강영안교수-볼프에게 주체란 ‘중심의 재설정’ 통한 주체?

LOVING GOD AND NEIGHBOR TOGETHER

A Christian Response to 

'A Common Word Between Us and You'

Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale Divinity School, Yale University

Yale Center for Faith and Culture

IN THE NAME OF THE INFINITELY GOOD GOD WHOM WE SHOULD LOVE WITH ALL OUR BEING. This Title and document is word for word from the following Website:http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm

Preamble

As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ's call to love God and neighbor was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). We receive the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians worldwide. In this response we extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.

Muslims and Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship; their relations have sometimes been tense, even characterized by outright hostility. Since Jesus Christ says, "First take the log out your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye" (Matthew 7:5), we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the "war on terror") many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we "shake your hand" in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.

Religious Peace-World Peace

"Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world's population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world." We share the sentiment of the Muslim signatories expressed in these opening lines of their open letter. Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch. Though tensions, conflicts, and even wars in which Christians and Muslims stand against each other are not primarily religious in character, they possess an undeniable religious dimension. If we can achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace in the world will clearly be easier to attain. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, as you have in A Common Word Between Us and You, that "the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians."

Common Ground

What is so extraordinary about A Common Word Between Us and You is not that its signatories recognize the critical character of the present moment in relations between Muslims and Christians. It is rather a deep insight and courage with which they have identified the common ground between the Muslim and Christian religious communities. What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and loveof neighbor. Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the Christian faith, but of Islam as well. That so much common ground exists - common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith - gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and ofneighbor gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a hallmark of the relations between our two communities.

Love of God

We applaud that A Common Word Between Us and You stresses so insistently the unique devotion to one God, indeed the love of God, as the primary duty of every believer. God alone rightly commands our ultimate allegiance. When anyone or anything besides God commands our ultimate allegiance - a ruler, a nation, economic progress, or anything else - we end up serving idols and inevitably get mired in deep and deadly conflicts.

We find it equally heartening that the God whom we should love above all things is described as being Love. In the Muslim tradition, God, "the Lord of the worlds," is "The Infinitely Good and All-Merciful." And the New Testament states clearly that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Since God's goodness is infinite and not bound by anything, God "makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous," according to the words of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel (Matthew 5:45).

For Christians, humanity's love of God and God's love of humanity are intimately linked. As we read in the New Testament: "We love because he [God] first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Our love of God springs from and is nourished by God's love for us. It cannot be otherwise, since the Creator who has power over all things is infinitely good.

Love of Neighbor

We find deep affinities with our own Christian faith when A Common Word Between Us and You insists that love is the pinnacle of our duties toward our neighbors. "None of you has faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself," the Prophet Muhammad said. In the New Testament we similarly read, "whoever does not love [the neighbor] does not know God" (1 John 4:8) and "whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). God is love, and our highest calling as human beings is to imitate the One whom we worship.

We applaud when you state that "justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part" of the love of neighbor. When justice is lacking, neither love of God nor love of the neighbor can be present. When freedom to worship God according to one's conscience is curtailed, God is dishonored, the neighbor oppressed, and neither God nor neighbor is loved.

 

Since Muslims seek to love their Christian neighbors, they are not against them, the document encouragingly states. Instead, Muslims are with them. As Christians we resonate deeply with this sentiment. Our faith teaches that we must be with our neighbors - indeed, that we must act in their favor - even when our neighbors turn out to be our enemies. "But I say unto you," says Jesus Christ, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that

Harold W. Attridge 

Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of

New Testament, Yale Divinity School

Miroslav Volf

Founder and Director of the Yale Center

for Faith and Culture, Henry B. Wright

Professor of Theology, Yale University

Joseph Cumming

Director of the Reconciliation Program,

Yale Center for Faith and Culture

Emilie M. Townes

Andrew Mellon Professor of African

American Religion and Theology

and President-elect of the American

Academy of Religion

 

A selection of prominent signatories follows. These signatories consist of those featured in the November 18, 2007 New York Times publication of "Loving God and Neighbor Together," as well as of a selection of other prominent signatories. These signatories were all confirmed via email and in most cases were reconfirmed by further email exchange.

 

[Ed Note: This list is edited and contains some different selections from the edited list posted on the Moriel website. For the full list see the document on the Yale website here.]

 

Rev. Colin Chapman, Former Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Near East School of Theology, Beirut, Lebanon, and author of Whose Promised Land?

 

David Yonggi Cho(조용기 목사), Founder and Senior Pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, Korea

 

Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice President of Governmental Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

 

Fuller Theological Seminary (풀러 신학교), Pasadena, CA

 

Brian D. McLaren, Author, Speaker, Activist

 

Bill Hybels, Founder and Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL

 

Tony Jones, National Coordinator, Emergent Village

 

Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, PA

 

Richard Mouw, President and Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary

 

Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller, Founder, Crystal Cathedral and Hour of Power

 

Rev. Berten A. Waggoner, National Director, Association of Vineyard Churches

 

Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners

Rick Warren (릭 워렌), Founder and Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church, and The Purpose Driven Life, Lake Forest, CA

For full list and PDF doc see

(자료출처 http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm)

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