What bridges exist between Christianity and Islam?
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A conference to build bridges between Christianity and Islam
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The "Paths to the Heart" Conference on Sufism and the Christian East took place in Columbia, South Carolina on October 18-20, 2001. Internationally recognized spiritual leaders and scholars gathered for three days of presentation and dialogue concerning the mystical and contemplative dimensions of Eastern Christianity and Islam. Speakers included Bishop Kallistos Ware, Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies at Oxford University; and Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University.
In reflecting on the significance of the Conference, it occurs to us that rather than building bridges between the two communities of believers, participants instead were helping each other discover the bridges that have already been in existence for many centuries but that have become obscured to many for two reasons: (1) The ability to see the Beauty and Truth that lives at the center of a traditionally based faith that is not our own is weakened when political and other similar worldly differences take hold of our minds and hearts. And (2) we have become more and more distant from the Beauty and Truth within our own traditions, making many doubt the very existence or life-determining influence of those gifts of God to our own communities of faith.
Thus, as we help others to see the living core of our own traditions, we are also helping ourselves refocus on the invaluable gift that this core represents in guiding us beyond our own human limitations to spiritual vistas beyond our imagining. This makes a conference like Paths to the Heart both learning experience and celebration.
This slideshow will present audio clips from some of the presentations given at the Conference.
Please note that the audio presentations will work best if you have a high-speed data connection and may not work satisfactorily at speeds of 56 kbps or 128 kbps.
The well-known Traditionalist writer on Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, began the Conference with a presentation titled The Heart of the Faithful Is the Throne of the All-Merciful. This excerpt investigates the remarkable unanimity of the world's great religious traditions on the doctrine of the Heart.
The audio clip of Dr. Nasr's talk is 6 min. 35 sec. long.
To listen to this audio segment, click on the button to the right of the title of this slideshow at the top of this window (the one that represents a person with headphones on, between the question mark and the left-pointing arrow).
If you have a slow internet connection, you may need to "pause" the audio to give it time to download, before letting it play.
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What bridges exist between Christianity and Islam?
Perhaps the most venerable speaker at the Conference to represent the Eastern Orthodox Church was Bishop Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia in the Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain and, as will be evident from his talk, a speaker of great power and charm.
Bishop Ware's talk includes a portion in which he focuses on defining the term "the heart" as indicated in Christian scriptures, and it is this portion that we have excerpted here. He points out that from the traditional point of view, "the heart" does not indicate the seat of emotions (as is the case for most modern usages) in the human being, but is the "spiritual center of the whole person," "the inwardness of our human personhood in its full spiritual depth," or "that which gives us spiritual vision." These very important precisions, necessary to understanding what traditional sources mean when referencing "the heart," emphasize the "wholeness" or the "totality" of the concept and not the limited, shallow concept most often understood in modern parlance.
The audio clip of Bishop Ware's talk is 8 min. 42 sec. long.
To listen to this audio segment, click on the button to the right of the title of this slideshow at the top of this window (the one that represents a person with headphones on, between the question mark and the left-pointing arrow).
If you have a slow internet connection, you may need to "pause" the audio to give it time to download, before letting it play.
Author, speaker, and publisher Gray Henry delivered a talk titled St. Seraphim in Sufic Perspective. Although her topic allowed her to range between various points of unanimity between Eastern Orthodox and Sufic thought, the clip we have chosen strongly suggests that it is when the Hesychast or Sufi are in the vast, formless and liberating space of "the heart" that they are most similar—that is, when each is before, but most importantly in God, regardless of how those two paths may have led to that space. Henry also highlights in the clip the central importance of quietude and God's Presence in both spiritual paths.
The audio clip of Gray Henry's talk is 9 min. 50 sec. long.
Vincent Rossi is Director of Education for the American Exarchate of the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church. Rossi's talk, Presence, Participation, Performance, is a brief but far-ranging summary of Hesychast thought and practice. The clip that we are offering of this talk/essay (which must be read to be fully appreciated) gives some key definitions of terms and demonstrates the great profundity of the way of the Hesychasts. Although Rossi does not often draw explicit parallels between Hesychasm and Sufism, many will occur to the careful listener or reader.
Perhaps the most obvious parallel is the insistence upon the practice of invocation as the way to the heart. For Hesychasts, says Rossi, the Prayer of Jesus is the necessary means to achieving hesychia, the "abyss of divine intellections" that permits the practitioner to bridge the "infinite gulf between the Uncreated and the Created." Students and practitioners of Sufism should find some deep resonances with the way to God described by Rossi.
The audio clip of Mr. Rossi's talk is 5 min. 46 sec. long.
One of the world's foremost experts on traditional Sufi sources in both Arabic and Persian, is William C. Chittick. Prof. Chittick gave a very illuminating talk, titled On the Cosmology of Dhikr, at the Paths to the Heart conference.
His talk and essay trace the origin of the Sufi practice of dhikr (literally "remembrance" but often used for the practice of invocation of God's Name, or other formulae) to the Islamic emphasis on knowledge. Chittick shows us the 'natural' extension of the knowledge of God's Indivisibility or Unity (in Arabic, Tawhîd) to the human response to this cosmic reality, namely the practice of dhikr and all else that this imposes on humankind. Although much rooted in Islamic and thus Sufi thought, readers/listeners will again be able to find a great deal here that is also clearly applicable to Eastern Orthodox thought and practice.
The audio clip of Dr. Chittick's talk is 8 min. 33 sec. long.
One of the presentations at the Paths conference showed quite ably that ancient traditions of thought and prayer can very effectively feed modern minds and hearts in their journey toward God. To give a taste of this, our clip of the talk by the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, titled Paths of Continuity: Contemporary Witnesses of the Hesychast Experience, cites quotations from a contemporary Hesychast, Fr. Sohprony of Essex (1896-1993).
Through Fr. Sophrony's insights and the insights of other contemporary Hesychasts, Fr. Chryssavgis helps us understand that the Hesychast tradition still lives and is still very applicable to people of our time. This is because its ancient roots are plunged into the ground of eternal Truth and because it offers an effective path of prayer. His comments, heard in the clip, also include an important message about maintaining the "integrity of every religious culture," which is a very appropriate and much needed reminder in an age given to facile syncretism. These thoughts are very helpful in the context of a conference to examine bridges between two ancient traditions.
The audio clip of Fr. Chryssavgis' talk is 6 min. 28 sec. long.
Reza Shah-Kazemi contributes a wonderful talk and essay to the reflections that made up the Paths Conference and the book. His talk, The Metaphysics of Interfaith Dialogue, cited Quranic verses and Sufi commentaries in developing the point that the very foundation of Islam, the Quran itself, encourages tolerance toward and meaningful dialogue with pious believers of other faiths. The final sentences of his essay summarize very well the ground covered by his talk, of which our short clip is a representative section on dialogue:
"As we have seen, there is ample evidence in the Quranic text itself, and in the compelling commentaries on these verses by those most steeped in the spiritual tradition of Islam, to demonstrate that the Quran not only provides us with a universal view of religion, and thus with the means to contemplate all revealed religions as 'signs' (ayat) of God, but also opens up paths of creative, constructive dialogue between the faithful of all the different religious communities, despite their divergent belief-systems. It provides us with the basis for dialogue and mutual enrichment on aspects of religious life and thought that go beyond the outward forms of belief, yielding fruit in the fertile fields of metaphysical insight, immutable values, contemplative inspiration, and spiritual realization."
The audio clip of Dr. Shah-Kazemi's talk is 10 min. 59 sec. long.
From the Christian side, James S. Cutsinger's talk, Hesychia, An Orthodox Opening to Esoteric Ecumenism, deals with the same challenge taken up by Reza Shah-Kazemi: How can a believer discern real Truth within another faith while staying true to his or her own system of belief? Shah-Kazemi indicates that the Quran itself may offer some answers. Cutsinger suggests that there may be another way, one of "esoteric ecumenism," a term taken from the writing of Frithjof Schuon.
The selected clip of Cutsinger's talk defines the term "esoteric ecumenism" and reveals much of the Perennialist perspective in dealing with difficult problems of this type. Cutsinger also highlights the critical importance of answering this question well in order to avoid the denaturing tendencies of modernism when trying to reconcile two different faiths, as well as to avoid the exclusivist reactions of fundamentalism that fuel misunderstanding and even hatred.
The audio clip of Prof. Cutsinger's talk is 11 min. 28 sec. long.
The Paths to the Heart conference finished with a panel of most of the presenters discussing a number of intriguing questions put to them by the organizer of the conference, James S. Cutsinger. We have included the panel discussion in its entirety, broken into four sections presented in this and the subsequent three slides.
The questions asked of the panel in this clip and the presenters who offered responses to them are listed below, sometimes in shortened form:
Do Islam and Sufism believe in the sanctification of the human body as do Christianity and Hesychasm? Response from: Seyyed Hossein Nasr
How are hesychia, and Hesychasm in general, to be distinguished from quietism? Response from: Bishop Kallistos Ware
Does Sufism have an idea comparable to that of the Bodhisattva in Buddhism? Response from: Nasr
Is it "diabolical" for the invoker to seek an identity outside of the invocation? Response from: Ware
Is there anything similar in Sufism to the Christian Eucharist? Response from: Nasr
Is the Christian view of salvation for Muslims as charitable as how the Muslim view seems to be towards Christians? Responses from: Reza Shah-Kazemi and Ware
The audio clip of this part of the panel discussion is 16 min. 30 sec. long.
The questions asked of the panel in this clip and the presenters who offered responses to them are listed below, sometimes in shortened form:
Must Muslims adopt a somewhat Trinitarian view in order to account for how God can be seen "talking with Adam"? Response from: Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Is the uniqueness of Christ, as given in the Quran, sufficient for Christians who wish also to emphasize Christ's uniqueness? Response from: Bishop Kallistos Ware
Must not an apophatic approach be applied to 'understanding' Christian formulations of the Trinity? Response from: Ware
When the Hesychasts are taught to lay aside all "thoughts," are they not being taught that in some sense they must lay aside "definitions" as well? Responses from: Ware and Vincent Rossi
The audio clip of this part of the panel discussion is 14 min. 08 sec. long.
The question asked of the panel in this clip and the presenters who offered responses to it are listed below, sometimes in shortened form:
Could the panelists elaborate further on the "hardening of hearts" which has led to the polarity of modernism and fundamentalism, specifically in light of the recent attacks on modernism by fundamentalism on September 11? Responses from: Reza Shah-Kazemi, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Huston Smith
The audio clip of this part of the panel discussion is 14 min. 32 sec. long.
