Christendom And Islam - Their Contacts And Cultures Down The Centuries (Paperback)

Text extracted from opening pages of book: AND ISL M Their Contacts and Cultures Down the Centuries THE HASKELL LECTURES Given in the Graduate School of Theology Oberlin College, 1936-3? By W. WILSON GASH HARPER fc? BROTHERS PUBLISHERS New York and London 1937 AND ISLAM by Harper A-Brothers Printed in the United States of America All rights in this book are reserved* JVo part of the book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For information address Harper & Brothers 6/ 6 FIRST EDITION Published by arrangement with THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY COUNCII 24 28 TO EDMUND TYDEMAN UTE OF THE INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICE IN THE PUNJAB; MY FRIEND AND FELLOW-WORKER THE HASKELL LECTURESHIP was founded in 1905 by a bequest of Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell of Chicago to provide an annual series of lectures on some phase of the influence of Christianity on the life and religion of the Near and Middle East. Preface ISLAM in its inception contained a mass of curious misconceptions and misunderstandings of Christian ity. When every allowance has been made for the period in which he lived and the superstitions of the times it is baffling to find Mohammed speaking of the Trinity as God, Mary and Jesus. Why he denied the fact of the crucifixion creates a problem that his tory has never solved. These erroneous representations of basic Christian belief became stereotyped into dogmas as the mechan ical views of the inspiration of the Koran developed. The expansion of Islam brought with it similar misunderstanding of Moslems on the part of Chris dans, and the early wars completed a process of cleavage and antagonism which has never been healed to this day, The earliest records ofChristian missionary work reveal a method of attack. Controversy was the main line of approach from the Christian to the Moslem and the divisions were thus further emphasized. This method was carried over to modern times by the nineteenth century missionaries, and Christian evan gelism among Moslems was largely based upon an as sault upon Islam, its prophet, its doctrines and its vil via PREFACE practices, coupled with a dogmatic presentation of the Christian faith. Missionaries wondered why there was no response and why Moslems seemed so little attracted by Christianity. In my earlier days as a missionary I studied con troversy and examined the Koran critically for the purpose of argument and debate. But I came to re alize the utter futility of it all and ultimately to dis card controversy entirely as a method of approach to Moslems. For years I searched for a key to the Mos lem mind, a way of approach that would not antago nize, and a presentation of Christian belief that would not alienate. My study of Moslem history showed me that through centuries of bitter strife and conflict between the two faiths there had always been small bodies of both Moslems and Christians whose love of art, science and literature had enabled them to transcend their differences and to find common ground in their mutual thirst for knowledge. I asked myself, Is there anything similar in the two religions which would enable Moslems and Christians alike to approach the subject of their faith in a better spirit? This led me to study the contributions of the one religion to the other and to compare elements in each drawn from the other, As long as I studied the sub ject from the standpoint of Christian dogma orMos PREFACE IX lem orthodoxy I could find nothing that gave me hope, and that in spite of the fact that there were so many similarities in the two religions. The surface agreements only helped really to emphasize the funda mental and deep theological cleavages. Living as I did in the villages of Egypt I had many opportunities of studying Islam at first hand and I became very much intrigued by the strength of the dervish orders. As far as I could calculate I estimated that about half the people in Egypt were connected in one way or another with these dervish sects. Th