finally, is the vehicle whereby the living God speaks to us. We need to take the time to imagine and reimagine and let our imaginations help us to solve the problems of today, because if we don't, we're not going to solve them.
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