Critical Faithfulness: the heart of prophetic monotheism

Critical Faithfulness: the heart of prophetic monotheism* Dr Abdullah Sahin a.sahin@warwick.ac.uk By the turn of the last century, secular political order had become so deeply rooted in the western societies that few would have predicted the return of religion as a socio-political force in today’s globalised world. However, it must be stressed that this religious revival came with a high price. Religion is increasingly seen as an irrational reactionary force nurturing fanaticism, conflict and violence and therefore a threat to world peace. Historically, in the West, this fear of religion has led the modern secular consciousness to largely confine faith to the category of individualistic moral piety. The prophetic call for observing justice in all aspects of life that defines the heart of monotheistic faith traditions has been largely ignored. Unfortunately, even within contemporary sister faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the significance of this prophetic voice of social ethics and just living tend to be less vocal. The book under review offers an unparalleled insight into this critical prophetic message of upholding justice and respect for human dignity embedded within the Abrahamic faiths. The author discerns this creative monotheistic impulse of critical faithfulness by offering an impressive intertextual reading that enables the sacred discourses of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and the Qur’an to engage in a meaningful conversation, thus illustrating the intertwined nature of their core message to humanity. The basic argument of the book is that the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths are essentially telling the same tale weaved around the contrasting images of two cities i.e. the unjust city where corruption and transgression rule and the city of God where justice and dignity for all prevail. The book is made up of a preface where the main focus and the structure of the study is outlined and eleven short chapters in which the ‘tale of two cities’ as depicted within the scriptural heritage of Abrahamic faiths are discussed. Interestingly, the city metaphor is not primarily connected with the notion of sacred space per se. The experience of justice and injustice within the urban context of a city is the main focus. There are several cities such as Babylon, Jerusalem and Sodom mentioned in these scriptures that are almost exclusively presented within the context of its inhabitants’ practice of wrong doing or commitment to uphold justice. The patterns and consequences of diverse prophetic interventions in these cities that aim to address the violence and injustice constitute the heart of the sacred narrative. * This is a revised version of the review article (The Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an; three books, two cities, one tale by Anton Wessels, Cambridge, Wm.B.Eerdmans Press, 2013) first appeared in MWBR, 35:4 (51-56) (2015). 1 The first chapter discusses several ancient cities that have shaped the history of humanity. The author notes that in the Bible there is deep suspicion about the ‘city’ as its foundation is tied in with the story of Cain who murders his brother Abel. This stigma attached to the city is explored in depth in chapter three by closely examining the abuse of political power in the creation of oppressive socio-economic structures. Furthermore, in the Bible, city building appears to be associated with declaring human autonomy against God’s power. The story of the tower of Babel depicts God as worrying about the rise of human power, thus He deliberately attempts to disrupt their unity by scattering them all over the world. Most significantly, God appears to ‘confuse their language’ by causing humanity to have different languages so that they can no longer understand and cooperate with each other (Genesis 11:4-11). The ancient city of Babylon where the Jewish population was exiled, is often linked to the word Babel and depicted as a place of suffering. In fact, in the New Testament it symbolises the Antichrist. The author rightly suggests that the word Babylon should not be confused with the Hebrew Babel and in Akkadian, due to the city’s magnificence, literally meant ‘God’s Gate’. The archaeological findings suggest that Babylon was actually a cosmopolitan city, a multicultural melting pot, where minority religious identities were indeed protected and fostered. Incidentally, although the author does not mention it, it is worth remembering that the Qur’an explicitly emphasises that the linguistic, racial and cultural diversity of humanity do not stem from God’s jealousy and are certainly not meant to be source of confusion. On the contrary, the diversity informing the human condition, according to the Qur’an (30:22/49:13), signifies God’s creativity and is seen as an educational motivation for humanity to be open to dialogue so that they can learn from one another (ta’aruf). According to the Qur’an our faith commitments need to be informed by a strong desire to know one’s self, explore the world around us and remain open to the ‘other’, thus suggesting that critical openness is an integral part of critical faithfulness. The Qur’anic passages depicting prophet Abraham’s discovery of faith via questioning and reflection in his childhood (6:7480) and the reflective faithfulness that defined his prophetic leadership (2:260) all strongly indicate that exploration and reflection are central ingredients of Islamic faithfulness (Sahin, 2014;186-210). The exercise of these qualities brings balance, moderation, in short maturity, to our personal/spiritual lives as well as ensuring our societies are shaped by values of dignity and justice for all. Therefore, within the Qur’anic self-understanding, human competence for devotion and reflection are brought into a balanced synthesis of critical faithfulness so that faith acts as a transformative educational resource in facilitating human flourishing. As such, the frequent Qur’anic critique of diverse forms of injustices and its stark warnings about the dangers of going to extremes even in religious observance (5:77) are very significant: reason/critical thinking is not simply used instrumentally but seen as embedded within faithfulness. It appears that whenever Muslims kept ‘reflective faithfulness’ alive, they showed confidence to creatively engage with their own religious heritage as well as the world around them. The experience of ambiguity and ambivalence appeared only to have strengthened the emergence of ‘Islamicly meaningful’ creative responses. It should be noted that in classical Muslim thought, this creative engagement was not confined to the well-known polymaths like al-Ghazzali (d.1111) or Ibn Taymiyya (d.1328). The poetic imagination of Abu Al-‘Alaa al-Ma’arri (d.1057) and Hafiz-i Shirazi (d.1389), for example, though shaped by different historical, cultural and linguistic realities, were also nourished and inspired by the humanising Muslim spirt of critical faithfulness and openness. 2 The city metaphor certainly offers a relevant entry point to explore and understand the shared character of the prophetic scriptures. However, in this approach there is a danger of developing essentialist readings of the ‘city’ as either absolute evil or pure goodness. Ultimately, cities signify human creativity in bringing about complex social organisations where human competence for ‘goodness and cooperation’ becomes a civilizational force. Cities can easily become corrupt; human greed, arrogance and lust for power turns them into cites of oppression, injustice and ultimately evil. Therefore, the struggle to transform evil and produce goodness within the context of a city constitutes one of the main enduring themes re-enacted in diverse divine interventions in human history. For example, the Qur’anic revelation has been shaped largely within the context of two cities; Mecca and Medina. While it is true that Meccan society was unjust and initially the symbol of suffering for the early Muslim community, its sacred character was not undermined. Similarly, while Medina offered peace and security for the Muslim refugees, the city itself was suffering from long tribal feuds. The New Testament shows Jesus grieving and weeping over the fact that the city of peace, Jerusalem, became unjust. Thus, he brought the radical prophetic criticism to the temple; the sacred sanctuary in Jerusalem, in order to transform the politics of oppression into the polity of justice and compassion (Matt 23:27). As the author in chapter four elegantly discusses, the cities often become so corrupt that the only way to restore justice is to flee from them (Exodus and Hijra) or peacefully disengage with its unjust inhabitants. The experience of exile, no matter how painful it is, signifies hope that ultimately may also redeem the corrupt city. The author subsequently in several short chapters discusses a fundamental prophetic principle shared by the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths that demonstrates the character of Divine intervention in human history: God’s delivery of the faithful from the land of injustice to the safety of a promised land is always contingent upon their commitment to observe the Divine guidance and uphold justice. This principle is adequately illustrated by utilizing relevant resources from the Bible and the Qur’an. The author draws attention to the experience of Exodus, led by Moses, to the promised land and which was turned into a nightmare of forty years’ desperate wandering in the desert. It appears that Moses’ followers decided to enter the land with violence, naively assuming the unconditional support of God and started to deviate from the Divine commandments. As a consequence, they were no longer permitted to enter the promised land until they reflected on their wrong doings and changed themselves (Levinas, 1990). Furthermore, as the author illustrates, once the faithful are in the promised land they need to keep the city just, by showing active vigilance to prevent the unjust socio economic and political power structures from emerging. The defense of the just order when attacked inevitably requires the use of military force and may cause undesired violence. However, the scriptures of Abrahamic faiths prescribe a strong legal code as well as a deeper ethical value framework that need to be observed even during military engagements. Ultimately, even the military successes do not need to lead to a sense of triumphalism. A just conquest starts with winning over the hearts and minds of the people and therefore, like in the case of the conquest of Makkah, a non-violent conquest is possible. The Qur’an warns that this particular victory should not make the faithful arrogant but should be seen as God’s blessing and therefore motivate them to continue to humbly invoke His forgiveness (110:3). In other words, the faithful, despite the painful experiences caused by the conflicts, should always be prepared to forgive and reconcile. As the case of prophet Jonah shows, even unjust cities like Nineveh can repent and become just. 3 The author emphasizes the fact that the use of scripture is always open to selective ideological manipulations that often ignore the contextual readings essential in enabling the central message of the sacred discourse to come across. As such, it is vital that the critical and inspirational nature of the prophetic tradition defining the heart of Abrahamic faiths is properly understood. The justice-centred prophetic call has a lot to offer to today’s efforts to achieve global peace and reconciliation in the world. The author refers to prophet Jeremiah’s realistic response (p.244) to the dire situation of Jews scattered into exile after the rise of the neo-Babylonian empire. He reminds the faithful that ‘every place is God’s place, every time is God’s time’ and urges them to contribute positively to the cities in which they were exiled as minorities by becoming active agents of peace building there. As such, the author argues that the collective identities of faithfulness as expressed in the prophetic scriptures of Abrahamic faiths (the Jewish qahal, Christian ecclesia and Muslim ummah) should not be turned into tribalistic rigid loyalties but remain open to one another in responding to the needs of the oppressed and show solidarity in achieving peace around the globe. In many ways this is an ambitious book as the author attempts to engage with a vast body of material selected from the three sacred scriptures. As a result, sometimes the materials used are not always adequately analyzed. Furthermore, as the author aims to demonstrate the strong harmony among the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths i.e. they tell the same sacred tale, the fundamental differences in their self-understanding as sacred scriptures and their challenges to each other are not properly addressed. For example, the idea of ‘divine revelation’ is differently perceived; whilst in the Bible it is often understood to be a general divine inspiration, Muslims believe that the Qur’an is literally the divine speech. Moreover, while the Bible has undergone a long historical processes of becoming a closed canon, the Qur’anic revelation was completed within the life of the prophet. In addition to these structural differences, it is important to note that while the main message of the story is shared, often the act of retelling does not occur as the repetition of the same narrative content, structure and style. Instead, a dynamic process of appropriation whereby the main characters and events are reinterpreted to articulate the central message afresh within the reality of a new audience. In fact, this act of creative reimagining can even be observed within the framework of one scriptural tradition. As the brilliant work by J. Klistner (2011) shows, in the Hebrew Bible similar narratives are often retold in different parts of the canon, as ‘subversive sequels’ in order to develop a higher, more comprehensive ethical position. There is an undeniable intra-scriptural challenge within Abrahamic sacred texts that makes their dialogue an open and critical process of accountability, ethical responsibility and mutual recognition in upholding the fundamental values embodying their shared message. As such, the Qur’an certainly sees itself as an integral part of the shared monotheistic message but also a subversive prophetic critique of its sister faith traditions. This challenge does not take away the overall common vison, but brings about the reality of diverse appropriations and realizations of the shared message. 4 This diversity and often creative tension within the process of re-telling or re-appropriating the Divine story is an important part of prophetic mission and leadership. The author discusses the nature of prophecy in Abrahamic religious tradition and draws attention to the fact that the ‘prophet is not someone who predicts the future as such but who has the gift of insight and competence for analysis and understanding’ (p.32). However, he does not clarify that the prophets proclaimed critical faithfulness that involves a strong element of critique necessary to reveal the deceptive and unjust practices in the city. Thus, the prophetic critique inspires the inhabitants of the city to transform themselves by imagining an alternative reality in their lives. He points out that both the Bible and the Qur’an depict prophets as those who are charged by the Divine to proclaim His message to humanity. The author as a Christian, acknowledges Muhamad’s prophethood which, compared to the more dominant western view that his mission at best was a ‘pious fraud’, is noteworthy. Although he does not mention it, it appears that he follows the famous statement made by the late W.C. Smith, a well-known Christian scholar of Islam, that he is a ‘muslim’ i.e. literally one who submits to the will of God and not necessarily part of the historical or sociological Muslim society established under the leadership of Muhammad. However, the author often refrains from discussing the intra-scriptural challenges. For example, Muslims’ belief about the completion and finality of Divine prophecy in the prophetic mission of Muhammad is not discussed. Most significantly, as a Christian missiologist the author could have examined the theological implications of contextualising the Divine mission of Jesus within the legacy of prophetic monotheism. This rather sensitive but significant topic of thinking ‘Jesus Christ as a prophet’ is discussed in depth by the late John M. Hull (2014) who called for the need to revive the spirit of critical prophetic insight in the Hebrew Bible to guide the contemporary Christian Church so that it could be reconnected with its prophetic legacy. Overall, the book encourages the people of Abrahamic faiths to be curious about each other’s sacred scriptures and is a bold attempt to recover the justice-centred focus within their shared scriptural heritage. By considering the implications of this prophetic message to achieve peace amongst the people of today’s cities, the book makes a significant contribution to much needed interreligious understanding in the modern world. 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