Jesus and Muhammad

Two Variants of Universal Spiritual Kinship

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Outline

• Jesus and Roman Empire (conclusion): Universal Spiritual Kinship

• Islam on Jesus and other Prophets• Historical conditions: Arabic nomads and new

merchant wealth• Problem of animism• Oneness of God and Brother/Sisterhood of

humanity

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Contradiction in Confucius?

• (1) Overflowing with love for all humanity• (2) Should you treat injury with kindness?• “What do you say concerning the principle that

injury should be recompensed with kindness?” The Master said, “With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.”

• Compare Jesus: “Turn the other cheek.”

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Turn which cheek?

• "But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” Matthew 5:39

• Why the right cheek?• Historical context: Roman power • How respond to it?

– Revolution?– Abject submission?– Affirming your dignity as a human being

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Political implications

• Pharisees want a Jewish Kingdom• They ask Jesus: is it permissible to pay taxes to

the Romans?• Dilemma:

– If he says pay . . . – If he says don’t pay . . .

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God and Caesar

• ‘Jesus says, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to catch me out? Show me the coin used for the tax.” They handed him a silver piece. Jesus asked, “Whose head is this, and whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Taken aback by this reply, they left him alone.’ (Matthew, 22:18-22.)

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Jesus rejects Stoic unworldliness• Stoical resignation; two-worldly approach

– Outer world not in our power– Inner world is in our power– => Universal citizenship of the Mind

• Jesus: spiritual revolution comes first – Begin with the inner revolution of universal spiritual

kinship, – This will gradually transform the outer world– =Mustard Seed approach to the “kingdom of God”– -> Universal kinship in this world

• Recall Job’s Jewish this-worldliness

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Was Jesus a good politician?

• Common conception of Messiah (Christ) as liberator from Roman oppression

• Jesus rejects direct confrontation with Rome– Recommends undermining Roman rule from

within – The mustard seed approach

• Jewish military rebellion against Rome fails; temple destroyed in 70 CE; final exile in 135 CE

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Why did Early Christianity flourish?

• Edward Gibbon: Christian otherworldliness undermined Roman empire (Spodek 330)

• Michael Mann: “As imperial power became increasingly centralized, remote, insensitive, and later unstable, ‘In many ways Christianity represented how Rome liked to idealize its republican past.’” Spodek 329

• I.e., Christianity creates an attractive, democratic community here and now—recalling the old Roman Republic

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Christianity and Roman History

• 1) Early Roman Republic: power of citizenship– Power of human-made law

• 2) Fall of the Republic and rise of Empire– Emptiness of citizenship, of legality

• 3) Seeds of change: early Christianity returns to the spirit of the ancient republic– 1) Parable of the Mustard Seed– 2) Empowerment through community of loving individuals

(spiritual kinship of all Sons & Daughters of God) – 3) against empty legalism of both Jewish and Roman

society

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Into the Middle Ages• 4) Christianity becomes the Religion of Empire

(Council of Nicea 325 CE)– Spiritual freedom of Gnostics replaced by religious laws

(legalism) and obligatory beliefs– Church hierarchy imitates that of Roman Empire– Christianity now becomes otherworldly (Gibbon)

• 5) Empire falls (476 CE), but the Roman Church continues Roman legalism into the new feudal Europe– giving cultural unity and order to the political diversity of

the new feudal society– that emerged with the decay of the Roman empire

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Spiritual Kinship of All Humanity

• Early Christians believe in universal spiritual kinship based on love

• All people are sons/daughters of the One God • Appeals to poor, disenfranchised, the

excluded artisans• Fills void in heartless Roman world• => Kingdom of God here and now in the all-

inclusive Christian community– Parable of the mustard seed (last lecture)

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Jesus criticizes external religion

• "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:24

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Mohammed (Quran) criticizes external religion

• “There is no piety in turning your faces toward the east or the west, but he is pious who believes in God, and the last day, and the angels [Messengers who bring God’s word to humans], and the scriptures, and the prophets; who for love of God disperses his wealth to his kindred, and to the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and for ransoming; and who observe prayer, and pay the legal alms, and who is of those who are faithful to their engagements when they have engaged in them, and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble. These are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord.” (Sura 2 “The Cow”: 177)

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Jesus: two fundamental principles

• Jesus: “You have heard that it has been said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you . . . That you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5: 43-48.)

• 1) the way we truly submit to God • 2) is by sharing with those in need

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Quran: Two fundamental principles

• Quran: “But as to him who gives alms and fears God, And yields assent to the good, To him will we make easy the path to happiness.”

• = Unity of – 1) submission to God – 2) sharing with those in need

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Quran on the equality of the Prophets

• We believe in God [Allah]. And in what hath been sent down to Abraham, and Ismael, and Issac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and in what was given to Moses, and Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no difference between them. And to Him are we resigned (Muslims). – (Koran, 3:34)

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Different forms of “Islam”

• All monotheistic revelations have the same message: submission (“islam”) to the one God.

• Who wants us to help one another

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Two Different Historical Contexts

• Historical context of Jesus: – Powerful Roman State, Roman Law– Jewish law – letter and spirit

• Hence the teachings– 1) Primacy of inner spirit over the external letter of the law– 2) spiritual kingdom of mutually supportive individuals

comes first (which begins small, like a mustard seed)• Historical context of Mohammad

– Nomadic kinship groups, with no laws, no State• Hence the teachings:

– 1) One God for all (i.e., “kingdom of God”) – 2) As the basis for a political state for the Arab people

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Compare with Jesus

• “. . . pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew, 22:22.)

• Time of powerful Roman State– Emphasizes spiritual kinship community– Long-term strategy of the mustard seed

• Not only otherworldly happiness after death– Teaches presence within each person of the Kingdom of

God– growing up inside the old Roman world, from small

beginnings

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Time of Muhammad: no State

• Stateless, feuding nomadic tribes • Different strategy: Kingdom of God on Earth

must be established now as fully developed political reality

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Historical conditions of Islam

• 1) Division of the Arabic (Bedouin) tribes– Recall general problems of nomadic societies

• 2) Growing inequality of wealth– Special historical conditions of Arabia – Wealth destroys the ethic of tribal life: One for all;

all for one.

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Nomadic Herders

• 1) they live in kinship groups; • 2) they are warriors; • 3) there is male dominance; • 4) there is a strong sense of freedom, with

a strong sense of equality among the men. • 5) Animistic religion of nature (many

“gods”)

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War and Religion

• Nomadic life leads to warfare• Each tribe has its own territory• Each tribe has its own “gods”• => Animism supports tribal warfare• Hence: One God versus animistic polytheism

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Putting an end to holy wars

• On the early Sumerian city-states: “The warfare was especially destructive because the kings and soldiers believed that they were upholding the honor of their gods.” (Spodek 60)

• Goal of Muhammad: putting an end to “holy wars” among Arabian tribes

• Hence, opening words of Quran

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The Opening: Thee only• In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the

Merciful• Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds!• The compassionate, the merciful!• King on the day of reckoning!• Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry

for help.• Guide Thou us on the straight path,• The path of those to whom Thou has been

gracious; —with whom thou are not angry, and who do not go astray.

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Jews and Arabs• Both Semitic-speaking nomadic peoples• Both descend from Abraham

– Ishmael (the first son, born of Hagar, the handmaid) > Arabs

– and Isaac (second son, born of Sarah, the legitimate wife) > Hebrews

• Belief in One God overcomes division– Unites Hebrews against surrounding peoples– Stops wars, feuds between different Arabic tribes

• Young Muhammad admires unity of Jews, Christians: “People of the Book”

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Factors for Unity in Arabia

• Single language of Arabic poetry• Worship of sacred stone: Ka’aba

– Truce between warring tribes

• Worship of same sky-god overhead: Al-Lah

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Problem of Poverty

• War to north between Christian Byzantine Empire, and the Persian Sassanian Empire

• Trade routes shift to south, Arabia• Merchants of Mecca become wealthy • But tribal members who are not merchants

remain poor

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Pluses and Minuses of Kinship

• Plus: spirit of unity, sharing among members of kin– Need to overcome growing inequality between

members of each tribe

• Minus: difficulty of uniting members of different kin groups (tribes)– Need to overcome constant warfare among Arabs

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Solution: Universal Spiritual Kinship under One God

• Only one God – Allah is beyond nature, not animistic– Sharp condemnation of animism, polytheism– No idols, no images (as in Judaism)

• Not just unity of Arabs, but of all believers– Follows Christian universalism

• Expressed in practical aid to needy– “Zakat”: One of the Five Pillars

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