A BRIEF RETROSPECT ON EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

When the Roman Empire first regarded the early church as a branch of Judaism, Christianity was legally protected.  Eventually the profession of Christianity became a crime, and the degree of persecution or tolerance wavered according to the whims of the reigning emperor and the local ruler.  Increased martyrdom brought on the development of apologetics and theological precision in addressing controversy and fostered order in the life of the church. Sometimes Christians felt protected from state persecution, but periods of fierce official persecution were common.

          When Diocletian in 303 stepped up the Roman persecution of Christians, he perceived the church as a political threat, a state within a state, developing an establishment paralleling his government.  He ordered churches destroyed, clergy imprisoned, sacred books confiscated, and rampant martyrdom of believers.  Only in April 311 was an Edict of Toleration of Christians issued, and in 313 the Emperor Constantine promulgated the Edict of Milan, which granted freedom of conscience.  When Constantine transferred his capital from Rome to Byzantium the spread of Christianity coincided with the spread of the Roman Empire.

          Desiring Christianity to be as united as the law and citizenship of the empire, Constantine convoked church councils to settle theological questions and disputes under imperial supervision.  In May 325 the first general council met in Nicaea.  The bishops attended at government expense.  Constantine himself participated and took positions, advocating a universal creed.  Following that first council the debates continued in matters of Christology, and imperial interference played a part.  Any departure from official Christian orthodoxy was regarded as a state crime.

          Subsequent councils were called by imperial rulers with the expectation that a united religion would mean a united empire.  But this backfired, and the opposite occurred.  Schisms proliferated.  By the close of the sixth century there was confusion and serious disaffection from orthodox Christianity, and consequently from the Constantinople government.  In those parts of the empire where the churches did not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451), Christians were heavily taxed for disagreeing with the doctrines supported by the emperor.  Some parts of the empire suffered abuse and persecution from Byzantine Christians.  The invasion of the Persians into parts of Byzantium only aggravated the situation.

          With the seventh-century Muslim invasion, some Christians welcomed the Muslim Arabs, because often the Islamic protection was better than that of Constantinople or the Persians.  With this new regime Christians were given a special but secondary status in society (dhimmi) which offered government protection.  But there was a price to pay, a special tax (jizya), in addition to laws imposing constraints on dress and manners, and forbidding the riding of animals.  The use of religious symbols in public was forbidden, and there were prohibitions against building or repairing churches, ringing bells, and the public display of crosses.  Non-Muslims were not allowed missionary activity, and Muslims were forbidden to convert to Christianity.

          This two-tiered system made the Christians second- class citizens but allowed them to live peacefully side by side with the Muslims and others.  But this millet system reinforced the divisions among churches and splintered Christianity.  Some Christians succumbed to Islam rather than remain in a subordinate social standing.  Yet Christianity thrived in many places, and Christians remained the majority in that region into the ninth century.

          In these times Eastern and Western Christianity became increasingly estranged religiously and politically.  Western Latin Christianity was more strongly adversarial toward Islam.  This resulted in the Crusades of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.  The Crusades began as a desire to free the Holy Land from the Muslims, but ended with the sack of Constantinople and the Eastern churches.  Western Christianity oppressed the Christian East.  Christian nations oppressed the Muslims.  Because Islam did not recognize the separation of religion and government, the Muslims failed to see the difference between local Christians of the East and the hostile Western Christian governments that mounted the Crusades.

          Several Muslim dynasties ruled following the Crusades.  The last was the Ottoman Empire, which established its capital in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453.  The Ottomans reinforced the subordinate status of Christians and Jews through the millet system.  The Ottoman caliph considered “Armenian” those Christians who rejected the Council of Chalcedon.  This led to frictions and internal quarrels in the differing millets.  In the latter times of the Ottoman Empire European nations opened commercial contacts in the Near East and Middle East.  The European powers requested the right to protect their trading clients, often Christians.  Different governments protected different churches, and this aligned Eastern churches with European political centers.  Gradually this disrupted the millet system as European governments wanted equality of citizenship for Eastern Christians.

          With Islam, religion and government are joined in the service of God, and the same person usually provides both religious and civic leadership.  The Islamic ideal is a worldwide Muslim community (‘ummah) in which politics and religion are one, and racial and ethnic distinctions are not important.  The Qur’an and other Islamic religious books are the foundation for the legal system, and there is no institution parallel to the Church.  Christian religious leaders always had difficulty convincing their Muslim rulers of their civic loyalty because they also wanted to be in contact with the foreign religious hierarchy.  The protection by European governments increased the doubts about the civic loyalty of Eastern Christians. 

With the demise of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, European nations assumed mandates in some parts of the former empire to form nation-states in which citizenship would be based on one’s place or residence or birth rather than on religion, and in which religious organizations would be free from government control.  This was in opposition to the ideal of ‘ummah, the united community under single governance with economic, social, and legal practices based on religion. 

          Today these two opposing views are still in contention, and vie for acceptance.  In the Middle East we find as much diversity among governments concerning church and state as in the West.  Eastern Christian minorities still struggle for equality of citizenship.     

         

         

 The attached article appeared in the The Flyer, quarterly newsletter of St. Joseph of Cupertino Parish, September 2014, page 2.

          

MARY, A BRIDGE BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

Non-Muslims generally harbor a pejorative view of Islam. This presentation offers a different perspective, a Marian outlook espoused by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in his book, The World’s First Love, and shared by other devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Islam’s creed

Islam is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Since it originated in the seventh century under the leadership of Muhammad, it was possible to include some elements of Christianity and Judaism along with some customs of Arabia.

Islam seems to use the doctrine of the unity of God, his majesty and his creative power, to reject Christ as the Son of God. Not understanding the notion of the Trinity, Muhammad recognizes Christ as a prophet announcing himself, that is, Muhammad.

Christian Europe, the West, barely escaped eradication at the hands of the early Muslim jihadists. At various times the Muslims were repulsed near Tours, Vienna, Lepanto and other areas. The Church across North Africa was destroyed by Muslim invasions. Presently Islam is again on the rise and flexing its power.

If Islam is a heresy, which Hilaire Belloc declared it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Rather, it has rebounded. Other heresies experienced a period of vigor and influence, but later declined and lapsed into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and eventually faded away as a social movement. Islam, on the contrary, endured and has not declined in numbers or in the loyalty of its followers.

On the surface of things, the missionary efforts of the Church with Muslims have failed. They seem almost unconvertible. Muslims believe they have the final and definitive revelation of God and that Jesus Christ was only a prophet announcing Muhammad, the last of God’s real prophets.

Currently, the hatred of Muslim countries toward the West is becoming hatred against Christianity itself. There is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and bring with it the menace that will overcome the West that has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as the great anti-Christian world power. Muslim literature says, “When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these words in Arabic: We are God’s host, each of us has 99 eggs, and if we had 100, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it.”

The problem is how to prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg. Some believe firmly these fears concerning the Muslims will not be realized. They believe that Islam will eventually turn to Christianity, and in a way that missionaries do not expect. These Christians believe that this will happen not through the teachings of Christianity, but through inviting the Muslims to veneration of the Mother of God. This is their line of reasoning.

Role of Mary

The Qur’an, the Muslim bible, contains many passages about the Blessed Virgin Mary. It speaks of her Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth. The third chapter details the history of Mary’s family in a genealogy that goes back through Abraham, Noah and to Adam. Comparing the Qur’an’s description of Mary’s birth with the apocryphal gospel version reveals a similarity that indicates Muhammad probably depended on the latter. Both books describe the old age and sterility of Mary’s Mother, Ann. When Ann conceives Mary, she says in the Qur’an, “O Lord, I vow and consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.” When Mary is born, her mother says, “I consecrate her with all her posterity under your protection, O Lord, against Satan.”

The Qur’an makes little mention of Joseph, but the Muslim tradition appreciates him. Joseph asks Mary, who is a virgin, how she conceived Jesus without a father. Mary responds: “Do you not know that God, when he created the wheat had no need of seed, and that God by his power made the trees to grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say. ‘So be it,’ and it was done.”

The Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity are also included in the Qur’an. Angels are depicted accompanying our Blessed Mother and saying, “Oh, Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.” In the 19th chapter alone are 41 verses about Jesus and Mary. The defense of the virginity of Mary is so strong and clear in the fourth book of the Qur’an that it attributes the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

Fatima

For Muslims, Mary is the true Sayyida (Lady). In their creed only Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, would rival her. After the death of Fatima, Muhammad wrote, “Thou shall be the most blessed of all women in Paradise, after Mary.” In a variation of this text, Fatima says, “I surpass all the women, except Mary.”

This highlights another point; namely, why our Blessed Mother in the 20th century should have revealed herself in the insignificant village of Fatima, Portugal, so that all future generations will know her as Our Lady of Fatima. Because nothing happens without divine reason, some believe the Virgin Mary chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a pledge and sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance, that they who show her great respect will one day accept her divine Son too.

Evidence to support these views is found in the history of Muslim occupation of Portugal for centuries. When they were finally driven out of Portugal, the last Muslim ruler had a beautiful daughter named Fatima. She fell in love with a Catholic young man. For him she not only stayed behind when the Muslims left, but she also embraced Catholicism. Her young husband loved her so much that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Consequently the very place where Our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad.

The relationship of Our Lady of Fatima to Muslims is evident in the enthusiastic reception Muslim people in Africa, India, and elsewhere offered to the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. They attended prayer services in honor of her and allowed religious processions and prayers in front of their mosques. In Mozambique some Muslims became Christians soon after the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

In a number of countries Muslims frequent Marian shrines to pray and to honor Sayyida.

Missionary challenge

Increasingly we will see that the Christian missionary apostolate among the Muslims will be successful in the measure that it preaches Our Lady of Fatima. Mary signals the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ himself is born. It is sound apologetics, then, for our missionary effort to begin with something the people already accept. Because Muslims are devoted to Mary, our missionaries wisely endeavor to enlarge that devotion with the realization that Our Lady will bring Muslims along the rest of the journey to her divine Son. She never accepts any devotion for herself, but always brings the devotee to her Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Many missionaries, in Africa especially, have already broken down the bitter hatred and prejudice of Muslims against Christians by their works of charity, their schools and hospitals, and other social services.

It remains now to employ this Marian approach: to interpret chapter 41 of the Qur’an to show them it was taken from the Gospel of St. Luke and that Mary cannot be seen as the most blessed of women if she had not borne the Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther were prefigures of Mary in the Old Testament, we may assume that Fatima herself was a post-figure of Mary.

Let us pray that Muslims acknowledge that, if Fatima gives place in honor of Mary, the reason is that Mary is different from all other mothers of the world and that without Jesus she would be nothing. May they find refuge in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was given to us by God himself.

Mary is clearly a bridge between Islam and Christianity.

- Used with permission.

Allah, God...the Same Thing?

Thanks Sue!

Bishop Martinus Muskens of Breda in The Netherlands has called upon Christians to begin calling God “Allah”. Bishop Muskens is confident this will promote better relations with Muslims and, after all, “God doesn’t really care how we address Him.”

Catholic Culture: A Rose by Any Other Name