Nouslife: Christian and Muslim -some deeper considerations

20 June 2007

Christian and Muslim -some deeper considerations

It looks like my feeling that Ann Holmes Redding's dual allegiance has stirred stronger reactions than mine. My friend Doug is forthright:

Ann Holmes Redding is, to be blunt, an idiot, and her views complete bollocks. Rather than welcome this as inter-faith pioneering, her bishop should inhibit her immediately. Her views show an almost complete ignorance of Christian doctrine, a total lack of awareness of the traditional resources of Christian spirituality, and an amazing misunderstanding of the core teachings of Islam.

My response, commenting in situ, was this.

Huge amount of agreement from me. I think I’m just a little less keen to assume the very worst without fuller facts than a newspaper article (knowing first hand how distorting journalistic processes can be). It may be fluffy dice theology, but it may actually be better thought out (perhaps in ways similar to the ideas my entry explores a bit). I was surprised at how sharply and vehemently you expressed yourself over this. I outline ways in which in could be possible to make this kind of ‘dual’ allegiance.
While I can see the case for inhibiting her, I am also aware that there may be discussions that have gone on which could make sense of not doing so. It is hard for me to think of a case for inhibition that isn’t also leading to excommunication. And I think that the pastoral realities may need to be considered too: inhibition/excommunication might force/drive an unreserved flight into Islam whereas the present may need to be a time of exploration. The interest will really lie with the religious institutions faced directly with this.
There is always the issue, too, of the psycho-spiritual dynamics of religious institutional allegiances which don’t always serve genuine spiritual exploration well.
All that said, I too worry about syncretism and recognise the formal incompatibilities between the faiths. I just think that we should perhaps read this keeping in mind the thousands of believers who are outwardly Islamic but for fear of the Muslims keep their primary allegiance to Christ secret. With them in mind I still think that the exploratory possibilities raised by this woman’s situation are important not to inhibit prematurely.