A new survey of
Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and
Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions
about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most
basic tenets of their own faiths.
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study
didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy
Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ. More
than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who
inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know
that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was
Jewish. “Survey: Americans don't know much about religion. But atheists
actually know more than Protestants and Catholics, Pew Forum finds” (NBC News,
Rachel Zoll, 9/28/2010)
The
hullabaloo created by Lauren Green’s interview of Reza Aslan (FOX News,
7/26/13) over his book about Jesus (Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of
Nazareth, Random House, 2013) is a reminder of just how little the average
American knows about religion. The interviewer was incredulous; “You are a
Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” Ms.
Green must not have been unaware that Dr. Aslan had studied and published in
the area of comparative religions. She must not have known that academics of
various traditions, including atheist, write about other religions all the
time.
There
is nothing new in Dr. Aslan’s contention that it was the early church that
ascribed a divinity to Jesus that he did not claim for himself. A number of other authors have argued that he
was crucified for subversion against the Roman occupation of Palestine as a
“zealot.” Variances of these themes have
been proposed by a variety of other scholars for the last twenty years (see John
Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, The Jesus Project, etc.). The study of the historical
Jesus as opposed to the early church's notion of him as Christ began in the
19th century; the landmark summary of this work can be found in Albert
Schweitzer's The Quest for the Historical Jesus (1906).
What
was remarkable about the FOX News interview was the assumption by Ms. Green that
a Muslim would be interested in Jesus.
She implied that by religious affiliation, Dr. Aslan is unqualified to
have anything to say about Jesus. Was Ms. Green reflecting a racial or
ideological prejudice of Muslims born out of ignorance?
A
version of the Jesus story can be found in the Koran, the religious text of
Islam, including His virgin birth by Mary, His ability to perform miracles and
His status as one of the prophets of God. They acknowledge Jesus’ crucifixion
but not His death on the cross, (“God raised him unto Himself”) or his
resurrection. Muslims believe in Jesus as one of the prophets of God but not as
the unique son of God, born as our Savior.
Like the Hebrew people who honor Jesus as a rabbi but reject him as Messiah,
the Christian belief in Jesus' divinity is one of the main doctrines that separate
the three religions born out of the one Abrahamic tradition.
Islam
is the second largest religion in the world. Although they share the Koran, Islam in
practice and doctrine is as diverse as Christianity with its multiple
denominations and sects. The five "pillars of faith" in Islam include
the confession of faith in The One God and Mohammed as His prophet, daily
prayer, fasting during the Ramadan Holy Month, giving alms to the poor and, if possible,
making a pilgrimage to Mecca and the Arabian peninsula holy sites. How those five pillars are practiced varies
widely by cultural traditions.
Not
all Muslim men wear turbans. Most Sikh men do and are often mistaken as Muslims,
although theirs is an entirely different religion. Not all Muslim women wear
the burka head and or body covering. The
Islamic tradition of female modesty is practiced in a huge diversity of style
and culture all over the world.
Islamic
incidences of inter-religious warfare and violence are found throughout history
and are tragically occurring today. Yet
not all Muslims are out to kill non-Muslims or convert them to their religion
by any means necessary.
If
we would seek to live peacefully together in a world of religious diversity,
it would
benefit us all to learn about other religions other than our own --
understanding their traditions and the complexity within them.
If
you find such an admonition an apology for the atrocities of contemporary
Jihadist terrorists you are proving my point; just as Ms. Green did when she
was unable to converse with a Muslim professor beyond her own assumptions.