Three rules of religious understanding -- Thought for the day

Sharing religious insights with other traditions enriches our own faith, Dow Marmur, Toronto Star Apr 15 2012.

 Extract:

"The late Krister Stendahl, a famous Swedish bishop and for many years dean of Harvard Divinity School, formulated three rules of religious understanding that seem to have guided the editors of The Jewish Annotated New Testament:
 • When you are trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
 • Don’t compare your best with their worst.
 • Leave room for “holy envy,” i.e., recognize elements in other religious traditions that you admire and wish that, in some way, they could be reflected in your own.
I can think of no better way of turning the proximity of Easter and Passover into a motivation to celebrate these principles all year round."

How Muslims View Easter

New Yorker 2012-04-06:

Extract: With Easter on the way, I became curious about what the Koran has to say about the crucifixion. I called an imam I know, Ibrahim Sayar, and we got together over glasses of Turkish tea. Sayar does a lot of interfaith work, much of which involves getting people from different religions together to eat kebabs. In the company of Christians, he said, mentioning the status of Jesus in Islam can be a great icebreaker. “I always tell people, there are millions of Muslims named after Jesus and Mary—we call them Isa and Mariam,” he said. “Nobody names their children after someone they don’t like.” ... more »

On the same shelf:

• The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature (Convergences: Inventories of the Present)
  Tarif Khalidi
• Muslims, Christians, and Jesus: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships
  Carl Medearis
• Jesus and the Muslim: An Exploration
  Kenneth Cragg
• Jesus in the Qur'an: His Reality Expounded in the Qur'an
  Hamid Algar
• The Islamic Jesus: The Portrait of Jesus in Islamic Literature and Tradition
  Daniel Deleanu
• Jesus and Muhammad: Profound Differences and Surprising Similarities, Mark A. Gabriel
  
• Five reasons to stop questioning the president’s faith, By Faheem Younus Washington Post -- 1. The president has answered the question, repeatedly; 2. If a bunch of loose correlations are enough to call Mr. Obama a Muslim, then you might as well declare Thomas Jefferson to be a Muslim too!; 3. The question is a dirty trick; a trick that does not work; 4. The question is an insult, not to the president or the Muslim faith, but to our Constitution; 5. We know the right question to ask.