Time Immortal

Raw courage from a group of Danish priests:

84 priests in the Danish church wrote an open letter, about the contrasts between Islam and Christianity. They say the two Religions don’t have much in common. The letter follows a letter written by the Danish Church Council in response to a ‘call for dialog’ from Muslim organizations.

The parish priests stress that Christians and Muslims don’t talk about the same God. The signatories think that the council’s letter had gone too far concerning the theological and ethical bands between Christianity and Islam, and say that the two religions are rather opposites of each other.

Theologist Katrine Winkel Holm and parish priest Jesper Bacher, both members of the Islam-critical Network (Islamkritisk Netværk), were the initiators of the new open letter. There are different opinions on coexistence between Christianity and Islam among Danish theologists. The signatories on the new letter come from across the religious spectrum.

As to whether Allah (in the Islamic sense) and God (in the Christian understanding) are actually the same divinity, I remain undecided (although I suspect that the “yes” answer will bear out).

Looking at the issue purely based on the respective theologies, though, there is no way anyone can conclude that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, and it’s great that these priests have seen fit to bring that truth to light, even if the Koran does have a few lies and half-truths about Jesus within its pages.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!