I hesitate to attempt any intelligent commentary on this story, if only because I don't want any thoughtful points I make to detract from its all-around creepiness.
So before I go on, please take a moment to read, shudder, and pray for my Church.
Thank you.
Now, can someone please explain to me how Catholics starting to call God "Allah" would do anything to promote religious understanding? True enough, the English word "God," apart from historical context and its distinctive capitalization, doesn't do much to specify Yahweh, the God of Israel, or the Trinity of Christian understanding, and "Al Lah" (The God) is basically its Arabic translation. So it would be only natural that Arabic-speaking (and sure, why not Indonesian) Christians would call God "Allah." (Do they? If I presume wrongly, someone please educate me.)
But I wonder whether Belgium's Islamic community would appreciate the gesture. I'm no expert on Islamic theology when it comes to the name of God, but the only Muslims I've ever discussed the issue with have insisted that the name "Allah" in their understanding refers exclusively to the God of Islam, and any similarity to pre-Islamic Arab words is incidental. (Again, I'd appreciate someone with more knowledge here speaking up.)
In any case, it's highly likely that any such effort would create far more confusion than understanding, and it makes one suspicious that this is simply another example of the term "interreligious understanding" being used as Newspeak for the minimization of crucial differences in belief.
If Bishop Muskens really wants to promote understanding, his energy would be better spent articulating Christian belief, clearly, rationally, and charitably, and expecting the same of other religious leaders.
And speaking of Christian belief, the good Bishop's notion that God doesn't care what he's called is shaky at best. See, for instance, the First Commandment: Thou shalt not take my name in vain. It's true that Christians don't generally call him "Yahweh" (or YHWH) anymore, and that God has many names throughout the Bible, but each one of those many names matters in that it communicates something essential about his character.
Like his revelation to Moses: "I am the God of Abraham, the God if Isaac, the God of Jacob... I AM," which both asserts his transcendent being and defines his identity in specific relationship to the history of Moses' people. Or Jesus' "Abba, Father," a bold assertion of intimacy.
All of which means that while the name "God" is nothing fancy (although, I think, descriptive in its simplicity), why we call him what we do still matters greatly.
And "interreligious understanding" just doesn't cut it.
UPDATE: Robert T. Miller at First Things makes some similar points at greater length.
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A friend of a friend over here in Germany is writing his dissertation on the names of God in the Bible, why some are used in some texts and not in others. I'll see if I can find out anything interesting.
*sighs in frustration* Okay, can we please require reading C.S. Lewis's The Last Battle? Tashlan, anybody? C'mon, I knew this nonsense was a problem when I was 13, and I was anything but fond of Christianity at that point! Granted, I've always suspected there was a good reason that the later books of that series don't get much press these days, even after the movie came out... the implications regarding Islam aren't exactly PC, after all. More later, when I've thought more, but thought I'd feed the comment-beast with first impressions. Take care amigo.
As expected, I take some time away, and something better than my first impressions comes to me... amusingly, not my own thoughts, though, but rather a post by a blogger I sometimes check out now and again in my endeavors to learn from as wide of a spectrum of the body of Christ as I can... oddly timely though it makes no reference to this particular story, so I thought I'd pass it on. I'm always on the lookout for decent insight when it comes to evangelism in difficult settings (can't imagine why *grins*) and this fed that hunger a bit. Enjoy. http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/christians-in-pluralistic-world.html
bah, stupid link... http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2007/08
/christians-in-pluralistic-world.html
Huh, I was always under the impression that the insertion of the Arabic word in English contexts was popularized by the Nation of Islam, who were actively trying to distance themselves culturally from the rest of the People of The Book, and that the tradition then bled into the rest of the English-speaking Islamic world. I guess if it carries into the Dutch-speaking world too, I have probably been misled there.
Given that, I think it's still fair to say that the use of the A-word rather than the G-word has a bigger impact as a cultural wedge than a theological distinction (that's really what's precipitating outcry over there right?) and I suppose it's fair game for this guy to call attention to that--although you have to know that you're going to piss a lot of people off when you're bully pulpit is an actual pulpit. Also, really in the end isn't this a choice of the Muslim community itself, to assimilate or not to assimilate?
Brr, word politics do give me a headache.
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