I was reading in the Jewish Chronicle an interesting account of the meeting between Pope Benedist anda selection of faith leaders during the recent papal visit.
Lord Sacks, the chief rabbi, came out with an interesting explanation for the secularisation now engulfing Europe:
Lord Sacks - whose greetings were followed by Muslim representative Dr Khaled Azzam - used the occasion to emphasise that faith "has a major role in strengthening civil society".
Secularisation had begun in Europe because people had lost faith in people of faith living peaceably together, he said: "We must never go down the road again".
British history shows that Jews and Christians, for example, have been able to live together in peace for centuries. There have been some outbursts of antisemitism but most British cities have benefited from a Jewish community.A similar pattern was present thoughout most of Europe.
Protestants and Catholics fought vicious wars over faith but gradually learnt to accept one another's right to worship as they felt led.
I was recently reading A history of the Arab peoples by Albert Hourani and he makes the point over many years substantial Christian and Jewish communities have been able to live at peace within predominantly Muslim societies.
I'm not arguing for a syncretism but I feel that there is nuch wisdom in the chief rabbi's words.
How many times have we been told by non-believers that religion is the cause of too many wars?
When did Europe lose faith in people of faith living peaceably together?
Do we need to put it right? If so, how?
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3 comments:
British Jewry as compared to European Jewry see here: http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/09/costume-dramas-part-one-al-beeb-and-al.html
There is no parity between Britain and Europe on this isssue. 6 million dead as opposed to ...?
As for Protestants and Catholics , I recommend 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs', just to get the balance right. There is a reason why 'Bloody Mary' got her name.
Christians and Jews only live at peace in Islamic societies if they pay a special tax and accept the discrimination. Arabs love to misrepresent this. It's called 'taqqiya'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqiyya
http://www.google.com/search?q=taqiyya&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGLL_en-GB___GB367
We cannot put things right if we do not recognise the past.
Islam means 'submission'.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/011-taqiyya.htm
I believe that it is possible for people of faith to live together in peace but I'm not convinced that there is a good track record.
That said, I don't agree with the rabbi that European secularization is due to lack of faith in the possibility of peace between peoples of faith. I think it's due to the general conviction that humanity can take care of itself and that we are in control of our own lives. The reason that the US is apparently "more Christian" (I don't think it is, actually) is that we have baptised American nationalism and we call it "Christianity".
Whether or not people of faith can live together may be irrelevant when our culture no longer believes in any kind of faith.
But we will have to develop some kind of ethic of tolerance which, by and large, we don't seem able to do. By and large we want to see people with whom we disagree fail and we want them to be our enemies.
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