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  • Muslims and Christians Praying Together, or Not:Some Observations on German Protestant Attitudes toward Common Prayer*
  • Alfons Teipen (bio) and Alex Pumphrey (bio)
Keywords

EKD, common prayer, EKD 77, EKD 86, Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD and Islam, Islam in Germany, theology of hospitality, Christians and Muslims, Evangelical Church in Germany, Jews, Miroslav Volf

One of the “big questions” often raised by Christian students in many of the religion classes taught here at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, is whether Christians, Muslims, and Jews pray to the same God. While more conservative Protestant American students struggle to answer the question one way or another, others do not take too long to respond to the question in the affirmative. This past year, a Syrian Christian student was perplexed that one would even raise such a question; of course we are praying to the same God—Allah in Arabic means nothing more than “the God,” and all three Abrahamic religions worship the same God.

As we live in an increasingly religiously plural world, where our best friends, colleagues, and neighbors are adherents of different religious traditions, the desire to pray together with them is becoming ever more pronounced. While learning about the faith of our neighbors and friends enriches our understanding of their worldview, praying with them enriches our spiritual horizons and can aid in our appreciation of the mystery we call “God.” Indeed, according to Leonard Swidler’s “Dialogue Decalogue,” praying together is an example of the “depth or ‘spiritual’ dimension (of dialogue) where we attempt to experience the partner’s religion or ‘ideology’ from within” and thus “discern values in the partner’s tradition.”1

In the contemporary German context, numerous examples exist of instances of common prayer, often reported in the local press.2 Yet, on the level of theology, various documents of the Protestant churches in Germany (die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, hereafter EKD) are raising questions about the possibility and feasibility of such common prayers. In particular, documents issued by the EKD after the tragic events of September11, 2001, suggest that the attitude of the EKD has toughened on the question of whether Christians can pray together with Muslims. This hardening is regrettable, as it comes at a time when Muslims in Germany have felt more and more excluded; it is also theologically problematic, particularly when compared to the relative ease with which Christian-Jewish common prayers have [End Page 143] been declared possible and desirable. While ultimately any human explanation of God and God’s acceptance of prayer must be but preliminary, an outright rejection of the possibility of common prayer is theologically arrogant, as it puts limits on a limitless God. Furthermore, a theology of hospitality demands a Christian duty to hope3 for the possibility, and also expresses the desirability, of common prayer among all three Abrahamic religions.

The EKD and Islam

While the EKD’s engagement with Islam has spanned a few decades, and while the EKD has issued multiple documents to guide Protestant Christians in their interaction with Muslims, documents from before and after the horrific events of 9/11 are particularly telling in the way that they reflect the EKD’s shifting stance on Islam. Regretfully, the EKD’s overall attitude toward Islam since 2001 has hardened, yet fortunately some documents of recent vintage issued by regional Protestant churches in Germany have become more inclusive and welcoming of common prayer with Muslims. Thankfully, there is no “singular Protestant position”4 of the Protestant churches of Germany, and one hopes a more inclusive and open attitude toward Islam and Muslims will prevail in German Protestant thinking.

2000

A year prior to the 9/11 attacks, the EKD had issued their first, extensive document, “Living together with Muslims in Germany: Fashioning Christian Encounters with Muslims.” Overall, the document is measured in its approach toward Islam; already the introduction cautions that equating Islam with Islamism and fanatical ideas provides a distorted picture and that much of Islam is practiced in “devoted piety and peaceful humanness.”5 As we will see, this is a much more differentiated characterization of Islam than in the 2006 document (hereafter, EKD 86). Likewise, the question about whether Christians...

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