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Introduction
Meetings between individual Muslims and Christians and also between church and mosque congregations are taking place today in more and more parts of the world. Joint projects in education and relief; visits to mosques and churches; dialogues in Muslim-Christian societies; lectures; discussions about local politics, and so on: these all provide opportunities for Christians and Muslims to ask questions about each other’s faith and practice.
But are we Christians in fact prepared to give an adequate, sensitive and respectful account of our own faith? Do we have at our disposal the necessary background knowledge of the specific faith perspective and religious sensibility of Muslims?
This short book is primarily addressed to Christians; it seeks both to provide them with information and also to prompt them to engage in further reflection and learning. It might offer a basis and a reference-point for Christian groups seeking to understand more accurately the questions put to them by Muslims about the Christian faith and way of life, and also wishing to prepare themselves to respond to such questions as honestly and sympathetically as possible.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly that Islam contains at its very core a questioning of central Christian claims and of the concepts which arise from them. Muslims, with the Qur’an and the whole Islamic tradition as their starting point, will therefore continually articulate this questioning. This is an essential part of the mission with which all believing Muslims know themselves to have been entrusted. The Qur’an challenges Muslims to call others to Islam and also sets forth the way in which an appropriate dialogue should proceed: ‘Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best who have strayed from his path, and who receive guidance.’ (16:125)
From 1974 onwards a group of Christians in Tunisia in North Africa met regularly with Professor Robert Caspar M. Afr. for joint discussion of a sequence of questions about Christian faith and practice regularly raised by Muslims. The work carried out by this group issued in 13 little chapters, each consisting of four stages: (I) formulation of the questions on one of the main themes, as Muslims express these questions; (II) the perspectives underlying these questions, first in general terms and then in greater detail; (III) Christian theological perspectives on the relevant question; and finally (IV) suggestions for the formulation of actual Christian responses to the Muslim questions. A small book consisting of these 13 chapters appeared first in French and shortly afterwards, lightly revised, in English, under the title Trying to Answer Questions (Rome, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies [PISAI], 1989).
On my return to Germany in 1999, after many years of experience and study of Muslim civilizations and of work with Muslims in different parts of the Christian-Islamic world, it very soon became clear to me that a thorough revision of this book was called for. At the Catholic Academy in Berlin a circle of Catholic and Protestant Christians met more or less monthly for more than two years from 1999-2002; the members were all living in contact with Muslims and therefore the subject of the book was of great practical interest to them. We deliberately preserved the book’s basic structure but left out a chapter dealing with questions about the presence of Christians in an almost exclusively Muslim country such as Tunisia. The material was critically revised, adapted and in parts substantially re-written.
My thanks go particularly to the Revd Dr Ulrich Schröter, who played a key editorial and theological role in the whole process; and also to my colleague Erhard Kunz SJ, Professor of Dogmatic Theology here at Hochschule Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, who made some substantial improvements to the Christian theological responses, in some places completely re-writing them. Two years ago Robert Kaya prepared a Turkish translation of this book, which has been published in Istanbul (San Antuan, 2003), but which has attracted particular attention through the homepage http://www.islamacevaplar.com. Together with the German version http://www.antwortenanmuslime.com, this offers the opportunity for further questions to be raised and responses to be suggested. It is to be hoped that the English version http://www.answers-to-muslims.com will have an even wider impact than its German and Turkish counterparts. Finally, I am indebted to my old friend the Revd Dr David Marshall, who has not only translated the book accurately from German into English but has also enhanced the text at many points in terms both of style and content. The English version should thus in many respects improve on the German original. I record here my heartfelt thanks to all those who, in groups or as individuals, have shared in this project.
May this material contribute to the enrichment of religious dialogue between Muslim and Christian believers based on better and more objective information; may it encourage the discovery of shared foundations for living together in solidarity and peace; and may it also prompt each one of us to persist in the faithful search for the light of ever greater truth.
Christian W Troll SJ
Hochschule Sankt Georgen,
Frankfurt a. M.
28 June 2005
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