Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Since the document was being drawn up between representatives of Christianity and Islam, I would doubt that both parties would have agreed to the inclusion of statements or concepts that either one could not fully support from a theological standpoint. References to the divinity of Christ or to Christian concepts of the Trinity could have created such issues.

Christianity and Islam have much in common. They are both monotheistic religions that claim descent from Abraham, and that recognize events recounted in the Old Testament (as indicated by the reference to Cain noted in the question). Islam also recognizes Jesus as a prophet, but not as the Son of God, since (as I understand it) they believe that for them to do so would violate their concept of God as a single Being (similar to the declaration in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which Jesus also quoted in Mark 12:29-30), and compromise their belief in Mohammed as being the last prophet through whom God gave the fullest and final revelation through the words of the Qur'an.

It would not be wrong for a Christian to try to convert a Muslim to Christianity. At the same time, there would (in my opinion) be many subjects on which Christians and Muslims could agree in the interest of peace and co-existence between the faiths in purely human or political terms (as discussed in the document noted in the question), without the necessity of including religion-specific language or concepts on which those faiths fundamentally differ, or upon which they could never agree.

I view this as an effort similar as to when the Camp David peace accords were negotiated between Egypt and Israel, with the assistance of the American president, in which a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian collaborated in bringing about an agreement that did not specifically invoke the name of Christ, but that has preserved peace between Egypt and Israel since that time, without compromising the individual religious faith of any of the participants.

June 19 2020 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report