World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th - 24th 2010

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THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION - II. Religious Dialogue in the Context of Globalization (472) - NOT_DEFINED activity_field_Panel
 

· NOT_DEFINED date: FRI 23, 2.30-4.30 pm

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description:

Chair: Giuseppe Scattolin (Professor, Pisai, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome)

Paper presenter: Giuseppe Scattolin (Professor, Pisai, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome), “Spiritualities in Dialogue: Facing the Challenge of Globalization”
Humankind in our time is facing tremendous challenges: the present situation of globalization aiming at the creation of a global marketing entails as a consequence the creation of a mass culture, or a ‘massification’ of culture all over the world. Such a marketing culture is accompanied by the fragmentation of all religious-ethical values and the rise of new ‘tribalisms’. All this happens in the context of religious pluralism and its issues.
In the present cultural context, there are four basic issues, in my view, that all religions of our time have to face so as to give an satisfactory answer to the needs of our present humankind:
- Revisiting the original message means in order to recover the original, essential message, overcoming a lot of historical compromises.
- Confronting modernity means in order to fine a true balance between faith and reason, community and basic human rights, especially freedom of conscience.
- Entering in dialogue with the other religions so as to open one’s self to all the positive values found in all and to be able to cooperate with them all.
- Committing itself to justice in the world in order to work for justice on behalf of all and every single human being in the present context of globalization.
Mysticism is the core of all religious experience, and therefore also of human experience. It is the expression of the radical quest of human being for his deepest identity and in the same time the fulfilment of his endless journey towards the Absolute Mystery. It is at the level of spiritual experience that also interreligious dialogue finds its deepest dimension.
There are, in my view, three main areas in which mysticisms and spiritualities of all religions, here particularly Sufism and Christian mysticism, can and should meet and cooperate in order to answer the challenges of our present situation:
-the human being and the search of his identity
-the human being and his environment: the universe
-the human being and his journey towards his ultimate ground: God
Entering in true a dialogue and mutual exchange in these areas, spiritualities and mysticisms of all religions can offer a true and convincing answer to the urgent issues and requests of humankind in its present historical predicament.

Paper presenter: Eva Mirjam Johanna Kolbitsch (M.A. student, University Wales, Lampeter), “The Influence of the Understanding of Revelation on Interreligious Dialogue: a Case Study of Shiite and Roman Catholic Dialogue”
Islamic and Christian conceptions of divine revelation are essentially different according to Cantwell Smith (:30f). Whereas in Christianity the ultimate revelation of God is Jesus, the Qur’an takes this position in Islam. Both Muslim and Christian scholars express similar views. This MA thesis seeks to investigate how Christians'' and Muslims'' different perceptions of revelation are dealt with in their encounters. Object of investigation are three dialogue conferences held by Iranian Shiites and Austrian Catholics, published in three books (references below). Aim is firstly an investigation of the prominence of revelation as dialogue subject and secondly an analysis of how the discussions are influenced by the different conceptions. In the first chapter the author compares Shiite literature (e.g. Tabatabai) to Catholic dogmatic constitutions (e.g. Dei Verbum) with regard to the different views of revelation. In the second chapter the publications are analyzed. The frequency of occurrence of the word revelation (Offenbarung) was determined manually and the context of each incidence was investigated. It is evident that Catholics and Shiites do refer to different things when speaking about revelation, but dissimilarities are rarely explained and never directly discussed. However, participants express a wish to clarify some aspects of revelation in future dialogue. The term revealed religions (Offenbarungsreligionen) is used both by Catholics and Shiites when referring to their faiths, indicating that they view it as a uniting subject. The author concludes that the conception of revelation is so fundamental that it influences all areas of Muslim-Christian dialogue. A precise understanding is needed to avoid misunderstandings and talking at cross-purposes.

Paper presenter: Dr. Suliman Aba El Kheil (Director, Al Imam University), “Tolerence in Islam”
Islam is one of the important religions in the world especially if we take into consideration that over one fifth of the World Population is Moslems. In the vales and basics of Islam, there is a lot of tolerance with other people who believe in other religions. In the old days, believers in other religion were left to follow their beliefs freely and without any harm from Moslems.
Moslems respect Judaism and Christianity as other important religions. Both religions were mentioned in many verses in the Holy Koran which is the holy book for Moslems.
Islam is also the religion of peace. There is peace and call for peace in many locations in the holy Koran.
The paper will present many examples, old and recent, which show the great extent of Islamic tolerance.

Paper presenter: Mohammad Hassan Khalil (Assistant Professor, University of Illinois), “Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others: Assessing the Contemporary Pluralist-Inclusivist Debate”
“What does Islam say about the salvation of non-Muslims?” Recent decades have witnessed intensifying discussions among Muslim thinkers in response to this question and its variants. The popularity of the view that Islam is an exclusivist faith has inspired pluralists to spill much ink, which in turn has led to inclusivist rebuttals. I define these terms in the following way: Pluralists maintain that, regardless of the circumstances, there are multiple paths that are equally effective salvifically. Exclusivists, on the other hand, hold that only their religious tradition leads to Paradise, and that adherents of all other traditions will likely be damned. Inclusivists agree that only their tradition is salvific, but only under certain circumstances, meaning that God will not damn the “sincere” Other. (Needless to say, these groups are not monolithic, and these categories are not without their shortcomings.) In the present study I identify and assess some of the most influential modes of soteriological pluralism and inclusivism in contemporary Muslim discourse, limiting myself to the writings of the following scholars: Mahmoud Ayoub, Farid Esack, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Gary (Muhammad) Legenhausen, Fazlur Rahman, Sajjad Rizvi, Abdulaziz Sachedina, members of the Sophia Perennis school of thought (e.g., Seyyed Hossein Nasr), Abdolkarim Soroush, and T. J. Winter (Abdul-Hakim Murad). I analyze the content of their claims, place them in dialogue with premodern Islamic thinkers, and explore the nature of the pluralist-inclusivist tension. I argue that the existence of radically different forms of pluralism and inclusivism highlights the need for nuance in approaches to and treatments of Islamic soteriology, and that, in contrast to the numerous one-dimensional portrayals of Islamic thought, a deeper appreciation of the rich diversity of possibilities is necessary. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings.