St Paul and Mohammad have much to teach anyone involved in Christian-Muslim dialogue today because of their famous conversions.That's the view of Paul Heck, a professor of theology at Georgetown University, who gave a talk at the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome on May 20th. For Professor Heck, the conversions of St Paul and Mohammad, although different, can be powerful models for others. He believes they teach mankind that the initiative to convert comes from God's kindness. This, in turn, leads a person to accepting God's Lordship which then overcomes boundaries and challenges others to look beyond their own communities.Heck stressed that neither Paul nor Mohammad shopped around for communities to join, but first and foremost turned to God. He therefore argues that conversion is not primarily about leaving one community to join another, winning converts or becoming the prize of one particular community. Nor, he believes, is it even about loyalty to that community. Rather it's about accepting the Lordship of God – a fact that can unite both Muslims and Christians. “I think for converts today should be careful because sometimes the communities say: “Ah-ah! We have a prize, we are the winning team, look we have a convert. We are winning.” And sometimes the convert is being pulled into this but  the convert has to remember his own or her own experience, that their conversion wasn't about this idea but more that I am turning to God.” To back up his point, Heck gave examples of two recent converts: a Muslim who became a Christian, and an American Christian who became a Muslim. They both looked beyond their own newly found religious identities and turned towards God first. On this basis, he believes Christians and Muslims have something profound in common, and something they can teach one another, namely about the “lordship of God”. He believes this is also a better framework for dialogue than discussing religious freedom.“We have different ideas about freedom but we are both committed to conversion, we both believe that we have to turn to God. So I think this could be one way. It's a big discussion, there are many issues, but this is one perspective.”   http://en.pisai.it/ 

St Paul and Mohammad have much to teach anyone involved in Christian-Muslim dialogue today because of their famous conversions.That's the view of Paul Heck, a professor of theology at Georgetown...leggi tutto