Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective

2. Development and Spread

49 Chapter 1 traced two large formative themes in the histories of Islam and Christianity. In their respective histories of exegesis, the traditions exhibit the immense richness and variety of ways in which Christians and Muslims have approached their sacred sources. Narratives enshrining persons and events regarded as essential foundations of the traditions represent their earliest implicitly theological constructions. The present chapter moves beyond the foundational texts and early history to examine the gradual internal differentiation and external expansion that have made Islam and Christianity truly global faith communities. communities, pluralism, and the faith traditions Diversity in interpretation of sacred texts is only one of many types of evidence of theological variety in the two traditions. Questions of authentic membership in their respective communities of faith have been important concerns for both Christian and Muslim sources since very early in their histories . I begin here with a look at some of the earliest ways of distinguishing authentic members of the faith communities from those who do not belong. Who Is a “Christian”? As the Acts of the Apostles indicates, the earliest followers (the “disciples”) of Jesus were first called Christians in the city of Antioch, near Syria’s chapter 2 Development and Spread 50 | Historical Dimensions Mediterranean coast (Acts 11:26). These first missionaries considered themselves responsible for spreading the core teachings of Jesus beyond the original Jewish matrix in which the Teacher had begun to disseminate his message. Since virtually all of the earliest disciples were themselves Jews, questions naturally arose early on about the degree to which the missionaries should emphasize—or allow—ritual and conceptual continuity between the old and new. These questions emerged in increasingly sharp relief as the young Christian community’s outreach introduced the teachings of Jesus to communities either not previously Jewish or already long shaped by Hellenistic culture. Mission to the Gentiles, non-Jews, with all the attendant challenges of introducing unusual concepts to a public unfamiliar with biblical traditions, became the larger purpose of the early Christian leadership. A faction called the Judaizers played a formative role in the definition of the early Christian community. Among the divisive issues that confronted the earliest Christians were questions about the persistence of Jewish practices associated with Mosaic law. These questions included both the degree to which non-Jewish converts ought to be required to subscribe to Mosaic ritual prescriptions (e.g., can one eat meat offered to idols, or of animals killed by strangulation?) and initiatory rites such as circumcision. At the heart of the matter was the complex process of characterizing relationships between Jewish and Gentile converts to the new faith tradition.1 Christian theologians call “ecclesiology” the dimension of their faith traditions that seeks to define the global and historical community as a “church.” For some, the topic includes aspects of practical governance often dubbed church polity. Tradition came to identify the Universal Church formally as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” A distinctively Christian feature in this context is the sacramental character of formal membership signified by the ritual of baptism. Rituals of election or spiritual legitimation were integral to the Jewish religious life of Jesus’ time. Indeed, sanctification by water was the hallmark ritual of the ministry of John the Baptist (whom Christian tradition sometimes identifies as the last Old Testament prophet). A key rite of passage that launched Jesus’ own public ministry was his acceptance of baptism at the hands of John. Patristic authors, beginning with the Apostolic Fathers, discussed various sacramental dimensions of baptism. They generally agreed that the ritual forgave sins, sealed individuals as members of the body of Christ, and brought the baptized into union with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Christians discerned in the ritual “types” of baptism in such biblical moments as the flood, crossing the Red Sea, and the ablutions of the Old Law. Most Development and Spread | 51 importantly, baptism symbolized the individual’s reception of the Holy Spirit. Christian authors were of various minds as to how (immersion or pouring) and when (in infancy, youth, or adulthood) one ought to be baptized; whether converts from heretical sects needed to be rebaptized; and to what extent symbolic baptisms of blood (martyrdom) or profound repentance (desire) sufficed for salvation. During medieval times, Scholastic theologians further debated such questions as baptism’s validity if conferred by a faithless minister, the nature of the “character” imprinted on...