April 18, 2011
FROM THE ARCHIVES: NEW ISRAEL:
The season of the lambs: Christians are trying to analyse their responsibility for anti-Jewish prejudice, and to examine their own faith's Jewish roots (The Economist, Apr 7th 2004)
FOR the Judeo-Christian world, this is the week. For Jews, celebrations of Passover or Pesach--recalling the children of Israel's escape from Egyptian bondage--reach their central moment. Over a family meal, millions of households have remembered the lamb's blood which the Jews in Egypt daubed on their doors to escape the angel of death. All over the Christian world (this is one of those years when the western and eastern halves of Christendom celebrate on the same date), the story of Easter or Pascha, which draws deeply on Passover symbols, is being relived. As people hail the resurrected Jesus Christ, they rejoice in their own redemption "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish". Thus, in many corners of the world, there is talk of lambs being slain, either literally, or as a metaphor for God incarnate.For many centuries, the Christians' season of hope was a time of fear in Jewish ghettos, as religious fervour spilled over in murderous anti-Semitic violence. Now, though the demon of anti-Semitism is far from dead--and is on the rise in certain parts--the sort of anti-Jewish sentiments that were directly inspired by Christian preaching are a thing of the past in most areas of the historically Christian world. This has been largely brought about by the deep and searching dialogue between leaders of the Christian and Jewish faiths, as both traditions struggle to make some spiritual sense of the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi death camps.
A token of the new Jewish-Christian understanding is the passage into common, unselfconscious use of the term Judeo-Christian to describe the religious heritage of the western world. Even now, admittedly, the word is not problem-free. Colin Powell, America's secretary of state, stumbled into a controversy last autumn when he said of Iraq that it was "an Islamic country by faith, just as we are Judeo-Christian". Out of deference to Americans of other religions or none, Mr Powell quickly corrected himself, saying "we are a country of many faiths now".
American Muslims nonetheless protested strongly, pointing out that in certain ways--in particular, its reverence for Jesus and Mary--Islam is closer to Christianity than Judaism is. They urged that some new, more inclusive term (Abrahamic, perhaps) be found to describe the commonality between all three monotheistic faiths.
But Mr Powell's use of the term does reflect something real in recent religious history. Over the past half-century, Christians have tried harder than at any time in the previous two millennia to analyse their own faith's responsibility for anti-Jewish prejudice and violence; and to look at their own faith's Jewish roots.
If you attended a seder last week you'll have no problem understanding why Americans put the "Judeo" in Judeo-Christian. At least when telling the story of Exodus, Judaism is a theology of liberation from oppression. Perhaps because the Muslims so quickly became overlords, Islam contains nothing similar.
[Originally posted: 4/07/04]
Posted by oj at April 18, 2011 3:15 AM
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Mr. Williams:
Yes, that's why Shi'ism would appear more compatible with democracy.
Posted by: oj at April 12, 2004 2:53 PMA big problem is that Islam seems to be rather unhistorical. Christianity never claimed that Jewish tradition was false, or that Abraham and Moses were never Jewish. The distinction between Christianity and Judaism only comes about when Jesus enters the picture. There may be different interpretation of Biblical events or passages because of Christian desire to presage Jesus, but not a denial that Judaism is the foundation of Christianity.
Islam states that all the prophets (and Jesus) were actually teaching Islam, but that all the other people kept getting it wrong and invented Judaism and Christianity by mistake.
From the perspective as a historian then, it seems strange to me that one can actually claim a continuity between Judaism-Christianity-Islam as Abrahamic. It's like Christians saying that Siddhartha was a crypto-Jew or predicted the coming of Jesus and saying that all the Buddhist traditions today are wrong and they all need to accept that.
I am not an expert on Islam, and I could be misinterpreting things I have read, but I have not had anyone authoritatively tell me otherwise.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at April 12, 2004 6:36 PMFor Christianity to be true, Judaism must be true. It is a tenet of Islam that both Judaism and Christianity are false.
Posted by: David Cohen at April 12, 2004 8:06 PM"They urged that some new, more inclusive term (Abrahamic, perhaps) be found to describe the commonality between all three monotheistic faiths."
Are we supposes to believe large numbers of Muslims today, even American Muslims, are yearning to celebrate openly those things we have in common so we can all be one big happy monotheistic family?
I am beginning to believe one of hugest mistake the West is making is to assume most of the Muslim world doesn't truly understand our system and needs to be educated about democracy, markets, rule of law, etc. much like the aboriginals needed to be taught modern medicine or the Russians how free enterprise works. I am amazed at how adept they are at playing to our soft spots, especially religious tolerance and secular relativism. Whenever there is an anti-Semitic incident up here, the papers are flooded with letters from Muslims condemning them in strong terms, drawing parallels with anti-Muslim incidents nobody remembers and calling for an eradication of all hatred and racism so we can all be brothers. Guess whose plight they then use to illustrate their point.
The West lost its moral way in the Middle East when the Arabs stopped talking about driving people into the sea and started to adopt UN Charter language and multicultural drivel instead. They are very, very good and seem to know exactly what to say to cause us to doubt ourselves. Meanwhile, most of us can't figure out what the heck they themselves actually believe and are lost in silly sterotypes. Maybe the 9/11 Commission could look at that aspect of the intelligence war.
I'd suggest that Shia Islam has precisely that: they were the political losers early on, and the Sunnis have been persecuting them for centuries. Their ideal political order happens when the hidden imam appears at the end of history: and, as you've noticed, that isn't now for most purposes.
Posted by: Arnold Williams at April 12, 2004 2:23 PM