Beyond the Persian Gulf: A Way to World Peace *
I.C.C., OAK LAWN

By Rev. Jack Cory, Pastor, First United Methodist Church, Oak Lawn, IL

“For the first time in history, ecumenical, interfaith dialogue has now taken on the character of an urgent need for world politics. It can help to make our earth more livable, by making it more peaceful and more reconciled. There will be no peace among the peoples of this world without peace among the world religions. Peace is indivisible: it begins within us.” Dr. Hans Kung, Christianity and the World Religions.

The Persian Gulf, where is that? Women covered head to toe with veils? No beer or wine? No Playboy Magazine? Praying five times a day? No pork ribs? These and other questions are going through the minds of our American soldiers as they are thrust into a vastly different culture and environment for probably the first time in their lives in the Persian Gulf conflict. But this is not the first time for American armed forces. This has happened three times for major wars in the last 40 years: Korea, Vietnam, and now the Persian Gulf, though we may get out of there without it turning into a major war.

Marshall McLuhan’s vision of our world turning into a Global Village has happened. We had the Vietnam war in our living room each evening via television, and we now have the buildup for war in the Persian Gulf in the same way. The problem is that we in the world have not taken seriously that the world has become one big neighborhood, and we are going to have to learn to live together. Just as in any neighborhood, there is an interdependence, a need for harmony and understanding, if the neighborhood is going to survive.

So, we in the religious communities must see it as our calling to heed Hans Rung’s insight. There will be no peace in the world until there is peace among the world religions. Part of the problem that has hindered us from even taking up this concern is that we have been too busy within the Christian community of faith fighting among ourselves. And when those disagreements quiet down, we in the Christian and Jewish communities have fought among ourselves. We have had no time to include the Muslims in our fights, and we certainly have not taken the high road of understanding about, knowledge of, and dialogue with the three Abrahamic faiths. The time has now come to seek peace among all the world religions, and a first step in that process sight will be seeking peace and reconciliation among the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths. This might well be our best hope for world peace in our time.

Let us take a preliminary look at dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Obviously, there are some unfortunate historical events that cloud the issue of dialogue. The Christian Crusades and the taking of hostages in Iran and Iraq come to mind. But we must move beyond these events to dialogue. Dialogue has already started at one level, what with the 13 year work of the Muslim-Christian Research Group in France; the publication of the papers of the 1984 “Toward a Universal Theology of Religion” Conference by Leonard Swidler, editor; the 20 years of interfaith conversations sponsored by the World Council of Churches; the work of The Muslim World magazine with its concern for Christian-Muslim relationships since 1911; and the work and publications of the Institute for Ecumenical Research at the Univ. of Tubingen, Germany, directed by Hans Rung.

What needs to happen further is more grass roots dialogue taking place between lay Christians and Muslims. A start on this road has taken place in part with the study of the Islamic faith in the entire United States by the Presbyterian and United Methodist Churches within the last five years. Excellent resources on the presentation of the Islamic faith were prepared by these two denominations and are still available for such grass roots dialogue.
Models of how this dialogue might get started have been developed on the run, sort of do-it-as-we-dialogue approach. Let me present in outline one such model for those interested in undertaking this most important task toward world peace.

A beginning is to get at least one or two persons from the Christian faith and the Muslim faith, dedicated to the long haul of this dialogue and open to such dialogue. In our case it was a Christian Pastor and a Muslim who had studied the Christian faith and scriptures.
We then had a general meeting of Muslims from the local Mosque come to the Church building for a presentation of the history of Christianity. In our case, it was a presentation of the Scriptures from an historical, analytical point of view open to linguistic, literary, historical, and form analysis. We had refreshments and a most interesting dialogue after the presentation. We then reversed the procedure, and some Christians from the Church went to the Mosque, and we heard a presentation of the Islamic faith, and had an equally interesting discussion, refreshments, and each received a copy of the Qur’an in translation.

From these two preliminary meetings, the two organizers chose five persons who would not be threatened by deeper dialogue, and who would be open to serious study of the two faiths. We met with these persons, over a monthly pot luck dinner, and two hours of dialogue. We decided the best route would be to take a series of topics, have a preliminary presentation first, then discussion. We have done that over the past 18 months, taking such topics as “The Bible and the Qur’an,” “Salvation,” “Jesus in the Bible and the Qur’an,” “Christians Today,” “Muslims Today,” “Ethical Living in the Two Faiths,” “Mohammed,” and “Peace in Christianity and Islam.” Obviously, some of these topics have required sore than one session.

To assist ourselves, we have videotaped most of these sessions, and are in the process of writing up some of the findings from our research. It is hoped that this material once it is in presentable form might be made available to others seeking to enter such interfaith dialogue. We also had an interfaith Worship Service at the Christian Church that concentrated on many of the similarities of the two faiths, and which was very well received by the congregation.
We have made ourselves available to assist other grass roots interfaith study groups get started, and have been resource persons to other groups interested in our experience. We have also been asked to make presentations to groups of only one faith or the other that are interested in such interfaith discussions.
Anyone who has participated in such dialogues, and is familiar with the research that has taken place, especially in the last 20 years, is knowledgeable about the many areas of similarity of the two faiths, Christian and Islamic. To whet your appetite for such interfaith dialogue, let me just name some such similarities.

First, Christians and Muslims (and Jews) all believe in the same one God, Yehweh/Allah. We are all sons and daughters of Abraham.
Second, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is an apostle of God, a prophet, the Messiah (though the interpretation of this Messiahship might well differ between the two faiths, as well as within Christianity).
Third, both Christians and Muslims still seek to know more about the historical Jesus and his teachings. Islam comes to affirm what has gone before in the giving of the revelation in the Torah, the Law, and in the Injil, the Gospel, and there are fragments of truth in the scriptural books that point to this Law and this Injil of Judaism and Christianity.
Four, Muslims and Christians believe in the fact of death, and our hope is in the grace of God for resurrection at the end time, the Judgment Day.
Five, in some way, the Muslims and Christians look for the Messiah, Jesus, to come again in some form, though our interpretation of the dimensions of this might differ.
Six, (and then two final points that stem from those who have studied in interfaith dialogue over a period of time) that Mohammed can be considered by Christians as a true prophet, well within the line of prophets of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
Seven, Christians can affirm that salvation is of God, and not the exclusive property of the Christian church. Salvation is possible by the grace of God for Muslims.
Eight, finally, Christians can come to see that the Qur’an can be seen as an authentic revelation from God. There are specifics of this affirmation that will be open to interpretation, like there is of our Christian Scriptures, but it need not take away from the general affirmation of the Qur’an being s revelation from God.

Your research and interfaith study might take you in a different direction and findings. That is super. The urgency that is upon us all is that we start now this interfaith dialogue that might lead to world peace and save our planet. Peace be upon you as you continue or start your interfaith journey!

Originally published in the March/April 1991 print edition of