ARMED CAMPS OF FAITH?

Abstract

We were accustomed during the cold war to think of the world divided into two great powers, of groups of powers. When the Wall carne down and the USSR dissolved we then had to live with the imbalance of one great power with no competitor. The terrorist threats of the last few years are partly the result of such imbalance, for there is no formal or national way in which the smaller forces can rival the US. In place of the cold war confrontation we now see the possibility of another kind of rivalry between Christianity and Islam dividing the globe. Is this inevitable? Is it sustainable? Can it be the Christian calling? The 18th and 19th centuries were the great period of Christian advance, which itself coincided with the growth of the Western empires. From the European heartlands the missionaries spread to all continents, and in all there was some response; least in the countries with ancient and literary religious traditions, most in communities with oral traditions and primal religions. There was passion and conviction behind the great expenditure of life and talent. The assurance was solid from the Catholic right to the non-conformist left that God willed the evangelization of all nations so that all might know the grace of Christ and enter into faith. This conviction has waned with the political empires. There are many Christians in Europe and North America who now question the missionary endeavour, who wonder if it is really better to let everyone remain as they are, or who doubt whether the New Testament has universal application. The political change has been contemporaneous with the rise in religious doubt. It is in this scene that Christian fundamentalism makes its present appearance, as it assures us all that the old calling to mission is indeed for ever and for all, that we must never relax from total dependence on the written word of the Bible, and that those who do not believe in Christ ate lost souls. We have the fullness of light; they are in the total dark. It can be very stirring stuff. It has a strange popularity in university campuses. Its heartland is in the USA and so merges into the thought patterns of the new imperialists. The swing towards conservative and literalist Christian faith is affecting all the churches, and dominates some. I find the sharpness of the black and white view of the world that this approach promotes to be a very dangerous understanding of our complex planet. We meet Islamic fundamentalism across the new Wall. The onrush of Islamic expansion coincides with the oil wealth that has given the Middle East its power base and confidence. Islamic expansion is partly a protest movement against Western culture which strict Muslims may see as driven by commerce, soaked in sex, fuddled by drugs and crippled by crime. May there not be a purer society where the faith orders the common life and where the reality of community is preserved by the unity of prayer? And, if there is this better way can we not destroy all others? It is easy to point to the misfit. Islamic society today cannot return to a medieval synthesis. It depends on the scientific technology of the West, and it lives in a competitive world. There is a tension between the qur'anic word and the global revolution in communications, between Sharia law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, between Jihad and the United Nations. But it is not hard to imagine the attraction of simple, absolute doctrine. It may appear as the religion of triumph over ungodly enemies. Therefore, the extreme edges of Christianity and Islam share some common attitudes and they grab the headlines. The danger is that they come to stand for the whole reality of the two worlds of faith so that we all begin to imagine ourselves in, not a cold war, but a word war, a faith war, a war of the cultures, which can turn to violence. Can this be what God calls for? As I live within the world of Christian faith and have made Christian ministry my personal journey, I cannot answer that question from a Muslim viewpoint, but I have to attempt an answer from my own. …