Just before stepping onto the dais, Jon looked at row ten on the Christian side of the sanctuary, because it seemed to be filled with Roman collars. And on the aisle, whom should he see but the wonderfully familiar face of Kevin F. X. Sullivan, “my personal ambassador to the Vatican,” Jon often told friends. He immediately walked over, and they exchanged several slaps on the back.
“And what brings you to Istanbul, Kev?” Jon asked. “Converting to Eastern Orthodoxy, are you?”
“Right! But only when you return to Mother Church, Jon. The Holy Father sends you his blessings.”
“And mine to him, Kev. Gotta run. What’re you doing for dinner?”
“No special plans.”
“Great! We’re at the Hilton. Say 7 p.m.?”
Before Kevin could answer, Jon had to return to the dais. But he looked back and saw his friend flashing a thumbs-up sign.
The moderators now announced that the same, freewheeling dialogue would govern the final session of the debate, with a minimum of their interference. Applause actually broke out at that point, which both the patriarch and the primate took graciously.
“I have a question for you, Professor Weber,” Abbas al-Rashid began. “What in Islam do you find the most difficult doctrine to accept?”
Clever, Jon thought. Makes Abbas look like he’s ready for anything, while luring me out on a dangerous limb. Why didn’t I think of that one first? Jon finally opened his mouth and said, “The doctrine of abrogation.”
Abbas looked puzzled. “The doctrine of abrogation?”
“Yes, the idea that God could lay down one precept and then-in what is claimed as a subsequent revelation-change his mind and say something entirely different. I find that demeaning to God’s perfection.”
“But the later command is an improvement on the previous one, as Allah tells us. Isn’t that gracious of the Divine Majesty?”
At that point, Jon had to bite his tongue, for he wanted to say, Well, why didn’t the deity get it right the first time? Didn’t he have a second cup of coffee that day? What he actually said was “One only wonders why anything that God did or said would need improvement.” This was met with applause from the Christian contingent. Then he added, in tit for tat, “And what in Christianity do you find the most difficult doctrine to accept, esteemed Imam?”
“Two claims, really,” he replied. “The Trinity, of course, is still incomprehensible to any Muslim. But the other is what you Christians call the doctrine of the Incarnation, that the God of the universe could have taken on human flesh in Jesus. That is impossible by any standards and is far more demeaning to God than the idea of God improving on his commands.”
“Well said! And I certainly agree that the Trinity and the Incarnation are the two greatest mysteries, the two greatest miracles of the Christian faith. Again, though, I side with Augustine who said, ‘I believe because it is absurd’-absurd to human logic, to be sure, but our minds are so dimensionally different from that of God that what seems absurd to us may be entirely logical in the divine dimension. And what greater revelation could God give us than to cross the cosmic divide into humanity, forming the divine bridge by which we can truly know God and experience the blessings of having our sins forgiven by faith in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?”
“Very well, then, let me ask you the most important question any Muslim can ask of anyone else. May I?”
“Of course.” Here it comes, Jon thought, with no idea how it might be defined.
Al-Rashid asked, “What is your true opinion, your honest opinion of the Prophet Muhammad-may his name be blessed?”
A sudden, tense silence filled the vast reaches of Hagia Sophia. Well, it was dynamite, Jon realized. Or better, his tightrope was now stretched across the caldera of a volcano bubbling with hot lava and threatening to explode whether or not he fell off the tightrope first. What he wanted to say was not what he could say at that place and time. Yet he had to be honest.
Jon smiled. “I have many good things to say about the Prophet Muhammad.” A loud stirring on both sides of the aisle showed that he had startled the entire audience. He paused to let the strange tidings digest, then continued. “First of all, he led his people away from the terrible error of paganism, polytheism, and their worship of many different desert deities to monotheism, since there can be only one God. Belief in the one God sets Judaism, Christianity, and Islam apart from all other world religions then or since. We surely have that in common.”
“Well said!” al-Rashid replied. “I heartily agree.”
“Muhammad also taught people to abandon idolatry and other sad practices of paganism. He taught them spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, fasting, and concern for the poor, and he set higher ethical standards than had previously been the case among the desert tribes of Arabia. His reforms aimed in the right direction, for example, reducing the number of wives a man might have to only four. Previously, there had been no limit.”
“Again I must agree. Well spoken. Why, then, can you not also become my brother in the true faith? All you must do is define Jesus correctly as one of the greatest of the prophets, yet less than God-and thus restore unity in place of trinity. But are there any other reasons you cannot join us?”
“Yes, there are. But first I must thank you for your fraternal spirit. We need much more of that in Muslim-Christian dialogue. There are indeed many other reasons that I cannot follow Islam, but a single day’s debate is not long enough to air them. Since our time is expiring, let me mention only one. I find it extremely unwise to hazard my entire spiritual future by believing in one person’s claimed revelation, whether that person be man or woman, boy or girl. What if that one person should be wrong? And I do believe that every religion founded by just one person has indeed been mistaken.”
At the loud Muslim murmuring, al-Rashid held up his hands for silence, then replied, “Well, I would agree with you in the case of Zoroaster, or Gautama Buddha, or Mithra, or Joseph Smith, or Mary Baker Eddy-all single founders-but you have just admitted, then, that Christianity is false, since it was founded by one man: Jesus of Nazareth.”
“No, my honored opponent! Christianity had many founders who lived and taught God’s revelation across many centuries. We believe the testimony of God’s patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, who predicted matters that were fulfilled with incredible accuracy many centuries later. We believe the further testimony of God’s evangelists and apostles and missionaries in the New Testament, as well as in the ultimate embodiment of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. Now that is what we call a whole ‘cloud of witnesses’ who can be trusted since their testimony is unanimous.”
Spirited Christian applause filled the basilica.
The moderators now tinkled their bells, indicating that it was time for a final summation by each side. Al-Rashid was given the favored position of having the last word, due to the essentially Muslim environment.
Jon started his summation with a surprising twist. “I am most grateful to everyone in this basilica for your attendance and for your patience, as well as to all who had a hand in preparing this event. I don’t think a final summary of the Christian position is necessary at this point, since that should be quite obvious by now. Instead, I would like to close with an urgent appeal for further dialogue and tolerance between Muslims and Christians. Both sides have been guilty of failures in this respect. In the West, we’ve been traumatized by radical Islam-especially since 9/11-and so there the debate rages as to whether Islam is a religion of peace or violence.
“The answer, of course, is yes, meaning that one can find both in the Qur’an. Yet so often when Muhammad advocated violence it was more in the form of a general inspiring his troops prior to actual warfare, since the Prophet had been attacked militarily. Does anyone think that-were Muhammad alive today-he would have condoned the attacks in New York or Washington, the subway bombings in London and Madrid, the assassinations in Beirut, the bombings of mosques in Pakistan, the murderous rampage in Mumbai, and dozens of other acts of Islamic terrorism across the world?”