Fr. Michael Keating -- Islam

Greetings,

Below is a synopsis of Fr. Keating's address. If you want to refresh yourself on his points, read on below. Click on COMMENTS at the bottom if you would like to provide feedback, questions, or reactions to the topic. Have a great day!!

Fr. Keating delivered a wonderful presentation for the Owatonna's call to be Catholic audience. He had an enormous topic and little time available to do it justice. He organized his information very succinctly to provide a guiding overview of how to perceive and think about Islam in the modern world.

Fr. Keating arranged his talk around a number of key concepts.

HISTORY

Rude, fat, and boorish were how Europeans were described by Muslim writers of the 10th Century. The Islamic world had grown into a powerful, advanced, and robust civilization almost overnight. From the time of Mohammed in the 7th Century, Islam expanded over enormous swaths of territory absorbing the old empires and nations of the Mediterranean and ancient Near East almost overnight. Fr. Keating mentions that the three great traditions brought into Islam were the Arabic, Persian, and Turkic. Within a hundred years the Islamic World stretched from Spain in the West, to the borderlands of China in the East. The conquerors left conquered peoples in place, but set up a social structure that made conversion and assimilation favorable through taxation policies. Islamic expansion continued in a number of pulses throughout the centuries, reaching the gates of Vienna twice, last in 1689. This date marks the beginning of a drawn out perceived cultural decline.

THE "ANNOYING" CRUSADES

Fr. Keating wanted to make clear that most discussion of the Crusades is historically "Silly." Neither the Crusaders OR the Muslim peoples of the time saw them as expansionism or a colonial effort, these labels were applied by 18th and 19th C. Western historians. As a matter of fact, Fr. Keating notes that the Crusaders are hardly mentioned at all by Islamic writers and historians of the time. He compared the situation in a parallel way to the Vikings occasional capture of northern French cities which they would later leave or be expelled from, an example of skirmishes of little threat to the core civilization.

ANACHRONISM

Fr. Keating warned us of taking the current situation of today and trying to project it back through history.

7 ASPECTS OF MUSLIM VIEW OF WORLD
The heart of Fr. Keatings talk centered around these points outlining how the cultural, religious, and social outlook of the Islamic world is vastly different than ours in the West.

1) Abrahamic religion - Islam sees itself as the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham, and the final revelation. Thus, Jews and Christians are operating on an old model which God has superceded through Mohammed.
2) Islam means "submission" to God's will. God is associated strongly with sovereign will, and the Christian concepts of Logos and reason are not present.
3) Islam is a religion of Strength. The Jews were a small nation, Christians worship a crucified Savior. The favor of God brings victory, Islamic thought has difficulty with weakness.
4) A necessary tension with Christianity. Both want to save the world, the claims made by both ultimately wrestle against each other.
5) No distinction between religion and politics. In the West, although sometimes done poorly, there has always been a distinction between Pope and Emperor, Bishop and King, Priest and Lord. This is a foreign concept to Islam.
6) Scriptures are different. The Bible is seen as inspired, with a human and divine element which we must grapple with interpreting. The Koran is dictated. As a result, Christian scholarship creates a great deal of theology and Islamic scholarship creates a great deal of law and jurisprudence.
7) No authority/No hierarchy in Islam. Islam has scholars who build consensus around issues and create schools of thought, but no figure like the Pope who can speak for all.

MODERN CRISIS/MODERN PROBLEM

Fr. Keating arranged a great deal of this information around the idea of "House of Islam", the nations where the Islamic faith is supreme, and the "House of War", the frontiers where the faith is spreading.

DECLINE AND SELF DOUBT

Beginning in the 1500s, the balance of power in the world shifted towards Europe. A number of events, beginning with the defeat of the Ottomans at Vienna in 1683 have sent the Islamic world reeling. Napoleon took Egypt easily, and no Moslem army, only the British could expel him. In the 19th C, European colonial powers divided the Islamic world, and in the 20th Century, the USA emerged as the new Western, Christian power. These developments left the Islamic nations asking, "Where is God??" To classical Islamic thought, the favor of God leads to victory, and the overwhelming power of the West is deeply troubling to this mindset. The titling of the US as "The Great Satan" is a result. If God's favor grants victory, and the West has technological and cultural dominance over Islam, than it can only be the work of Satan himself.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Fr. Keating is deeply impressed with the frankness and depth of Pope Benedict XVI in the area of Islamic dialog. The 2006 Regensberg address was horribly misunderstood by the press, but directly challenged Islamic scholars to examine reason and rationality in religion, to make room for Logos in their theology and condemn violence as unreasonable. Over the past year, 144 scholars have responded to this dialog.

Q&A
Fr. Keating mentioned Bernard Lewis (Click the name for his books) as a good author in the area of Islamic studies.

Discussion during the Q &A ranged from Islamic imagination and fiction and its difference from that of the West. Fr. Keating did mention that alot of Romance and the tradition of the troubador comes from Islam. Women in Islamic nations are loved, and treasured, though not in a fashion we are familiar with in the modern West.

In encountering a Moslem in dialog, charity and lifestyle are more powerful than arguement, as even our use of terms is radically different.In terms of evangelization and the encounter of Faith, Fr. Keating made particular note of the Blessed Virgin. Miriam, the mother of Jesus, is deeply loved and revered amongst Moslems, and may be the best bridge we have.

I hope everybody enjoyed the program. Comments are below. Let us know what you thought!!!!