"I am both Muslim and Christian"

I think that this is potentially very significant. I'm thinking of using this article as a stimulus when I facilitate learning about Christianity and other religions. The article raises all the main issues, at least in embryo and should provoke a lot of potentially fruitful questions. The ending of the article pretty much sums it up symbolically: "In Redding's car, she has hung up a cross she made of clear crystal beads. Next to it, she has dangled a heart-shaped leather object etched with the Arabic symbol for Allah.
'For me, that symbolizes who I am,' Redding said. 'I look through Jesus and I see Allah.'"

Part of my interest is personal too, for two or three reasons. One is the issue of labelling and boundaries, another is the issue of personal spiritual experience and within that of my own spiritual experiences in relation to Islam.
The matter of labelling and boundaries is interesting to me in this case because the term Muslim means 'one who submits [to God]'. Indeed I have come across one Muslim group who label themselves 'submitters' in English. By that definition I am Muslim. I could go on and theologise somewhat speculatively and say that since Jesus is recognised as a Muslim and I am in Christ; then I could claim Christ's Islamitude is imputed to me (the same sort of thing as saying that the Torah is fulfilled ... I think). However, it's all very well to claim the label in some way, but another to find the majority of others claiming the label willing to recognise it: compare Mormons and JW's claiming the label Christian and Messianic Jews claiming Jewish status. By this test, my Islamitude would fail: I could repeat the first part of the Shahada but not the second (along with, it may be argued, the first generation of 'Mohammedan Muslims'); I cannot in conscience unreservedly say that Mohammed was God's messenger except perhaps in the way that Jonah was*. So perhaps I could still make the full declaration, but with a very minority understanding. In that respect it was interesting to read one of the Muslim reactions:

Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, agrees with Webb, and adds that Islam tends to be a little more flexible. Muslims can have faith in Jesus, he said, as long as they believe in Mohammed's message.

For me the issue would be identifying Mohammed's message, reasoning that it has to be compatible with Jesus's; ie the reverse hermeneutical flow to the normal 'Mohammedan-Muslim'approach which trims the gospels and the NT (and indeed the Hebrew bible) to fit the contours of the Qur'an and Sunna as we now have it.

So, what about the issue of religious experience? Well, there are two dimensions to this, for me. First is to say that I have never felt any real attraction to Islam as a religion. When I was in my existential-BC phase, Buddhism, Wicca and Taoism were all attractive. Islam always seemed too austere, legalistic and judgemental to hold my interest (rather like the Catholicism of my early upbringing, from that point of view). However, many years later, being exposed to Islam voluntarily at theological college, I heard the call of the minaret, metaphorically speaking (and using Kenneth Cragg's book title) and found the stark monotheism and call to worship God alone very resonant for me: of a sudden, I began to grok (grasp/understand from an intuitive experiential pov) some of the attraction of Islam, I think.

And it is that kind of spiritual experience that we have to theologise about. Now, for me, it was not an matter of conversion. I merely 'experienced' through studying Islam somewhat, a dimension of faith that was present in my own existing faith commitment but placed into stark relief by the context of Islamic thought and culture. So it was something I learnt from and integrated into my Christian living. However, it is this kind of experience that lies at the heart of at least some people from less definite faith stances (let's say) who convert to Islam (and other faiths, presumably). This raises a host of questions which I have some tentative answers for but I think it important to pose the questions as they stand for now: what explanations are to be found for these experiences? And how do we relate them to our view of God's action in the world? What relation do such experiences have to salvation? What do they mean for a theology of other faiths? The answers to these questions pose further questions and interrelate with each other. And then there is the social inclusion dimension: "To walk into Al-Islam and be reminded that there are more people of color in the world than white people, that in itself is a relief." Such factors rightly or wrongly tinge our appreciation of things (we might want to add that abolition of slavery is still an issue in Islamic fiqh, and still practised in the Arabian peninsula and parts of north Africa with religious licence and there are racial dimensions to it).

I note them because evangelicals are wont to dodge the sharpness of them usually by denying the value of the experience, but I'm not so sure that we can drive apart the existential and theological quite so blithely, particularly if coherent apologetics is to be done further down the line or if we want to be able to be missional about what we find in extra-ecclesial religious experience.

As to the story that began this musing. Yes, I think there are the problems outlined of irreconcilability of the beliefs of the religions as fully developed. However, being thoroughly grounded in an evangelical skepticism towards religious systems and institutions, I'm intrigued by the missional possibilities, centered-set-wise. So, I think I'm with her bishop for the time being in saying that this is something to explore further. "Redding's bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting."

*To explain a bit more: I think that Mohammed had a message from God for at least some of the Arabs he lived among. I am not convinced that this means he was in effect free from sin and I think that, like Jonah, he had moments where his attitudes and actions were decidedly not of God. I also tend to think that some of the things that are attributed to him should either not be assumed to be God's will or that we recognise that he sometimes mistook his own ideas for revelation (I think that among these would be sanctioning massacres and marrying a 9 year old). In fact I have a suspicion that the rot set in after Hijra and the 'Constantinian compromise' he made. That is, admittedly, a charitable interpretation. There are others! But this is all under review.

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