Intro Notes Libre

8/11/2019 Intro Notes Libre

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In His Name, Exalted

Introduction

The papers collected in this volume were delivered at the fifth Mennonite-Shi ite dialogue, which tookplace in Winnipeg, Canada, at the Canadian Mennonite University, in May, 2012. The dialogue seriesbegan as a result of an initiative begun by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), after havingprovided relief assistance following the earthquake in Rudbar, Gilan, Iran, in 1990. Building on thecooperation between the Iranian Red Crescent and the MCC, eventually a statement of understandingwas signed by Ayatullah Misbah and Ron Mathies, in 1997, on the basis of which cooperation was begunbetween the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom and the MCC that included astudent exchange program and other efforts to promote greater mutual understanding, one of theoutcomes of which has been a series of theological conferences that have had alternating venues inCanada and Iran since 2002. Most of the papers delivered at these dialogues have been publishedsubsequent to the conferences. 1 Thus, this volume is witness to a much broader and continuingdiscussion between (mostly) North American Mennonites and Iranian Shi ah, and this continuingexchange of ideas is a manifestation of the friendships that have grown ever deeper as we have come tobetter understand one another.

In addition to serving as a historical record, the collection and publication of these essays serve severalpurposes: they show how Mennonite and Shi ite scholars seek to make themselves understood to thoseof other traditions, that is, without assuming any expertise in the histories and theologies of thoseaddressed. Because the essays are addressed to an audience that includes others, that is, those outsideones own tradition, each of the essays may be seen as an introduction to the topic discussed from a

Mennonite or Shi ite perspective. Because the essays are addressed to a mixed audience that includesscholars from the authors own tradition, the scholars seek to explain elements of their traditions inways that will be at least tolerable for their colleagues. So, these are not the usual sorts of academicarticles to be found in scholarly journals. The journal literature seeks to carry a specific academictradition forward in accordance with the developing standards internal to that tradition, often bydefending a controversial view within the tradition. Our essays are reflections on what the authorsbelieve, and what they believe to be fairly well attested within their communitiesthis is not by anymeans to say that the views are those held by all scholars of the community. Each thinker offers aunique approach to the issues, one with which others in their community might take issue; but the pointof the essays is not to promote new theories. The point is to promote mutual understanding. The essays

thus reflect the authors ideas of how best to convey what they hold to be not only their personal1 The Challenge of Modernity: Shi ah Muslim - Mennonite Christian Dialogue, Conrad Grebel Review, Fall, 2003:https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/ca.grebel/files/uploads/files/CGR-Fall-2003.pdf ; Revelation and Authority:Shi ah Muslim - Mennonite Christian Dialogue II , Conrad Grebel Review, Winter, 2006:https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/ca.grebel/files/uploads/files/CGR-Winter-2006.pdf ; On SpiritualityEssays from the third Shi i Muslim Mennonite Christian Dialogue, M. Darrol Bryant, Susan Kennel Harrison, and A.James Reimer, eds. (Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2010); Peace and Justice: Essays from the Fourth Shi i MuslimMennonite Christian Dialogue , Harry J. Huebner and Hajj Muhammad Legenhausen, eds. (Winnipeg: CMU Press,2011). For a review of these dialogues, see A. James Reimer, Preface: Ten Years of Shi ah Muslim MennoniteChristian Dialogue, in Peace and Justice , cited above, 15-20.


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beliefs, but the beliefs of their communities, to an audience that is not expected to share these beliefs.Surprises abound as discussions reveal astonishing similarities across denominational lines anddifferences in basic concepts where similarities were assumed. The authors do not attempt to provethat their views are correct or that those of their dialogue partners are wrong. Indeed, what is mostlacking in this collection is the give and take of the questions and answers after the delivery of eachpaper and the informal discussions that took place in Winnipeg. So, the essays may also be read as aninvitation to explore the issues in dialogue with Mennonites and Shi ah, to observe the similarities anddifferences displayed in the thinking of Mennonites and Shi ah, both in contrast to one another andwithin each group.

Mennonites and Shi ah both have a history of dissent within their broader Christian and Muslimsocieties. Both Mennonites and Shi ah claim that the original principles of Christianity and Islam,respectively, were violated by the religious institutions that came to dominate the majority. Both

formed communities of dissent whose members have been subject to the violence of those whom theycriticized. Both have a legacy of martyrdom. When the Mennonites were first introduced to the Shi ireligious scholars in Qom, and The Martyrs Mirror was described for them, there was an immediatesympathetic reaction.

The topic of discussion for the dialogue sessions reflected in these pages was theological anthropology.The topic was suggested by the late A. James Reimer at close of the previous session on peace and justice in Qom. Prof. Reimer seemed to think that in order to better understand the similarities anddifferences on the topics that had already been discussed, we would have to review our beliefs aboutwhat it means to be human. There was general agreement, and preparations were begun with the aimof exploring our views about being human in Winnipeg.

Dissent gives a particular edge to the concept of being human. Anabaptists and the early Shi ahappealed to scripture in order to show that the majority communities had gone astray, and thatbelievers were bound by the general covenant between God and man to reform themselves. Of course,the precise nature of the covenant is understood differently in Christianity and Islam; but the structuralparallels are striking. The experience of dissent is one in which appeals to conscience are made. Theability of each individual to freely choose between the path of the dissenters or the path of perdition isessential to the dissenting view of being human. The proper free choice which accords with scriptureand conscience is the choice indicated by divine guides. The divine guides are understood differently byChristians and Muslims. For Christians, divine guidance comes in the life and teachings of Christ, while

for the Shi ah, this guidance is dispensed by the prophets (among whom Christ is included) and thetwelve Imams. The divine guide not only offers teachings, but exhibits the proper way of living in hisown life. As such, those sent by God establish an ideal of human perfection toward which believers areto strive. In traditions of dissent, the ideal of human perfection is held up as a target with theobservation that the larger community is widely missing the mark, or is not even aiming in the rightdirection. The alternative posed by the dissenting community is not only an individual choice guided byscripture, conscience, and divine paradigms; but requires the establishment of communities of believers.Humans are social creatures, and our religious pursuits, successes and failures, take place take place inthe various contexts of human cultures. For Mennonites, the social development of faith has focused on


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the building of communities of believers intentionally committed to the discipline of the church. For theShi ah, the focus has been on the establishment of a virtuous society, including the various aspects ofculture and its institutions, from education to government. Both on the individual and social levels,there can be no success through human efforts alone; and believers turn to God for grace and mercy.The question of the relation between individual effort, sin, and grace has been especially prominent inChristian thought, especially since the Reformation, and has no close counterpart in Islamic thought,although Muslims generally affirm the need for good works and faith, which can only be achieved withdivine aid. Social dimensions of being human that demand special attention and which have been posedas challenges to religious views include questions of human rights and the changing roles of women inreligious societies. Both Mennonites and Shi ah struggle with these issues in complex ways. Finally, bothour communities struggle with tensions between individual conscience and commitment to thestructures that shape religious social life. For Muslims, ideas about how to fulfill the duty to establish a just Islamic society have been especially divisive; but there has also been a tremendous emphasis on the

personal spiritual journey, inwardness, and knowledge of ones true self, and questions continue to beraised about how to reconcile these demands. For the Anabaptist tradition, the issue of church disciplinehas been especially divisive, while the need to respect the demands of the individual conscience has alsobeen recognized. Perhaps a part of what it means to be human in both traditions is to live toward idealsof perfection with cognizance of human flaws and limitations, conflicts and discrepancies, through whichwe can only find direction by divine aid. For dissenting communities, these challenges to the radicaldiscipleship of Mennonites and to the submission to Allah of Muslims are properly understood incontrast to that against which religious dissent is articulated; and in understanding these challenges welearn what our faith traditions teach about being human.

In order to help the reader steer through the essays, a very brief overview of the papers follows. Ourcollection is divided into six parts. Part I: Sacred Texts begins with the contribution of Mohammad AliShomali, Human Nature According to the Qurran, in which there is a review of the good and badqualities by which man is described in the Quran. Emphasis is given to the choice given to the individualto cultivate good qualities or sink into depravity. Success in choosing the path of self-improvementdepends, according to the Quran, on having faith and performing good works. This essay is followed byGordon Zerbes Human Nature in Biblical Perspective, in which mans nature is shown to be describedin the Bible through salvation history: creation, fall, and restoration. While Shomalis paper finds thescriptural description of man to focus on the essential moral choice, Zerbes finds it in the course ofdevelopment from creation and fall to the restoration of mans relationship with God. A developmentalaccount of human nature is also suggested by Mohammad Fanaei Eshkevari, whose The Concept ofPerfect Man in the Holy Quran This paper may be considered a transition to the discussion ofperfection. It treats the notion of the perfect man in the Quran and in Islamic mysticism. Thedevelopment is not from fall to restoration, but from a state of being lost to a gradual approach tohuman perfection through spiritual discipline. Both the Bible and the Quran emphasize that man is two-sided: there are both inherent human dignity and sinfulness. Christians understand man through thedoctrine of salvation in which history is prominent. In Islam there is less concern with historicalnarrative, and instead the focus is on stories with a moral. While the sinfulness of man is not seen asbeing quite as radical as it is in Christianity, the divine intervention to guide man is through a divine


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grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation with Him and as we seek to manifest these in our relations withothers. These are all points on which Muslims and Christians can find common cause. In Ali MesbahsReligion, Culture, and Social Well-Being from the Muslim Perspective we find an outline based on theteachings of the Quran of the kind of society that Muslims are called upon to build. First, people in theideal society are to comply with divine commands in order to achieve felicity. Second, people seek tolive in a responsible manner, aware of their abilities and of how God wants us to use them. Third, peopleare to recognize their responsibility to the environment as divine stewards. Fourth, they are to help oneanother and all other human beings. Fifth, they are to establish social relations based on justice andbenevolence through such social institutions as as the family, economy, state, law, and education.Cultural variety is one of the major themes of David Shenks Culture and Faith in a Mennonite-ChristianPerspective. This paper is filled with fascinating vignettes of Christian missionary work and reflectionson the diversity of cultural expressions that Mennonite churches can manifest in different parts of theworld that serve as evidence against the claim that the Mennonite churches reject all elements of

culture outside those associated with the original movement. Although mission activity has often been asource of tensions between Muslim and Christian communities, who have tended to see one another asrivals, there may yet be hope for some cooperation on the mission front, as well.

The discussion of religion and culture naturally leads to discussion of the political and social aspects ofculture, among the most prominent of which are taken up in Part IV: Human Rights and Part V: Gender. In his Islam and Human Rights, Aboulfazl Sajedi devines a human right as a privilege one has in virtueof being human. Focus is on justice and equality as human rights in Islam. Islam emphasizes brotherhoodand equality, and supports justice and the removal of any kind of oppression and unfair discrimination.One result of the right to equality and justice is to accept the equal value of man and woman and toreject any discrimination between them in this regard. A more critical view of the concept of humanrights is found in Peter Dulas Theological Assessment of Human Rights Langauge. In this paper, Duladissents from the absolutism about human rights that characterizes much contemporary liberal politicalwriting. He engages Wolterstorffs defense of human rights, and finds it less than fully convincing. Theprimary concern of the Bible is the claims that others have upon one. The language of human rights canhelp to bring this to attention, but it can also obscure it. In the end, the language of human rights issupported as a minimalist framework, while emphasis is placed on the more demanding account of thegood based on the teachings of Jesus (a).

In Abbas Ali Shamelis The Engendered Islamic Culture of Development, the study of women isproposed as a subfield of anthropology; and in accordance with the general project for Islamic social

sciences, an Islamic study of woman based on Islamic sources, as well as the study of culture and valuesis recommended. The author argues that womens activism in social and political affairs is consonantwith Islamic teachings, despite the differences in responsibilities recognized by Islam. In Created asMale and Female, Derek Suderman considers the story of the fall in Genesis and its implications forgender relations. It is argued that the word Adam is used in two senses: first as a general term for thehuman being that includes both males and females; and second, as a proper name for the first malehuman. Ambiguities in the text of Genesis yield a responsibility for the Christian to interpret the text inaccordance with Christian principles, so that the text should not be misused to justify male domination.


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Our collection ends with a return to the self in Part VI: The Self. Mohammad Motahari Farimani, in hisThe Role of Turning to the Self: Introspection in the Quranic Discourse, demonstrates that throughthe Quran and certain questions that it raises, God directs us to look within, or turn to the self. This isno simple matter of immediate introspection, however, for the real self is to be distinguished from afalse or imaginary self. Service to God is found to be identical to service to the true or real self. In thefinal article, Conscience: The role of Individual and Community Jeremy Bergen points out varioustensions between the ideal of being true to ones conscience and commitment to community, both ofwhich have been prominent in Anabaptist and Mennonite history; and these tensions are furthercomplicated by the modern notion of moral autonomy as action governed by conscience. Bergensupplements his paper with a report of some of the discussion at the conference with Muslims aboutthese issues, and finds places where Mennonite and Shi i positions seem to support one another,especially in the distinction between real and imaginary selves presented by Farimani.

None of the conference participants argues for the superiority of their own positions where they conflictwith those of other traditions. Instead, all seek to elucidate their own positions in a way that can beunderstood by others. None seeks to impose their presumptions about the other, but demonstrate awillingness to recognize both points where we differ and points on which we seem to converge. Onereason for the convergence is the heritage of dissent. Although the papers and conference are aimed atpromoting understanding between Mennonites and Shi ah on the topic of being human, understandingcomes in degrees from superficial to profound. Depth of understand occurs when the views of thosewhom we seek to understand resonate with our own views, even when there are contradictorypositions that must not be overlooked. The cognitive and emotional legacies of our histories of dissentmay help us to understand how Mennonites and Shi ah are able to resonate with one another despitetheir differences; but the friendships that continue among us can only be fully appreciated as the graceof God, or lutf Allah , for which we give thanks.

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Intro Notes Libre