AMEIA (http://blog.ameia.kl.com)
Archdiocesan Ministry of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs is a diocesan commission of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur.
Mission and Objectives
We are committed:
1.to promote mutual understanding, respect and collaboration between Catholics, other Christians and followers of other religious traditions
2.to encourage the study of religions
3.to promote the formation of persons dedicated to dialogue
(1) Monday, April 12, 2010
IAIS Public Lecture: Future of Christian-Muslim Dialogue - Prospects and Challenges
Public Lecture on Future of Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Prospects and Challenges
Organised by Institute of Advance Islamic Studies (IAIS), Malaysia
Friday, 16th April 2010, 10:00am
Speaker: Rev. Dr. Olav Tveit, General Secretary, World Council of Churches
Moderator: Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar, Deputy CEO, IAIS Malaysia.
Venue: IAIS Malaysia Jalan Elmu,Off Jalan Universiti, Kuala Lumpur.
Programme
09:45am-10:00am Arrival of Guests and Registration
10:00am-10:05am Welcoming Remarks by the Moderator
10:05am-11:05am Address by the Speaker
11:05am-12:00pm Discussion
To facilitate arrangements please confirm your participation latest by Wednesday, 14th April 2010.
RSVP: Tel: 03-79569188 Fax: 03-79562188 or 03-79562966 Email: reply@iais.org.my
・About the Speaker
Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit was elected general secretary of the World Council of Churches in August 2009, and took up his new post in January 2010. At the time of his election, Tveit was the general secretary of the Church of Norway Council on Ecumenical and International Relations (2002-09). Before taking up the post of general secretary, Tveit served the WCC as a member of the Faith and Order Plenary Commission and as a co-chair of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum core group.
In his home country, he served as a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the Christian Council of Norway, moderator of the Church of Norway - Islamic Council of Norway contact group and the same for the Jewish Congregation contact group. He also was a member of the Inter-Faith Council of Norway and a member of the board of trustees of Norwegian Church Aid. Previous assignments include the position of secretary for the Church of Norway Doctrinal Commission, 1999-2000, and Church-State Relations, 2001-02. Tveit is an ordained pastor in the Church of Norway and has also served as a parish priest in Haram, Møre Diocese, 1988-91 and an army chaplain during his compulsory year of national service in 1987-1988.
In 2002, Tveit was awarded a doctorate in theology by the Norwegian School of Theology /Menighetsfakultetet in Oslo for his dissertation on Mutual Accountability as Ecumenical Attitude.
(2) Thursday, March 4, 2010
Islamic students visit Catholic Church in Malaysia
Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA (Wednesday, March 3) - "Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three great monotheistic Abrahamic religions share so much in common that we can never underestimate the extent of the common good in which we can achieve as partners in dialogue and collaboration", Fr. Simon Yong SJ told a group of 33 Muslim students from a Universiti Malaya, a leading local university.
The students who were accompanied by their lecturer, Ustaz Mahmud Ahmad, from the Department of Aqidah and Islamic Understanding, Academy of Islamic Studies, which is part of the above university, were on a field visit to the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Petaling Jaya, as part of their comparative religious study of Christianity.
Various questions were posed by the students to Fr. Yong, who is the parish priest of St. Francis Xavier, on the practices and teachings of Christianity, and Catholicism in particular. The students were interested on the differences between the Catholic faith and Protestantism, ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, the form of Christian prayer, priestly celibacy, the significance of Sunday etc. The ensuing dialogue led both sides to find many meeting places and similarities. Fr. Yong, nevertheless, pointed out the need to be on guard against relativism which is seen as an obstacle to genuine dialogue based on respect of differences.
Also present at the discussion-cum-dialogue was Fr. Michael Chua, the Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Archdiocesan Ministry of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (AMEIA). In response to a question, Fr. Chua highlighted the main issues on both sides of the divide in the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of the name "Allah" by Christians. Fr. Chua explained that both Christians and Muslims had different perspectives on the issue. Christians viewed it from an angle of history and fundamental human rights, whereas the Muslim position had a broader spectrum of views, ranging from the affirmation that such use by non-Muslims was not prohibited by the Quran or the Hadith to views which opposed it based on fear of confusion and proselytisation. Fr Yong added that the issue must be discussed and studied rationally and cautioned that one must not abdicate reason to the tyranny of emotion.
The visit concluded with a tour of the Church building led by Jesuit scholastic, Bro. Eugene Koh SJ, where the students were given a brief explanation of
Christian architecture, art and iconography.
(3) Monday, August 10, 2009
Seminar on Islam and Christology
IAIS Malaysia, YADIM and Islamic Book Trust will be jointly organising and hosting a seminar on ‘ISLAM & CHRISTOLOGY’ by Dr Louay Fatoohi.
Dr. Louay Fatoohii is a British scholar who was born in Baghdad in 1961 and holds a doctorate in Astronomy. He reverted from Christianity to Islam in his early twenties. The author of several books and articles in English and Arabic, Dr. Fatoohi is particularly interested in in studying historical characters and events that are mentioned in the Quran and comparing the Quranic sources with the Biblical narratives and historical sources. His books include the Prophet Joseph in the Quran, The Bible, and History; Jihad in the Quran: The Truth from the Source; The Mystery of the Crucifixion;and the Mystery of Israel in Ancient Egypt,which he co-authored with his wife Dr. Shetha al-Dargazelli.
After his presentation, a Christian response will be delivered by Dr. Ng Kam Weng, Research Director, Kairos Research Centre
(4) Friday, August 14, 2009
Islam and Christology?
‘An Islamic Christology? Wouldn’t that be an oxymoron?,’ would most likely be the skeptical response from both Christians and Muslims. By an Islamic Christology is meant not a theological formulation analogous to the christologies of both the early church and Christians, but, rather, an understanding of the role of Christ within the divine plan of human history, of Christ the man, one of the servants of God, but also of Christ, the Word of God, His spirit and exalted friend.
Jesus Christ, known by his various titles in both Islam and Christianity, has provided both a bridge between Christianity and Islam and at the same time posed a great theological barrier between the Christian Church and the Muslim ummah. For Muslim piety and belief, Jesus, the Son of Mary, the Spirit of God, and His Word, is a model of true Islam, or total submission to God. For the Islamic faith, Jesus, like Adam, is a special creation of God, but unlike Adam, he is free from sin. He is blessed and righteous servant of God, “high honoured in this and the next world, and one of those who are nearest to God” (Qu’ran surah 3:45). So much of these points resonate with the Christian understanding of Jesus, but Christianity goes beyond this to acknowledge that Jesus is not created, no matter how unique and special he may be in comparison to other mortals, and that he is the true and only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of World. Attempting to find links and recognizing the substantial differences between these two different christologies (the study of the life and works of Jesus Christ) was the subject of this seminar entitled “Islam and Christology,” organized by the International Institute of Advance Islamic Studies (IAIS), Malaysia in collaboration with YADIM (a Muslim missionary foundation) and Islamic Book Trust (IBT), which was held yesterday, the 13th of August.
The seminar not only featured the public talk by Dr. Louay Fatoohi, an Islamic scholar and author, but was also an opportunity for the official launching of Dr. Fatoohi’s book, “The Mystery of the Historical Jesus: The Messiah in the Qu’ran, the Bible and Historical Resources”, published by IBT. But the real highlight of the seminar was the engaging dialogue that took place between Dr. Fatoohi and the respondent, Dr. Ng Kam Weng, Research Director of Kairos Research Centre, who presented the Christian perspective of the topic.
Dr. Fatoohi began his talk by giving a cursory explanation of how Christians and Muslims viewed each other’s scriptures and try to understand both the similarities and differences that lie therein. Christians explained the similarities and differences between the two texts by claiming that the Quran was the handiwork of Muhammad, probably written with the help of others who had knowledge of Jewish and Christian scriptures and apocryphal writings. Muslims, based on the Quran, believe that the revelation of the Quran was made to the Prophet Muhammad as the final seal in a long progressive line of revelations to various prophets, Moses and Jesus included, thus explaining the similarities in the texts. The Qu’ran, however, attributes the differences through changes made by the authors of the present text of the Bible (both Old and New Testament). These changes were either textual additions (cf. Qu’ran s. 2:79) or textual corruptions (cf. s. 75). Dr. Fatoohi coined a term to explain the latter, “contextual displacement.”
He then enumerated several events in the life of Jesus, to illustrate both the similarities and significant differences between the texts of both scriptures and other historical resources, namely, Mary’s background, the Annunciation, the virginal conception and perpetual virginity of Mary, the concept of Messiah in both scriptures, the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the role of Jesus in God’s plan, the eschatological Jesus, and finally the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus. In spite of the many differences that were apparent in both texts, there were also surprisingly many areas of convergence, e.g. annunciation, virgin birth, Jesus as the Word of God, his title as Messiah, and his ascension to heaven. By alluding to other historical resources, Dr. Fatoohi attempted to demonstrate that the Qu’ran presented a more credible picture of the historical Jesus.
In response, Dr. Ng Kam Weng, began by stating that he would not have the time to enumerate the many objections he had with the content of the book, “The Mystery of the Historical Jesus,” which he described as ‘driving down a road with many pot-holes.’ He, however, qualified himself with a caveat by stating that this was merely the usual disagreements that academics often had with each other, and it was in no way a sign of disrespect to Islam or Muslims in general. His main contentions were basically his objections to the methodological lenses by which Dr. Fatoohi examined Christian texts. He described that the method used in examining the Bible was one which was derived from the Englightenment, alluding to a purely rationalist approach that applied a hermeneutics of suspicion to the text. He found it a problem that Dr. Fatoohi didn’t give any consideration to the way Christians do textual, historical and form criticisms. He also noted that Dr. Fatoohi came to many conclusions about the Bible from a simple argument from silence (silence in the text, thus implied indictment). He also felt that if such a approach was used to examine the Bible, the Qu’ran should also equally be examined on the same terms. Other objections were that there was too much reliance on apocryphal sources which are spurious, thus challenging the notion of the Canon of the Bible; a refusal to consider to social, cultural and historical modalities that shape all texts; the arguments used both in the book and the talk did not give any weight to eye-witness credence etc. In short, it was clear that the problem of such a comparative study of both christologies was its failure to hinge itself on the significant differences in Biblical and Qu’ranic hermeneutics. At the conclusion of the seminar, Dr. Ng challenged everyone to consider how we can all let the One God lead us to a fuller understanding of Him, and that we must not let ourselves descend into polemics and petty defensiveness.
Both Dr. Fatoohi’s talk and Dr. Ng’s response, led to a lively and engaging dialogue between both scholars and also members of the audience. Undeniably, recognition must be given to the significance of Dr. Fatoohi’s research and his book, in that it fills a gap in both Muslim and non-Muslim literature in the comparative study of the Quranic account of Jesus’ life, its counterparts in the gospels and other historical sources. Such comparison allows the audience and reader see both the similarities as well as significant differences between all these accounts. Overall, the seminar provided a platform for scholarly Christian-Muslim dialogue that went beyond superficialities.
Please also read the review published in IAIS website.
Dr. Ng Kam Weng has also posted further comments in his blog, Krisis & Praxis.
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