Philip Jenkins and AbdurRahman Abou Almajd in dialog about Interfaith Dialogue.

Philip Jenkins and AbdurRahman Abou Almajd in dialog about Interfaith Dialogue.                    

We have a fresh opportunity to reflect about interfaith dialogue . 

At this point Philip Jenkins isn’t going to speak about his views on interfaith dialogue but he also speaks about thoughts too.

Philip Jenkins

Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor History, Baylor University, Co-Director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion, and Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University (PSU).

He was Professor (from 1993) and a Distinguished Professor (from 1997) of History and Religious studies at the same institution; and also assistant, associate and then full professor of Criminal Justice and American Studies at PSU, 1980–93

Jenkins is a contributing editor for The American Conservative and writes a monthly column for The Christian Century. He has also written articles for Christianity Today, First Things, and The Atlantic.

In 2002 Jenkins, who is a Catholic-turned-Episcopalian, discussed the Catholic sex abuse cases, asserting that "[his] research of cases over the past 20 years indicates no evidence whatever that Catholic or other celibate clergy are any more likely to be involved in misconduct or abuse than clergy of any other denomination—or indeed, than non-clergy. However determined news media may be to see this affair as a crisis of celibacy, the charge is just unsupported."

In a 2010 interview with National Public Radio Jenkins stated that he believes "the Islamic scriptures in the Qur'an were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible", citing explicit instructions in the Old Testament calling for genocide while the Qur'an calls for primarily defensive war.

Jenkins went on to state that Islam, Judaism and Christianity had undergone a process he refers to as "holy amnesia" in which violence in sacred texts become symbolic action against one's sins. Islam had until recently also undergone the same process, in which jihad became an internal struggle rather than war.

Books by Professor Philip Jenkins

He wrote  a lot of important books;

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Future of Christianity Trilogy)   (Sep 13, 2011)

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died  (Nov 3, 2009)

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years   (Mar 8, 2011)

The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South   (Nov 12, 2008)

Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can't Ignore the Bible's Violent Verses   (Oct 25, 2011)

The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice   (Oct 28, 2004)

Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way   (Dec 5, 2002)

Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography Online   (Aug 1, 2001)

Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America   (Dec 28, 2004)

God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis (The Future of Christianity)   (Apr 6, 2009)

Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America   (Mar 27, 2008)

Images of Terror: What We Can and Can't Know About Terrorism (Social Problems and Social Issues)  (Apr 1, 2003)

Q:  You write solidly and well about the verses in the Bible where God orders murder and genocide. Those verses were used by Oliver Cromwell, Southern racists and the Pilgrims to justify their actions. I wonder what key concepts that need to be treated honestly if dialogue is to lead to reconciliation?

Philip Jenkins: I should explain how my book came about. After the September 11 attacks, many people in the West were claiming that terrorism and mass murder were a fundamental part of Islam, that they were somehow built into the Qur’an. There are indeed passages in the Qur’an that speak of violence and war, but this is also true of the Bible. Christians and Jews may commit violent acts in the name of religion, but that does not make the religions violent in and of themselves.

When I wrote articles about this, some Christians and Jews complained, and some actually denied that the passages existed! A few even said that the passages were in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and they should not be relevant to Christians. In the Christian tradition, that is a very wrong and even dangerous thing to say, because it cuts Jesus off from his Jewish roots. Therefore, I wrote my book to explore these Biblical texts, and to explore how Christians and Jews should come to terms with them.

The main point is that people who follow the Bible need to acknowledge honestly what is in the text, and how those passages have been used through the centuries. When they do that, they will see that all religions have had violence committed in their name, and no religion can claim to be innocent in that way. Without honesty, there can be no conversation, and no understanding.

It certainly is not a case of each religion complaining about others, “You are more violent than us!” That would be a competition for fools.

Q: I absolutely love Philip Jenkins' books. I've read most of them so far, and I find them compelling and incredibly interesting. In your opinion which of them is most important for readers and why?

Philip Jenkins: I try to be modest! But my book THE NEXT CHRISTENDOM is the most important for my work.

Q:  You are a Christian biblical scholar, How better to make peace with ones neighbors (the Muslims) ?

Philip Jenkins: One good way is to understand history, so that we see that many of the differences between the faiths are not as great as they seem. In some periods, you see the religions at deadly war with each other, sometimes at peace. It is not mean that hatred and war are in the DNA of any religion. Those are things that happen in particular circumstances, at given times and places.

Also, I try not to speak of “Christianity does this,” or “Islam does that”. Christianity and Islam are ideas. Of themselves, they do not move, or grow, or rule, or fight, or persecute. Christians and Muslims do that, and they are people, rooted in particular societies and times. There can be struggles between Christians and Muslims, but not between Christianity and Islam.

I also stress how very diverse and varied the religions are. Christians and Jews usually think of Islam just in terms of some very strict and puritanical forms. In reality, Islam is very diverse, and Muslims follow very different traditions: some are very open-minded and intolerant, others are intolerant. It may sound obvious to a Muslim, but that genuinely is not known to many in the West.

To take a recent example, I was struck by the mass movement of ordinary people in Libya who fought and drove out the terrorist militias who had killed the US ambassador. The crowds took this step in the name of Islam, they shouted “Allahu Akbar”. This story was not widely reported or acknowledged in the US because it undermined the basic assumption that Islam and terrorism are closely allied.

Q: Me too, but rather may have been planned in advance, according the U.S. and Libyan officials, see. Sam Kiley (September 12, 2012). "US Anti-Muslim Film 'Designed To Enrage'". Sky News. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-anti-muslim-film-designed-enrage-112301683.html. Retrieved September 12, 2012. 

Reuters, Maker of anti-Islam film goes into hiding, December 9, 2012, (retrieved 09-14-2012)

Philip Jenkins:

Q:  You didn't blindly follow the 'clash of civilizations'/'with us or against us' could you elaborate on that please?

Philip Jenkins: Again I turn to history. It certainly is true that we see many signs of clashes in the modern world, but that is not true always and everywhere in the way it would be ifcivilizations were rigid and unchanging. The more history we know, the more we see that civilizations and religions sometimes cooperate, and sometimes fight. The clash is not inevitable or eternal.

Also, of course, religions change greatly over time. Their underlying core truths may stay the same, but they change greatly in the ways in which people live them.

Q:  You look at the Koran, how do you find it?

Philip Jenkins: It is difficult to read the Qur’an without recognizing so many themes, ideas and people that are familiar from the Bible and from Christian tradition. That is especially true if you have studied the Eastern and Syriac Christian traditions, which would have been the world in which Muhammad lived. In the Qur'an, then, I see a text that is closely parallel to the religious world I know at first hand. I meet old friends here.

There are also many particular passages that I enjoy greatly. My favorite verse in the Qur’an is probably this, from Sura 31: “And if all the trees on earth were pens, and the sea [were] ink, with seven [morel seas yet added to it, the words of God would not be exhausted: for, verily, God is almighty, wise.”

Q:  Right, as it's book of god Prophet Muhammad can't write anything like this. What else do you enjoy greatly in the Qur’an too?

Philip Jenkins: I admire the passages about Jesus, seen from a different perspective than in the Bible.

Q:  Why do you think Christian writers on the Qur’an and  Prophet Muhammad often have a negative view of both?

Philip Jenkins: Well, these debates are very ancient, going back some 1200 years. By definition, all religions believe themselves true, and must challenge all rivals.

Q: I always remember what dr Hans Küng said: "There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions". I want to know what you see in ?

Philip Jenkins: That saying is wise, but “dialogue” is usually framed in terms of elite groups, of high-level commissions of clergy and bureaucrats making official statements. That can be of little use unless and until ordinary people spend more time together and speak honestly and openly. I think some of the best conversations will happen in Europe, where Muslims of all shades speak to each other, as well as to non-Muslims. Ideas that emerge here will also spread around the world.

Q: The Western media has set up Islam as a big threat to the civilized world but Jenkins’ voice against this kind of flawed and mischievous reading of Islam is his contribution to clearing some prejudices before the much needed dialogue between Christian and Muslim. Calling for a New Dialogue between Islam and Christianity, I would in principle be interested in making true dialogue. Do you agree with me on this principle "To come to a word equal to us and you - that we worship none but God, and that we associate no partner with him, and that some of us don’t take others for Lords beside God."?

Abdur-Rahman: I should tell readers that you agree to make this dialog,  though you're travelling, Thank you again.

Philip Jenkins: I am a historian not a theologian. Muslims, Christians and Jews have more things that unite them that divide them.

And thank you!