The Prophet and his children

...Or, as religious studies professor Marilyn Waldman modestly put it a few years ago, researchers have yet to "develop a framework commensurate with the magnitude of contemporary Islam...

...in Pastoral Ministry/M.S.W...

...Each writes clearly...

...special lectures with Raymond Brown on New Testament Christology...

...led by the United States in a war against one Arab state for the purported defense of others in the region only adds to the urgency of calls for a clearer and more realistic grasp of Islam...

...It consists of a score of relatively short essays, including case studies dealing with both the popular and the elite levels, ideological and theological analyses, and several insider expositions that chart the main currents of ongoing controversies and conflicts particularly in the Arab world...

...Passing from these canonical, devotional, and theoretical concerns to the more actual side of Islam with its cacophonous expressions in our times, a sound acquaintance with recent historical experience in the region stands as the requisite preliminary for any serious inquiry...

...Later retreating from what evolved into a political vortex, he concentrated on a formidable array of scholarly pursuits, ultimately at the University of Chicago...

...Taken as a group, these works can introduce us to Islam and to the life and practice of our Muslim brothers and sisters in a way which is at once sympathetic and illuminating...

...for the Prophet is but God's mouthpiece...

...and never "Muhammad says...

...Visiting faculty includes Bernard Cooke, John Meier, Gustavo Gutierrez, Maria Harris, James Fowler, Joan Chittister and David Tracy...

...One often finds that they refer to these as guides to action...

...By beginning with their revelational book, the Holy Qur'an, certainly...

...But it will probably help little to take a copy out of the library and begin to be inspired...

...Among the most readable general introductions are Frederick Denny's An Introduction to Islam (Macmillan, 1985) and Jacques Jomier's How to Understand Islam (SCM, 1989...

...Meanwhile, for those preferring a comparative politics approach, Tamara Sonn offers a solid foundation of contemporary efforts to address the intricate overlap of the sacred and the secular in the struggle over defining authority and establishing order in her new study entitled Between Qur'an and Crown: The Challenge of Political Legitimacy in the Arab World (Westview, 1990...

...But length should never be confused with authoritativeness...

...Kenneth Cragg's Muhammad and the Christian: A Question of Response (Orbis Books, 1984) frames an exceptionally clear and theologically sophisticated discussion of how Christian faith may be articulated, shared, and enriched by an encounter with Islam...

...For those desiring a more systematic immersion into these scriptures there is probably no better brief guide available than W. Montgomery Watt's revision of Richard Bell's extraordinary Introduction to the Qur'an (Edinburgh University Press, 1970...

...Finally, the direct and massive involvement of an international coalition DAVID BURRELL, C.S.C., and PATRICK D. GAFFNEY, C.S.C., teach courses in Islam at the University of Notre Dame...

...We might feel a bit like the Hindu traveler in the United States who took advantage of the hotel room Bible to acquaint himself with this country's holy book, only to realize that it had very little "religion" in it...

...masterful introduction covering this same range of basic material but from within the tradition itself can be found in the late Fuzlur Rahman's Islam ( Second edition, University of Chicago, 1979...

...On-campus air-conditioned apartments with kitchen...

...Moreover, the articles are also quite untinged with the possibly distorting tones of retrospective views stimulated by crisis-consciousness...

...His remarkable learning and generosity of spirit live on in his extensive writings as well as an exceptional group of appreciative former students spread out amid dozens of university faculties in the Muslim world and the West...

...Warm hospitality within a community of prayer and study...

...But the substance and quality of its contents is such that their relevance is only heightened by what many observers have perceived to be utterly unanticipated developments...

...Chittick's eloquent translation plus facing commentary of extensive portions of the works by this thirteenth-century Andalusian mystic, perhaps Islam's most influential and controversial spiritual master, offers lay and professional readers alike an unprecedented resource for the study of this genius, comparable to John of the Cross as poet and Meister Eckhart as thinker...

...So when citing a verse of the Qur'an, it is advisable to say: "the Qur'an says...

...The Man and His Faith (Harper, 1960) offers a streamlined and sensitive capsule portrait that evidences the best virtues of old-fashioned Germanic scholarship, though the author was actually Swedish...

...So, lamentably, the identification of "Muslim" with "fanatic" and even "terrorist" pervades our subliminal awareness...

...First, Scholars, Saints and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions Since 1500, edited by N. Keddie, (University of California Press, 1972) is a stellar collection focusing on key regions, axial periods, and seminal issues...

...Moreover, echoes of the conflict in the state of Israel and the occupied territories have long been picked up in a milieu like our own, which is predominantly Christian yet marginally Jewish, resulting at times in a skewed image of valiant settlers facing roaming "terrorists," the bulk of whom are Muslims...

...Hardier readers may profit from Andras and Ruth Hamori's edition of the Hungarian-German scholar Ignaz Goldziher's classical Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (Princeton, 1981) where the similarities and differences between Islam and Judaism receive more attention, and the developments in spiritual life under the Sufis is nicely presented...

...The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran (Simon & Schuster, 1985) by Roy Mottahedeh, presently head of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, is widely recognized as a rare achievement combining impressive erudition with a vivid narrative to portray the 8 March 1991:163 sometimes arcane culture of Shi'ite religious learning and the tensions within it that eventually burst upon the world stage with the establishment of the Ayatollah's Islamic Republic...

...And continue your studies during the academic year...

...A biography that is probably more in tune with contemporary sensibility, better informed regarding the socio-cultural context, and incorporates later findings is Mohammed (Vintage, 1974) by Maxine Rodinson, doyen of Semitic studies in France and still one of her most insightful observers of related current affairs...

...Permanent faculty: Mary Boys, Thomas Groome, Robert Imbelli and Claire Lowery...

...It seems to be so important today...

...This is likewise the principle for the ordering of Paul's epistles in the New Testament...

...In the face of all these obstacles, how can one start to teach about, to learn about Islam...

...Two further titles in this anthology format may be singled out as representative of a constant flow of uneven festschrifts, published papers from academic conferences and special journal issues...

...American Christians usually come to know Jews in their neighborhoods and their schools, but friendship or even acquaintance with Muslims is harder to come by...

...He began his career in the early 1950s closely associated with the heady idealistic effort to forge a modem Muslim state in Pakistan...

...Its author received a traditional Islamic education in his native Punjab before going on to complete doctoral studies at Oxford...

...As with Christianity, the history of the movement known as Islam may afford one a better understanding than the revelational book itself...

...Finally, at least one token of a related genre deserves mention in virtue of the growing urgency of genuine ecumenism between ourselves and our Muslim neighbors...

...Dahood which arranges them out in a conjectured chronological sequence...

...While such a recasting is not the sort of thing which Muslims wish to countenance, the Qur'an itself does indicate where each sura was revealed to Muhammad, for it is part of their belief that the Prophet received God's message piecemeal, as it were, in response to specific situations...

...20th Anniversary Celebration including social events commemorating the Twentieth...

...Just as the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, or for that matter, Vatican II, are impossible to understand without a knowledge of medieval Caesaro-Papism, an adequate grasp of today's headlines from the Middle East demands an awareness of the events and attitudes that have lately shaped the course of these lands...

...Hence it is not surprising that much of the most insightful current scholarship is appearing in shorter pieces in the form of articles rather than books...

...Cross Registration with the eight other Boston area graduate schools of theology including Andover Newton Theological School, Boston University, Harvard Divinity School and Weston School of Theology...

...Sabbatical Renewal Program offers a holistic program of academic, spiritual and physical renewal designed for your individual needs...

...As God's very word made Arabic, translations of the Qur' an are explicitly not the Qur'an itself...

...164: Commonweal...

...The Qur'an itself, in all or in part, is frequently committed to memory, and favorite verses are employed, much like the Jesus-prayer in Orthodox spirituality, as mantras evoking the presence of God...

...Fortunately for Christian readers, the retired Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, Kenneth Cragg, has recently translated the Qur'an and collected its key verses thematically in an edition which provides helpful reading tips: Readings in the Qur'an (Collins, 1988...

...Meanwhile, The Islamic Impulse, edited by Barbara Stowasser (Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1987) competently fills this gap which has been produced by the rise of seemingly newer manifestations of religiously inspired activism...

...Clearly, the manifold forces and counterforces that presently enliven Muslim societies far surpass the scholarly paradigms available for their assessment, East and West...

...Pickthall's The Meaning o f the Glorious Koran (New American Library, 1953), or Ahmed Ali's Al-Qur'an: A Commentary Translation (Princeton, 1988...

...Gaffney is an anthropologist whose research field includes contemporary Islamic organizations and movements, especially in the Arab world, and Burrell's focus is medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim philosophical theology...

...Denny emitting the air of a textbook, while Jomier's style displays the learned continental flair of haute vulgarisation...

...Another avenue of approach to these origins lies in the search for its historical founder which in the case of Islam is far better documented than for Christianity, although the inevitable glosses and mythologizing accretions are hardly lacking...

...Perhaps that is also why we have a disproportionate number of Government and International Studies majors...

...Sometimes this distinction is encoded in the title such as A. J. Arberry's The Koran Interpreted (Oxford, 1964), M.M...

...A smaller volume expounding a sociology-of-religion viewpoint with an emphasis on the most tumultuous cases is Henry Munson's Islam and Revolution in the Middle East (Yale, 1988...

...Here readers can profit from a century of Western academic scholarship, initially European yet currently American 162: Commonweal as well...

...in Pastoral Ministry with concentrations in: Pastoral Care and Counseling, Social Ministry, Liturgy and Worship, Religious Education, Leadership/Church Management, Spirituality and Ministry, Hispanic Ministry and Joint M.A...

...For example, one resource of great u s e f u l n e s s is the landmark Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillan, 1987) which contains scores of relevant entries scattered about under numerous titles but concentrated in volume seven ("Icon to Jensen") where articles such as Sail Into Historic Boston for the Summer of 1991 and Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Institute July 21-27th Two-week summer courses from June 24-August 2, 1991 Courses specifically designed for updating through continuing education or degree (M.A., M.Ed., C.A.E.S...

...Interestingly, its composition slightly predates the explosion of interest and the consequent reappraisals in many quarters that have accompanied the so-called resurgence of Islam...

...Each orients his presentation in ways that make connections with Christian ideas and practice while both are also aware that the identification of "Muslim" with "Arab" must be overcome--for the majority of today's Muslims live outside Arab lands...

...Here two easily accessible works might aid a beginner...

...So whoever ventures forward into the second sura which is the longest and incidentally one of the last to be revealed, may find themselves bogged down in material which seems strange, oblique, and repetitious even though it resonates with a majesty of its own...

...The sayings of Muhammad himself, on the other hand, have been collected into a series of narratives, admonitions, and aphorisms known as hadith, which also instruct Muslims...

...For further information regarding all programs and the 2orb Anniversary Celebration: Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry Boston College, Department R Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 (617) 552-8440 "Islam: An Overview," "Islamic Law," and even "Islam in the Americas" provide as informed and current a handbook account for such topics as is available in any language...

...f course, innumerable works of many sorts, i n c l u d i n g memoirs, biographies, ethnographies, and all manner of histories abound to complement these overviews, but perhaps one recent volume of exceptional interest can be singled out...

...For one thing, the arrangement of the chapters or suras in the Muslim holy book can be daunting, for after the first (which serves them as a frequent prayer, much like the Our Father for Christians) the rest follow in a conventional order based solely on their length...

...updating sessions with Institute and visiting faculty on current topics in Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry...

...Tor Andrae's Mohammed...

...The M.A...

...And then there is the bugbear of "fundamentalism," a term which Catholics generally employ to castigate anyone else, allowing the phrase "Muslim fundamentalist" to roll off our lips without much reflection...

...Generous financial assistance available for degree students...

...Hence a survey such as John O. Voll's excellent Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World (Westview Press, 1982) or Edward Mortimer's slightly more journalistic Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam (Vintage, 1982) can serve to initiate He newcomer into the complex crosscurrents of revival, reform, accommodation, and resistance that have marked the transformation of the declining Ottoman Imperium into the present assortment of secular nation states whose regimes are variously and often ambiguously allied with religion...

...An exploration of the Sufi movement--a heartfelt response to God's presence in the Qur'an on the part of many Muslims over the ages--might start with Annemarie Schimmel's beautifully written Mystical Dimensions of Islam (University of North Carolina Press, 1975...

...Since it is received as God's very word, Christians are better advised to liken the Qur'an to Jesus himself (as the Word of God) rather than to the Bible, where God's word is understood to be mediated through the concerns of the inspired authors...

...For the M.Ed., C.A.E.S., Ph.D., in Religious Education...

...Or for bolder souls who prefer to nestle immediately at the sheikh's feet, the just-published magisterial tome of William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al- 'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination (SUNY Press, 1989) will provide an aspiring contemplative with the closest thing to a magic carpet which is, of course, a folkloric transmutation of the Muslim prayer rug...

...For this reason, some translators have sought to reorder the suras such as Penguin's The Koran by N.J...

...Denny is a student of comparative religions whose understanding of Islam extends as far as Indonesia, whereas Jomie'r is a French Dominican who has spent much of his life in Cairo and the farther reaches of Africa...

...Through no fault of their own, our students share the general cultural deprivation of American suburban dwellers, yet some of them have been made aware of that fact, often through overseas programs which have opened their horizons to embrace larger worlds...

...The rarity, no less than the timeliness, of a work of this caliber is perhaps a sign that this long overdue global agenda of mutual recognition is dawning at last...

...This work continues to serve as a vade mecum for intellectually inclined novices as well as a brilliant interpretative essay for veterans, Muslim and nonMuslims alike...

...UNDERSTANDING I _T.qM: AN INTRODUCTION The Prophet and his children DAVID BURRELL & PATRICK D. GAFFNEY he students who take our courses in classical or contemporary Islam invariably give as their reason for enrolling: "I know nothing about Islam yet feel that I should...