From BeliefNet, Jack Miles comments on "The God of Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad", opening with:
A week ago, President Bush scandalized some of his evangelical fans by innocently asserting, during his trip to England, that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Richard Land, speaking for the scandalized, has now rebuked the President for what Land calls playing "theologian-in-chief."
I'm with Bush. I have never understand the concept of "our God" versus "their God". Ignorant people like Land commonly dismiss al-Lah as "the god of the Muslims" as if they were discussing Baal. Those with greater understanding will immediately recognize that Christians, Jews, and Muslims, all of whom recognize a single God, must be talking about the same being. One God is one God.
Miles points out that all three religions derive from the belief system of the ancient Hebrews, and all recognize the God of Abraham as their God.
Miles notes:
That Jews, Christians, and Muslims have always assumed their differences to be about the character rather than the identity of God is abundantly witnessed centuries later in late medieval Spain where the three religions mingled freely and the best scholars were bi- or even trilingual in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. During that era, a number of famous theological debates took place in which all participants transparently assumed that all other participants were speaking of-—and, of course, disagreeing about—-the same divine subject.
11:05:42 PM
|
|