I believe that it's a book that all Christians should read in order to gain a better understanding of Our God and how we can relate to Muslims and their perception of our one and true God - 'the common God of Muslims and Christians, whom we both understand in different and yet remarkably similar ways' (Miroslav Volf)
Here's a few quotes from the book: (You really need to buy it to get the full impact of his arguments but hopefully these selected quotes will be a taster)
P51 Nicholas of Cusa:
1. God is infinite & boundless- not limited in anyway.
2. Humans can’t understand what is boundless only God.
3. As the infinite & incomprehensible one, God precedes all names.
God is beyond number (in regards to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity...)
1. Oneness is prior to all plurality & is a source of all plurality
2. The Trinity in God is not plural or numerical, but is simply oneness
3. In God no opposition between ‘self’ and ‘other’
4. God is ‘one’ in the sense of ‘absolute unity’ rather than in the sense
of a number
(same thinking as Augustine & Aquinas)
P54 ‘Divine simplicity’ = God doesn’t have attributes God is God’s attributes
P56 It is part of God’s perfection that God is loving in God’s own
being apart from the world, and it is part of God’s perfection that God is able to
create the world. Neither would be possible if God was not the Holy Trinity
P101 Both Christians and Muslims worship/believe the same ‘object’:
1. God is One
2. God is creator
3. God is incomparable and different from the world/creation
4. God is good
(P102 Worship = love G, love
your enemy (Mtt 22:37 – 39) )
5. God commands that we love G with whole being
6. God commands that we love our neighbours as ourselves
P119 Muslims & Christians worship the same God. It is whether they
both worship the ‘true’ God. Deeds reveal which G we worship.
P123 Same God?
1. To the extent that Christians & Muslims embrace the normative
teachings of Christianity & Islam about God, they believe in a common God
2. To the extent that Muslims & Christians strive to love God &
neighbour, they worship the same true God
P129 The divine ‘three’ are one single and undivided divine essence,
not three divine essences next to each other compromising some kind of divine
‘troika’. The oneness of G (tawhid)
P134 ‘Father, Son & Holy Spirit do not mean one God with two beings alongside
him (there are not 3 divine beings but one divine being) – the Living and
Self-subsistent, associated with no other. (Rowan Williams)
P135 A basic rule for Christians as they speak about God: ‘Never divide
the divine essence’
P136 Seyyed Hossein Nasir (Contemporary Muslim scholar: ‘The doctrine
of the Trinity certainly does not negate the Divine Unity in mainstream
Christian theology.’
P142 To say that there are ‘3 Persons’ in God means only that there are 3
eternal, inseparable, and interpenetrating agencies; in each the other 2 are
present, and in each, the single divine essence is present.
P147 Why the Trinity? God in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to its divine
source & goal (2 Cor 5:19) Need to encounter God at a deeper level therefore
2 things need to happen:
1. God, while not compromising God’s divinity, has to ‘come’ to human
beings ‘as’ God
2. Human beings, limited as they are, need to perceive G ‘as’ G
Therefore God (not ceasing to be God) comes to humanity in Jesus Christ; through the
power of the Holy Spirit, people are able to recognize Jesus Christ the self -revelation of God
P148 Doctrine of the Trinity is a way of explaining why we say God ‘is’
love, not only that he shows God (Rowan Williams)
P154 Christian meaning of ‘love’ = Commitment to give of what we have
and of what we are. (Jn 3:16) God ‘gives’ therefore God is ‘generous’ therefore God is merciful – God of mercy (Islam) = God of love.
P157 Love & Justice both Christians & Muslims agree that God’s
love precedes and encompasses God’s justice.
Book: Al-Ghazalis ‘The 99 Beautiful Names of God’
P162/163 Al-Ghazalis “al-Ghaffar” ‘(God) he who is Full of
Forgiveness’…’makes manifest what is beautiful and conceals what is ugly’
‘Whoever overlooks the ugly (sin) and mentions the beautiful is one who shares
this attribute’. Therefore forgiveness = ‘concealment’…not seeing wrong and not
counting it against the wrongdoer. And God highlights what is beautiful.
U2 Grace – "Grace finds goodness is everything".
‘Love covers a multitude of sins’ (1 Pet 4:8)
Love celebrates the good; it makes manifest the beautiful and ‘rejoices
in the truth’ (1 Cor 13:6)
Book: Seyyed Hossein Nasr ‘The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise
of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition’ (2007)
P170 Only if divine love is, from the beginning, a love for the ‘other’
within God does it make sense for God to
create and love the world – the other outside
God. And only if ‘other’ is already in God, does it make sense for the creation to
‘collapse’ into God.
P181 Sum up what Christians & Muslims say about God & love:
1. God loves creatures in a compassionate, gift-giving sort of way
2. God is just
3. God’s justice is an aspect of God’s love for – or mercy towards –
creatures
4. Humans are called to love all neighbours as they love themselves
P202 A common commitment to love God & neighbour should lead both
Muslims & Christians to seek (1) To know themselves and others truthfully
and (2) spread faith respectfully
P203 Human elevation toward God, understood by each faith differently is
their joint mission – to bear witness that a life of true human flourishing is
possible only when we resist the pursuit of mere pleasure and in love turn
toward God & neighbour.
P211 Two basic rules for witness in word & deed:
1. Witness to others only if you are prepared to let them witness to
you
2. Witness in a way you think others should witness to you
Book: Al-Ghazali ‘ The Alchemy of Happiness’ (trans Claud Field 2008)
P218 The whole of humanity is divided into the city of this world and
the city of God, one dedicated to the love of self (mere pleasure) and the other
to the love of God & neighbour. Muslims & Christians can be allies in
promoting a vision of human flourishing- centered in love for God & love for
neighbour
P253 Barth: When the idol of religion is smashed and God is acknowledged
as God, the world appears as a unity and the search for the common good can
begin.
P254 It is time for Muslims & Christians to rebel against religion
as a marker of identity and weapon in worldly struggles. It usurps the place of
God in their lives. As believers in the one God, they should affirm together than
no other way – no culture, no nation, and yes, not even religion – is God. God alone is God – the common God of Christians & Muslims, whom they both
understand in different and yet remarkably similar ways.
