Building a Bridge Between Cultures

If a Muslim approaches another Muslim on the street because he needs a place to stay, his brother in faith will offer him a bed.

The same hospitality, however, is not easily found between other religious groups.

This concept of community or brotherhood, according to Gerhard Bowering, S.J., is representative of the Islamic faith.

But, as Bowering told an audience in the Oak Room on Wednesday, the idea that “We have of the Muslim world has significantly changed.”

Bowering said, “Muslims prefer to live in peace,” and that “a synthesis of what bonds Islam and Christianity together” can resolve the tensions between American and Islamic cultures.

“It begins with each individual person,” he said. “We can build bridges – a bridge that Muslims can walk.”

Bowering, a Jesuit priest, author and religious studies professor at Yale, shared his personal encounters in the Muslim world and provided extensive background , on Islam during his lecture titled, “The Impact of Islam on America and the Catholic Church.”

Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J. introduced the notable Bowering who has been to 40 countries, including almost all the nations of the Middle East.

The lecture is part of the ongoing campus discussion regarding Christianity and Islam presented by the Center for Public Faith and Life, a campus organization directed by Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J. that is founded in the Jesuit ideas of helping others.

Click to read the center’s mission described by Ryscavage.

Bowering said the cultural differences between Islam and Christianity cannot be resolved by force, but only through cooperation and working together.

“Democracy has to come out of the people – can’t do it by force,” he said.

“The relationship between Islam and Christianity is not black and white – there is a gray area,” Bowering added.

Bowering said Islam is an extremely significant religion that stretches across the globe, and far outnumbers the Arab countries. There are five major blocks of Muslim populations; the Arab World, Central Asia, South Asia, Indonesia and Malasia and Africa, according to Bowering.

“Muslims today are an international presence … conscious that they are a global presence especially after WWII,” he said.

Solidarity unites Muslims across the world and this strong “inner cohesion” and brotherhood is essential to Islam, as well as living according to Muslim principles. Islam is a religion of practice, according to Bowering.

“[The] Muslim builds his life on scripture and the life of Muhammad,” Bowering said.

The Quran, the Sunna, custom of the prophet, the Muslim community’s consensus of essential practices, and analogous reasoning when new practices are introduced provide the structure of Muslim life, Bowering said.

Muslims are “very careful to speak out against small militant groups within Islam,” and “very few Muslims who will speak out in public” on terrorism and other issues, Bowering said.

Before teaching Islam Studies and chairing the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale (1985-95), Bowering was an associate professor of Islamic religion at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at Princeton, the University of Innsbruck, Germany and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Bowering has mastered several languages including Classical Arabic, Colloquial Egyptian, Persian, Urdu-Hindustani, French, German, Spanish, Greek and Latin.

He has written many books on Islam and in addition has published over 70 articles in the “Encyclopaedia of Islam,” “Encyclopaedia of the Qu’ran” and “Encyclopaedia Iranica” His books include “Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Qur’anic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl at-Tustari” (d. 283/896), and “The Minor Qur’an Commentay of al-Sulami” (Ziyadat haqa’iq al-tafsir), Beirut 1995, 2nd ed. 1997.

Currently, Bowering is working on two books titled, “Islam and Christianity: the Inner Dynamics of Two Cultures of Belief,” to be published by Notre Dame University Press and “The Dreams and Labors of a Central Asian Muslim Mystic.”

Professor Böwering’s academic degrees include Baccalaureate, Deutsches Gymnasium Wurzburg; Ph.L., Philosophische Hochschule Pullach; Diploma, Panjab University; Th.L., Montreal; and Ph.D., McGill University.

Students in the audience, such as Tara Hogan ’10, said the lecture provided a broader understanding of the Muslim world, the religion of Islam and its beliefs.

Iulia Basu ’10 said she already knew the general information about Islam.

“Their community is so rooted in tradition – it’s impressive,” Basu said.

She said the cultural clash between nations with different religions is a product of “miscommunication.”

“Sometimes people overreact because they don’t understand each other,” said Basu. “If you take individuals, they can get along.”