said). Jackson is sometimes unclear as to why he has chosen a particular word or phraseover another when there is a discrepancy between the manuscripts. In at least oneinstance, he has preferred a less controversial term, “hardship” (al-‘ana’), over “spiritualannihilation” (al-fana’) despite the latter having been the term preferred by a majorityof his referenced manuscripts (see page 80, note 105).

Jackson’s comments are insightful though few (for example, see p. 57, note 42).Instead, he focuses a great amount of detail citing differences between the severalmanuscripts he derived his translation from. Hadiths are cited except for one he wasunable to locate (see p. 55, note 37). Though the most beneficial part of what Jackson hasadded to the text itself may be his extremely useful index which makes the topicsaddressed in Taj al-‘Arus more easily researchable as the aphorisms have not beenthematically organized by its author.

While academics may find the translation to be a resource for more fully developedunderstanding of fourteenth century Islamic thought and practice, particularly that of Ibn‘At·a’Allah and the Shadhilı Sufi order, the aphorisms throughout the text present to“layperson” and academic alike a treasure-trove of heart-touching aphorisms that calltowards meaningful self-reflection.

Ibrahim J. LongHartford Seminary

Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes inComparative Perspective

By John RenardBerkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011.314 pp. ISBN: 978-0-520-26678

John Renard writes for a “broad middle readership” ready to take a step beyondintroductory material. Renard’s working definition of “theological” is expansive andflexible. For him, theological concerns envelop “the broad panoply of texts andimages and the various modes of interpreting them; ways of reasoning and analysis ofhuman ‘religious’ experience; modes of expression, whether verbal or visual, of thatexperience; and the host of institutional and cultural developments that have formedthe settings and contexts for all such interpretation, processing, and expression.”(xii) With this breadth in mind, he seeks to “provide an overview of . . . explicitlytheological themes” in Christianity and Islam, in a manner that is dialogical, but not“about dialogue”. (xii, xiii)

“The raw material of this volume,” Renard admits, “arises, to put it bluntly,out of a survey of surveys.” His method and purpose involves (as he explainsin the book’s Preface) the “juxtaposition of broadly similar features in the histories

bs_bs_banner

The Muslim World • Volume 103 • OCTOBER 2013

536 © 2014 Hartford Seminary.

of Islam and Christianity” rather than working “point-for-point” down a list ofdoctrines (e.g. God, Creation, Revelation, Prophecy, Soteriology, Eschatology) char-acteristic of the Table of Contents of any number of other projects of theologicalcomparison. (xv) It also recognizes that “Christianity” and “Islam” are umbrella termsfor constellations of subcommunities. Renard takes intra-religious diversity intoaccount in every section of his study. Renard notes the need for sensitivity to thedistinction between formal and functional comparison, and brings both modesinto play.

The body of the book comprises four multi-chapter sections, each dedicatedto a “dimension” of theological concern: Historical, Creedal, Institutional, andEthical and Spiritual. This organizational principle, the elements of which he definesin the book’s Introduction, allows him to interweave themes, topics, methods,and literature review, covering much terrain in just under 250 pages of actualtext.

Part One (Historical Dimensions) begins with a reminder that the histories of thesetwo religions are vast. Chapter One (Sacred Sources and Community Origins) beginswith a succinct account of the history of scriptural interpretation by Christians andMuslims, asking us to note particularly that in both Christianity and Islam we find a rangeof exegetical methods and acknowledgement of levels of meaning in the text. He thencontrasts the relationship of community to sacred sources and founding figures in theearly years of each religion. Related to this is the emergence of a “quasi-canonical”origins-narrative for each — and in the case of Islam, diverging master histories (theShi ‘ah version featuring a series of infallible Imams, in contrast to the Sunni account ofFour Rightly Guided Caliphs). Authentic membership is an important theme in ChapterTwo (Development and Spread). On the Christian side, this touches on matters ofecclesiology, baptism, and the emergence of the need for creeds: on the Muslim side,matters of servanthood and essential characteristics of believers. Under the rubric “WhoIs a Christian?”, mention is made that “Christian authors were of various minds as . . . towhether converts from heretical sects needed to be rebaptized.” (51) Something moremight have been said, perhaps in an endnote, about present-day issues aroundacceptance of baptism from one Christian branch or denomination to another. Under“Who Is a Muslim?” — again, perhaps in an endnote — there might have been somemention of the Amman Message — a recent pan-Muslim effort to provide an authorita-tive answer to that very question.1 The discussion brings us, in turn, to issues ofmission and conversion, and their relationship to apocalyptic ideas. Renard notes thatboth Christianity and Islam “evidence a spectrum of fundamental orientations to theinterpretation of their sacred texts and histories”: idealist, traditionalist, realist, andpersonalist; yet, regardless of fundamental orientation, apocalyptic notions are quitesimilar. (66–67)

1 See http://www.ammanmessage.com/.

Book Reviews

537© 2014 Hartford Seminary.

In Part Two (Creedal Dimensions), narrative theology (stories as primary sourcesvis-à-vis convictions) and the development of creedal formulations is the focus of ChapterThree; the focus of Chapter Four: the emergence of the discipline of theology in eachtradition — with mention of key thinkers, major schools of thought, and fundamentalthemes.

Part Three (Institutional Dimensions) investigates “the structures of theologicallygrounded community.” (111) Thus Chapter Five is devoted to structures of authorityand governance locally and beyond, Christian canon law, Muslim Shariah and fiqh,and political theologies — all as means of “working out and naming precisely therelationships between . . . this [world] and the next, the seen and the unseen, the earthlyand the heavenly.” (133) Chapter Six continues this discussion of the theopoliticalconnection, noting that the histories of both religions have exhibited “enormouslycomplex and varied” interrelationships between “theology and politics, spiritual andtemporal authority, faith community and civil spheres.” (135) Here also we finddiscussion of the phenomenon of “intentional religious communities” in each religion(Christian monastic orders; Sufi brotherhoods), the rise of higher education (Christianuniversities; Muslim madrasas), and theological dimensions of developments in religiousarchitecture (as each community saw fit to house its institutions more purposefully,extensively, and elaborately).

The three chapters comprising Part Four (Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions) recapitu-late many themes and methods of inquiry. Chapter Seven (Sources, Methods, and SocialValues in Theological Ethics) draws upon previous discussions of scripture and religiouslaw, and sacred biography as it surveys the development of moral theory — whichnecessarily raises questions regarding divine versus human agency — and the degree towhich each religion drew upon philosophical principles in the process. Once again — ashe did in Chapter Two — Renard calls forth his four-category paradigm (idealist,traditionalist, realist, and personalist) to help us sort out the breadth of theologicalperspectives spanned by ethical theory within each religion. His interesting short sectionon social responsibility touches on a range of matters — among them, stewardship ofcreation, the place of forgiveness, and the mandate for kindness toward others. (178–81)

Resources for nurturing of spiritual discipline and devotion is the topic of ChapterEight: reading of scripture for personal inspiration; Jesus and Muhammad as spiritualmodels for Christians and Muslims respectively; hagiographic traditions in each religion;and — returning to the notion of narrative theology — great literature which appeals toimagination and wonder by means of allegory or through development of the theme ofjourney.

Chapter Nine (Themes in Prayer and Mystical Theology) examines the content anduses of praise, supplication, and intercession in Christianity and Islam — noting that thetwo traditions offer similar “understandings of some core features of the human dilemmabut diverge as to the specific remedies available.” This chapter includes mention of someof the great supplication literature from each, theological themes of devotional literature,and (given the overall constraints of a book of this type) a fairly extensive discussion of

The Muslim World • Volume 103 • OCTOBER 2013

538 © 2014 Hartford Seminary.

mysticism — defined as “a complex blend of religious practices, disciplines, experience,literary works, and institutions that facilitate the individual seeker’s intentional journeytoward a more intimate relationship to the ultimate reality, however his or her religioustradition describes that reality.” (210–11)

Bracketing the book’s four-part body are two fine essays: a Prologue, subtitledChristian-Muslim Theological Dialogue in Retrospect; and an Epilogue, Reflections onthe Prospects for Christian-Muslim Theological Dialogue. The Prologue describes fourmodels employed historically by Christians in theological comparison of Christianitywith Islam: the Polemical, represented by John of Damascus; the Scholastic, by ThomasAquinas; the Christian-Inclusivist, by Hans Küng; and the Dialogical, by Kenneth Cragg.

In the Epilogue, Renard offers heartfelt reflections on, and a rationale for,Christian-Muslim theological engagement. For an efficacious model for the present,capable of overcoming the deficiencies of those outlined in the Prologue, he offersWorld Theology, which, he suggests, enables us to retain our convictions yet “to stepmomentarily outside our theological structures . . . to see ourselves on an equal footingwith all other believing human beings.” (224) Following Ross Reat, Edmund Perry, andRobert Neville,2 he explains that World Theology “seeks . . . to establish criteria fromoutside a given theological tradition,” and assumes that “it is possible to discern acommon underlying thread in all human religiosity without denying that all majorreligious traditions are indeed different.” (225) Echoing Thomas Aquinas, Renardconcludes by offering “Five Proofs for the Need for Theological Dialogue”: the Argumentfrom Practical Necessity (Muslims are in the neighborhood); the Argument fromAuthority (interreligious engagement is divinely mandated); the Argument from Intel-lectual Integrity (at the very least, it behooves us “to account for [Muslims] and theirbeliefs as intellectual ideas;” the Aesthetic Argument (there is exquisite beauty to beapprehended); and, the Humble Argument (aka, the Neglected Argument): the reasonought to be obvious. “In relation to the need for a theological encounter with the Islamictradition, the neglected argument says simply and finally: it is time.” (230)

For those of us who need no such convincing, Islam and Christianity: TheologicalThemes in Comparative Perspective is an excellent basic textbook. Renard’s writing isclear and engaging, offering plenty to challenge graduate students, while remainingaccessible to upper-level undergraduate students and the wider reading public. Readersin this latter cohort particularly will benefit from Renard’s debunking of certainmisperceptions about certain Islamic terms — shari‘ah and madrasa, for example —which have come to be much bandied-about in the popular press. Alongside the GeneralIndex, inclusion of a theological glossary; an Index of Names, Individuals, and Groups;and an Index of Scriptural Citations enhances the reader’s ability to use this volume

2 N. Ross Reat and Edmund F. Perry, A World Theology: The Central Spiritual Reality of Humankind(Cambridge University Press, 1991); Robert Cummings Neville, Behind the Masks of God: An Essaytoward Comparative Theology (SUNY Press, 1991).

Book Reviews

539© 2014 Hartford Seminary.

encyclopedically. While Renard is necessarily selective in the number of examples hecan offer on any point, and while this volume begs for a companion anthology, many ofRenard’s endnotes provide fascinating troves of suggestions for further reading. The setof sources given for further comparative study of the Joseph story would, for examplemake a fine reading list for a course on this topic. (246, n. 7) Likewise, interestingmini-bibliographies are provided for Islamic Christology and Islamic ethics. (See 250, n.25; and 258, n. 16, respectively.)

As we might expect, Renard pairs Systematic Theology with Kalam, and Shariah withCanon Law. Both discussions are rich, but perhaps an opportunity was missed here. “Itis true that Kalam plays an important role in Islamic civilization,” say Sachiko Murata andWilliam Chittick in their widely used textbook, The Vision of Islam, “but the fact that theterm is frequently translated as ‘theology’ should not lead us to suppose that Kalam’s rolein Islam is analogous to theology’s role in Christianity. What is of central importance forIslam is the Shariah, not Kalam. The vast majority of practicing Muslims have knownnothing about Kalam, although they all have had some degree of familiarity with Shariah.One can be a good Muslim without Kalam, but it is impossible to be any sort of Muslimwithout the Shariah.”3 Conversely, for many streams of Christianity, Canon Law’s role isnot of central importance; in many streams, one can be a good Christian without CanonLaw, but it is difficult to be any sort of Christian without some familiarity with creedalstatements — be it the simple statement of acceptance of Jesus as one’s “personal savior”or the lengthier and more complex Apostles’ or Nicene Creeds. Renard’s discussion ofthe development of Christian and Islamic theological traditions necessarily includesmention of the influence on these sciences of Hellenistic philosophy, and he coversconsiderable ground. Perhaps, however, he might have included introduction of theterm falsafah and names such as al-Kindi and al-Farabi in the process.

This reminds us that, throughout a relatively compact book on a massive topic,Renard strives to provide sufficient detail to satisfy specialist-readers without over-whelming the novice. For the most part, he succeeds, but each specialist-reader willwish he’d been more thorough in one place or another. Take, for example, hishandling of one of his illustrations in his section on Prayer and Mystical Theology. Inthe text, he mentions that this item comes “from a collection of Shi ‘i prayers”; (209) inthe endnotes, we learn only that the source is William Chittick’s translation of ThePsalms of Islam, and are referred to Constance Padwick’s excellent Muslim Devotionsfor further information about “popular traditional prayers.” (261, n. 12) In fact, theexample is a stanza from one of fifteen munajat (whispered prayers) attributed toZayn al- ‘Abidın ( ‘Alı ibn al-H· usayn — a great-great-grandson of the ProphetMuh· ammad, and fourth in Shi ‘ism’s lineage of infallible Imams), and commonlyincluded in editions of the Psalms of Islam — the Arabic title for which is al-S·ah· ıfatal-Sajjadiyyah (The Book of the One Who Prostrates Constantly in Prayer — i.e. Zayn

3 Sachiko Murata and William Chittick, The Vision of Islam (Paragon, 1994), 239.

The Muslim World • Volume 103 • OCTOBER 2013

540 © 2014 Hartford Seminary.

al- ‘Abidın). Indeed, this is the oldest of the classic Islamic supplication collections. ForShiah Muslims, only the Qur’an itself and the Nahj al-balagha of ‘Ali rank higher inholiness; many Sunni Muslims also treasure it. It deserves to be more clearly identified— in the endnote, if not in the main text.

Renard stipulates that his book has taken shape from a Christian perspective. (xiii)Admittedly, this book could have been more dialogical. A Muslim co-author could havebeen engaged, for example. This might have yielded a somewhat different list of themes,or some differences in emphasis. It might have meant that, in the Prologue, we wouldhave been introduced to Muslim as well as Christian theological-comparison models.Indeed, the Prologue and Epilogue seem to speak quite directly at Christians — althoughMuslims and others will doubtless find in them (and, by extension, in the entire book)much that is interesting and useful.

In his Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders, Francis X.Clooney defines comparative theology as “a manner of learning that takes seriouslydiversity and tradition, openness and truth, allowing neither to decide the meaning ofone religious situation without recourse to the other.”4 The term names “acts of faithseeking understanding in a particular faith tradition but which, from that foundation,venture into learning from one or more other faith traditions. This learning is sought forthe sake of fresh theological insights that are indebted to the newly encounteredtradition/s as well as the home tradition. Comparative theology thus combinestradition-rooted theological concerns with actual study of another tradition. It is not anexercise in the study of religion or religions for the sake of clarifying the phenomenon.[Comparative theology] reduces neither to a theology about religions, nor to the practiceof dialogue.”5 Rather, it is “a reflective and contemplative endeavor by which we see theother in light of our own, and our own in light of the other.” (11) John Renard’s Islam andChristianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective seems very much to be theoutcome of such activity on his part. The result is a fine resource for those wishing toapply Clooney’s methodology to the arena of Christian-Muslim encounter.

Lucinda Allen MosherHartford Seminary

4 Francis X. Clooney, S. J., Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 8.5 Clooney, 10.

Book Reviews

541© 2014 Hartford Seminary.