|
Description
Abstract
This article first presents the Secretariat for Non-Christians/the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue that Pope Paul VI founded in 1964. Then it deals with the theological foundations that have been laid for Christian-Muslim relations in the pontifical council's recent official documents (1966-2005), and shows that the classical doctrine of the trinitarian nature of God is the cornerstone on which the theology of the Secretariat for Non-Christians/the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue rests. This trinitarian dimension will be a major challenge to the 21st century theology of religions.
**********
The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue is some 43 years old. On 19 May 1964, Pope Paul VI created the Secretariat for Non-Christians (SNC), (Secretariatus pro non christianis) as a department of the Roman Curia, "to search for the method and the ways of opening a suitable dialogue with non-Christians. It should strive in order that non-Christians come to be known honestly and esteemed justly by Christians, and that in their turn non-Christians can adequately know and esteem Christian doctrine and life". (2) This happened during the Second Vatican Council.
The Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae of 1967 defined the structure of the secretariat as follows: president; secretary; under secretary; head of office for Islam; (3) some officials; members chosen among bishops from different parts of the world; and consultants appointed by Pope Paul VI for a period of five years. The consultants are nominated by the pope from among the specialists of various religions, of missiology, and of other relevant disciplines. In the structures there are regular meetings with the consultants. The first meeting took place in January 1965. (4) Then there are correspondents, whom the Secretariat for Non-Christians hopes episcopal conferences will nominate in such a way that there will be a priest in each diocese or country who is well informed about the secretariat's developments, problems, needs and challenges. (5)
In 1971, two new sections were added to the secretariat: one for traditional religions; another for Asian religions. On 22 October 1974, Pope Paul VI established the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims within the ambit of the Second Vatican Council in order to facilitate encounters of a religious character with Muslims. (6) The commission was attached to the Secretariat for Non-Christians. (7) The president of the secretariat became the commission's president, the secretary became the vice-president of the commission, and an official of the secretary became the secretary of the commission. There was also a group of specialists. It can be said that by the end of 1974, ten years after its creation, the secretariat had reached its full stature. (8)
In 1988, the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonua (9) of Pope John Paul II gave a new name to the dicastery: The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), (Pontificium concilium pro dialogo inter religiones). (10) The new name says what the department is set up to promote, whereas the former title led some people to think that the secretariat (Secretariatus pro non christianis) was also the Secretariat for Non-Believers. It can be said that the task of the PCID is to promote and carry out serious, objective and scientifically sound studies of other religions so that Christians might arrive at a clearer understanding of the content and practice of other faiths. The preparation of Christians for dialogue has always been one of the secretariat's primary tasks. Additional tasks are to encourage Catholic communities around the world to see the importance of dialogue, to understand its role in Christian faith, and to be stimulated, despite obstacles and initial reservations, to establish good, cordial relations with other religious believers. (11) As a result, the staff participate in various activities organized by local churches. In some situations, the PCID is to engage directly in dialogue with the followers of other religions.
An unexpected event occurred on 11 March 2006, when it was announced in l'Osservatore Romano that Pope Benedict XVI has merged, for the time being, the presidency of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue with that of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The last president of the PCID was Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, who received a new assignment as papal nuncio to Egypt and the Vatican's representative at the Arab league. It is too early to analyze this event, especially because Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State, announced on 26 May 2007 that the PCID would get its own leader shortly. The cardinal, speaking to the Italian daily La Stampa, said that, "The change demonstrates the importance of interreligious." (12) dialogue.
Encounters with Muslims have always played a major role in the work of the SNC/PCID. (13) "The constitution Lumen Gentium 16 speaks directly of the different ways in which members of non-Christian religions are 'oriented to' (ordinantur) the Church--in fact, the order is based from the distance from the Catholic Church: first come the Jews, with whom the Church entertains the closest ties; then the Muslims, who 'profess to hold the faith of Abraham' ..." (14) The third group is made up of other believers in God, while the fourth group consists of those who do not believe in God but strive to live a good life. According to the distance from the Catholic Church, first come the Jews, with whom the relations are delegated to another dicastery, and then come the Muslims, with whom the PCID works closely. (15) As to populations, by the middle of 2007, there were some 1,142,968,000 Roman Catholics, and 1,359,745,000 Muslims in the world (the total number for all kinds of Christians was estimated to be 2,195,529,000 persons). (16) Since the 1990s the PCID has developed an institutionalized dialogue with Muslims. (17) Especially noteworthy of the Christian-Muslim dialogue meetings organized by the PCID are those between the PCID and the World Islamic Call Society, and between the PCID and the Royal Academy for Islamic Civilisation Research Al Albait Foundation (Amman, Jordan). (18)
Finally, the messages sent to the Muslims by the SNC/PCID at the end of Ramadan are notable. This practice began in 1967, when the Office for Relations with Muslims sent a letter to Muslims around the world on the occasion of 'Id al-Fitr, the feast of the breaking of the Fast at the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan. (19) Since then it has become normal to greet Muslims in this way. The first letters were signed by a staff person responsible for relations with Muslims. From 1973 onwards the message has been sent by the president of the SNC/PCID. An exceptional year was 1991, shortly after the Gulf War, when Pope John Paul II decided to address the letter to Muslims himself. The messages are published in several languages. (20)
God and the human being
In SNC/PCID documentation, (21) God or the Absolute is at the centre of any religion. Religion is an answer to the search for the Ultimate and the Absolute inscribed in the heart of every human being. (22) As long as the theological emphasis rests on the first person of the Christian God, One God the Creator and Father (23) (even though "father" is not really accepted on the Muslim side) and the anthropological emphasis rests on the human being and his or her experiences, Christians and Muslims have a great deal in common. (24) Common humanity should make Christians and Muslims share their common responsibilities, and undeniably they are both orientated towards transcendence, God the Creator and One. (25) The link between common origin through creation, mutual affinity, faith in one God, and common work or action is repeated throughout SNC/PCID documentation. The combination of divine origin, the goodness of creation, and common faith in one God should not leave Christians and Muslims inactive but lead them to work together, to build up a better or a more humane world, to foster "social justice, moral values, peace, and freedom". (26) Indeed, social issues become important in Christian-Muslim dialogue. (27) On that level of dialogue, the major question is thus no longer, 'Who is God, in whom we both believe?' Instead, Christian-Muslim relations are seen in the context of the common work for the good of human beings. Islam is regarded as a religious system that Muslims follow during their lives. Guidelines (1990, p. 113) regards Islam as "a monotheistic and prophetic religion having ties--not yet well defined--with the Judeo-Christian tradition".
The main advantage of this emphasis is the idea that all the world religions are basically human responses to the same religious experience. The Christian contribution in that case means that it tries to understand this common human experience, which is the basis of all the religious experiences of non-Christian (28) religions. Further, another advantage is that if human beings share a common human experience, the Christian theology of religions can deal with this experience, no matter whether people regard it as religious experience or are not even aware of it. This idea is expressed in many SNC/PCID documents based on Vatican II and later papal statements. In this way, as a matter of fact, the common starting point between Christians and non-Christian religions is not an agreement on the nature of God or the Supreme Reality, Allah, Jahveh, etc., but human experience.
However, how solid is this anthropological idea of human experience that is common to all humanity? (29) The critical point is that there is very little empirical evidence of a common human experience in human history or culture. The idea is easily postulated, but it is very difficult to substantiate or verify it, and it is obviously inaccurate. 'Common religious experience' is a vague idea. In his book The Nature of Doctrine (1984), George Lindbeck presents a detailed argument against the idea that common human experience can serve as a basis for theology. He distinguishes three general types of theories of doctrine. The first, called the cognitive-propositionalist theory, lays stress upon the cognitive aspects of religion. The second, the experiential-expressive theory, interprets doctrines as non-cognitive symbols of inner human feelings or attitudes. The third theory is the cultural-linguistic approach to religion. In this approach religions may be compared to languages, with religious doctrines functioning as grammatical rules. The experiential-expressive theory considers religions public and culturally conditioned manifestations and affirmations of pre-linguistic forms of consciousness, attitudes and feelings. There exists a common human religious experience that every religion tries to express. The various religions are seen as diverse expressions of a common core experience. The order is experience first and theology second. Exactly this order is commonly suggested by contemporary interreligious dialogue. "The... |
More articles from International Review of Mission
Theses on Christian self-understanding and religious plurality., January 01, 2007
Looking for additional articles?
Click here
to search our database of over 3 million articles.
|
.(company%20overview)%20%20&position=1)