Islam and Global Dialogue: Religious Pluralism and the Pursuit of Peace
Roger Boase (ed.)

Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005, 310 pp., hbk., £50.00, ISBN: 0 7546 5307 2

reviewer: Chris Hewer

St Ethelburga Fellow (London) in Christian-Muslim Relations

Roger Boase is to be congratulated for bringing together this impressive collection of articles. The list of authors reads like a veritable “who’s who” of Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars who work on issues of the plurality of religions, based mainly in Britain and America. Some of the articles have been written for this volume, others revised from originals and a significant number are reprinted from less accessible sources. The value is in the composition of this themed volume, for which we must be grateful. The book is in three parts: Defining the issue; Islam and the West: clash or dialogue?; and Jewish, Christian and Muslim responses to religious diversity.

Dianna Eck sets the scene with a differentiated exploration of the complexities contained in the now classical three-fold categorisation of exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist positions. Muhammad Legenhausen gives a detailed philosophical analysis of the various forms of religious pluralism currently in circulation, concentrating on John Hick, and then outlines what he calls a non-reductive pluralism, which he justifies on the basis of Qur’an and Sunnah. All, Legenhausen argues, are called to follow the last message brought by Muhammad but those who choose to follow an earlier revelation, which now must be considered invalid, may gain admission to paradise through the mercy and grace of God.

Francis Robinson gives an analytical tour of relations between Islam and the West, focusing on his specialist field of South East Asia. William Dalrymple draws a sketch from his journeying in the footsteps of Christian desert monks. Akbar Ahmed contributes a self-critical Muslim perspective. Fred Halliday writes a political survey of “the clash of civilisations”. Jonathan Sacks takes up his “dignity of difference” theme in seeking a third way between tribalism and universalism, recognising that God is one but creates diversity upon the earth, and that God is greater than religion, so that God can only be comprehended partially by any one faith. Antony Sullivan carefully examines the meaning of jihad and contrasts it to terms such as haribah, which he defines as killing by stealth and targeting a defenceless victim to cause terror in society, which is clearly forbidden. Robert Crane explores the work of so-called modernists and liberals, and turns back to a deeper understanding of tradition to seek a common vision based on tauhid, the oneness of God and of all creation.

Norman Solomon works out a Jewish theology that would allow theological space for God to be found in the interaction with the other. Roger Boase himself draws out seven Qur’anic interfaith principles, and reminds us that the true meaning of ecumenism is belonging to the whole inhabited world, which thought he links with Muhammad as being a “mercy to the world”. Murad Hofmann emphasises the need for all Muslims to know about their roots and history in terms of the plurality of religions. Jeremy Henzell-Thomas outlines the balanced middle-way of Islam with particular reference to Anglo-Saxon concepts of fair play and justice.