Edited Volumes by Christian Krokus
Theological essays in honor of Boston College professor Frederick Lawrence, by his former doctora... more Theological essays in honor of Boston College professor Frederick Lawrence, by his former doctoral students. Forthcoming soon from Marquette University Press.
Papers by Christian Krokus
Journal of ecumenical studies, Sep 22, 2012
Nile Harper and associates, Journeys into Justice." Religious Collaboratives Working for Soc... more Nile Harper and associates, Journeys into Justice." Religious Collaboratives Working for Social Transformation. Minneapolis, MN: Bascom Hill Publishing Group, 2009. Pp. 352. $18.95, paper. Tradition and Pluralism: Essays in Honor of William M. Shea. Edited by Kenneth L. Parker, Peter A. Huff, and Michael J. G. Pahls. Studies in Religion and the Social Order. Lanham, MD, and Plymouth, U.K.: University Press of America, 2009. Pp. 370. $53.00, paper. Journeys into Justice presents ten case studies, each focused upon the history and goals of a religious collaborative, which the authors define as "a voluntary association of organizations coming together around the common religious values that enable the creation of trust and the sharing of human and financial resources over a sustained period of time in order to accomplish significant goals for the public common good that no one group could achieve by itself' (p. 20). The book is entirely practical in its aims. Harper notes, "The most meaningful way to learn about religious collaboration is by participation in a collaborative" (p. 328). The collaboratives are located in Ann Arbor, Shreveport, Chicago, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Atlanta, St. Louis, Tucson, Nogales, Albuquerque, and Cleveland; one strength of the book is its focus on the local. Some of the studies are more narrative, while others read too much like a summary report to a board of directors; however, each effectively presents the history, aims, successes, and failures of creative religious-public partnerships designed to support the most needy. Although Harper authors many of the studies, others are written either by the founder or a person significantly involved in the functioning of that particular collaborative. In his conclusion, Harper draws together lessons learned from the ten cases, including common themes, obstacles, and best practices, with the intention of aiding those who would found new or strengthen existing collaboratives. Harper's descriptions, at times, lack critical distance (e.g., at least two of the projects are described as "truly amazing"), and there are some grammatical and orthographic errors (e.g., "created from one ssence"). But the book should serve its intended audience well, even providing websites and contact information in an appendix for further consultation (pp. 43, 110, 266). It is hard to imagine how the book would be useful in a classroom. The essays in Tradition and Pluralism are more scholarly and more reflective, and, as the book's subtitle declares, they honor the work of William (Bill) M. Shea, the Catholic intellectual who has spent his career at the Catholic University of America, the University of South Florida, St. Louis University, and the College of the Holy Cross. …
Thesis advisor: Frederick G. LawrenceThere are two aspects, and thus two aims, of the dissertatio... more Thesis advisor: Frederick G. LawrenceThere are two aspects, and thus two aims, of the dissertation. Primarily, the dissertation is an interpretation. It seeks to understand Louis Massignon's understanding of Islam as it developed across three stages of his life and work. Secondarily, the dissertation is methodological. It takes Massignon's experience as a test-case and attempts to show that, as a possibly relevant hypothesis, his understanding of Islam warrants further attention by contemporary theologians working on Catholic-Islamic dialogue, Catholic-Islamic comparative theology, and Catholic theologies of Islam. The dissertation consists of six chapters. The first is an introduction to the questions and the relevant secondary literature. In it I establish the work of Massignon, primarily a scholar of Islam, on the relationship of Islam to the Catholic Church as theological, that is, as faith seeking understanding, and as conversational, that is, as constitutive communication. In Chapter Two, I establish Massignon's Catholic beliefs and examine his early and fairly traditional position on the question of Islam's relationship to the Catholic Church. I focus primarily on his apologetic treatise, Examen du &ldquoPr&eacutesent de l'homme lettr&eacute&rdquo par Abdallah ibn al-Torjoman (1917), in which he presents the contrast between the Christian and Islamic apologetics in stark terms, arguing for the superiority of the Christian position at every turn. I argue that the Examen should be read less as a condemnation of Islam than as an articulation of Massignon's Catholic beliefs. In Chapter Three, I examine &ldquoL'h&eacutegire d'Ismaël,&rdquo the second of Les trois pri&egraveres d'Abraham (1935), in which Massignon articulates what the secondary literature has called his five-point credo of Islam, namely, that the God of the Muslims is the same as the God of the Jews and Christians, the Qur'an is in some sense inspired and retains a conditional authority, Muhammad is sincere and can be understood as a negative prophet, Islam has a positive mission in the divine economy of salvation vis-à-vis the Church and Israel, and Arabic, the language of revelation in Islam, has a particular spiritual vocation. This represents the second stage of his life and work. In Chapter Four, after considering the possible (and likely) influence that Massignon's work exerted on the statements on Islam in Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate as proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council, I establish the bases for a nascent Massignonian Catholic theology of Islam, whereby the two religions enjoy a complementary relationship such that the Church knows and communicates explicitly what remains implicit in Islam, while Islam provokes the Church toward greater fidelity, charity, and hospitality. In Chapter Five, I turn to the third stage of Massignon's life and work in which he was increasingly concerned to establish practical means for encouraging Muslim-Catholic understanding. I focus on the Badaliya Annual Letters (1947-1962) in which he articulates the philosophy of the Badaliya prayer sodality that he co-founded for the purpose of interiorizing the rites of Islam and praying with and for Muslims. I focus on Massignon's understanding of substitute mysticism, which I argue is actually an expanded understanding of Redemption such that through participation in what Massignon calls the secret of history, and what Bernard Lonergan, S.J. would call the Law of the Cross, the saints of Christianity and Islam (and other religions) knowingly or unknowingly participate in the saving mission of Jesus Christ. At the conclusion to each main body chapter I suggest possible lessons that one might draw from Massignon's engagement with Islam at that particular stage, and in Chapter Six I summarize the findings and the limitations of the dissertation and suggest possible lines of further enquiry.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Journal of ecumenical studies, Sep 22, 2012
Louis Massignon (1883-1962) has been called "the single most influential figure [in the twen... more Louis Massignon (1883-1962) has been called "the single most influential figure [in the twentieth century] in regard to the church's relationship with Islam." (1) He is responsible, among Catholics, for designating Islam an "Abrahamic Faith,"(2) and there is growing consensus among scholars that his tireless research, esteem for Islam and for Muslims, and cultivation of key students in Islamic studies largely prepared the way for the positive vision of Islam articulated in Lumen gentium and Nostra aetate at the Second Vatican Council. (3) His efforts have inspired not only academic but also spiritual initiatives in Christian-Muslim dialogue, (4) and his name continues to be associated with projects dedicated to hospitality, to justice, and to concern for the immigrant or stranger, all virtues central to his project. (5) Less well known are Massignon's reflections on religions outside the Abrahamic community, especially his indebtedness in the last years of his life to the work and activism of M. K. Gandhi (1869-1948), a man he considered a saint. There is no doubt about the centrality of Gandhi in Massignon's life. As Mary Louise Gude noted, "if Charles de Foucauld had exemplified how to live out the radical faith which had first attracted Massignon to Hallaj, the life of Mahatma Gandhi demonstrated how to integrate such a faith with the struggle for political and social justice." (6) In this sense, it was fitting that Guy Harpigny referred to the final years of Massignon's life and work as his "Gandhian cycle." (7) Therefore, drawing upon Massignon's several texts on Gandhi and building upon an earlier piece by Paolo Dall'Oglio, this essay focuses on the complicated dynamics of the invocation of Gandhi, an Indian Hindu, by Massignon, a French Latin (later Melkite) Catholic who was concerned for Catholic-Muslim understanding, in his later writings. (8) It does so in seven sections. After providing as background a brief account of Massignon's meetings with Gandhi, I address two aspects of Gandhi's program that particularly inspired Massignon, namely, his emphasis on the notion of "vow" and his efforts toward interreligious fraternity. (9) Because Gandhi was working toward Hindu-Muslim fraternity, and because it was largely Gandhi's hospitality toward Muslims that endeared him to Massignon, I next include a few words about Gandhi's connections to Islam and then examine the key attribute of God for which both Gandhi and Massignon, through Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, expressed keen devotion, namely, truth. I then address Gandhi's actual lived Hinduism vis-a-vis Massignon's efforts to see in Gandhi a monotheist, perhaps even a sort of latent Muslim. Finally, I conclude by acknowledging the limitations of Massignon's "orientalism" but assert that one can still draw lessons from the Massignon-Gandhi relationship about the potential for affirming some, if not all, of the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of one's interreligious interlocutors. My overarching concern is to establish how it was that "Louis Massignon ..., in his final years, found in Mahatma Gandhi ... a complete and complementary expression of his own views on a truly 'evangelical' attitude towards Islam, in the framework of a comprehensive view of the entire history of humanity." (l0) I. Background Massignon first learned about Gandhi in 1919 when some Indian Muslim students presented him with the text of Gandhi's Satyagraha pledge. Massignon was so struck by it that he asked Jacques Maritain to publish it, and he even reproduced it himself in 1921 in the journal he edited, Revue du Monde Musulman, "showing its main accordance with Islam." (11) Massignon finally met Gandhi at Paris twice in 1931, and then, on a trip to India in 1945, he tried to visit Gandhi again. However, because the latter had been imprisoned, the meeting was denied. It is clear that Massignon was profoundly affected by the example of Gandhi. He published at least five articles on his ideas or biography, and in 1954 he accepted the position of President of the Friends of Gandhi (Les Amis de Gandhi), an institution dedicated to disseminating the views of Gandhi throughout Europe. …
Journal of ecumenical studies, 2019
Journal of ecumenical studies, 2019
Theological Studies, Aug 1, 2016
Islam and Christian-muslim Relations, Jul 1, 2012
The accumulation of exegetical discoveries (i.e., the similarity between the conciliar texts and ... more The accumulation of exegetical discoveries (i.e., the similarity between the conciliar texts and his own position), testimonies, and respected opinions points to the probability that it is Louis Massignon's vision that dominates the Roman Catholic Church's statements regarding Islam in Lumen gentium and Nostra aetate. Although many commentators agree with that assessment, the concrete historical connections between Massignon and the conciliar pronouncements are not yet explained in sufficient detail. Building especially on the work of Robert Caspar, Maurice Borrmans, Michael Fitzgerald, Christian Troll, Anthony O'Mahony, and Andrew Unsworth, but other authors as well, this article begins to do just that, first by reading the Vatican II statements on Islam in the light of Massignon's work, and then by organizing the human connections between Massignon and the conciliar statements according to the degree of probability that said connections had real influence.
Encyclopedia of the Bible Online, Jun 24, 2021
Theological Studies, Feb 22, 2016
Journal of Ecumenical Studies
A Companion to Comparative Theology
Concilium: Revista internacional de teología, 2020
Thesis advisor: Frederick G. LawrenceThere are two aspects, and thus two aims, of the dissertatio... more Thesis advisor: Frederick G. LawrenceThere are two aspects, and thus two aims, of the dissertation. Primarily, the dissertation is an interpretation. It seeks to understand Louis Massignon's understanding of Islam as it developed across three stages of his life and work. Secondarily, the dissertation is methodological. It takes Massignon's experience as a test-case and attempts to show that, as a possibly relevant hypothesis, his understanding of Islam warrants further attention by contemporary theologians working on Catholic-Islamic dialogue, Catholic-Islamic comparative theology, and Catholic theologies of Islam. The dissertation consists of six chapters. The first is an introduction to the questions and the relevant secondary literature. In it I establish the work of Massignon, primarily a scholar of Islam, on the relationship of Islam to the Catholic Church as theological, that is, as faith seeking understanding, and as conversational, that is, as constitutive communication. In Chapter Two, I establish Massignon's Catholic beliefs and examine his early and fairly traditional position on the question of Islam's relationship to the Catholic Church. I focus primarily on his apologetic treatise, Examen du &ldquoPr&eacutesent de l'homme lettr&eacute&rdquo par Abdallah ibn al-Torjoman (1917), in which he presents the contrast between the Christian and Islamic apologetics in stark terms, arguing for the superiority of the Christian position at every turn. I argue that the Examen should be read less as a condemnation of Islam than as an articulation of Massignon's Catholic beliefs. In Chapter Three, I examine &ldquoL'h&eacutegire d'Ismaël,&rdquo the second of Les trois pri&egraveres d'Abraham (1935), in which Massignon articulates what the secondary literature has called his five-point credo of Islam, namely, that the God of the Muslims is the same as the God of the Jews and Christians, the Qur'an is in some sense inspired and retains a conditional authority, Muhammad is sincere and can be understood as a negative prophet, Islam has a positive mission in the divine economy of salvation vis-à-vis the Church and Israel, and Arabic, the language of revelation in Islam, has a particular spiritual vocation. This represents the second stage of his life and work. In Chapter Four, after considering the possible (and likely) influence that Massignon's work exerted on the statements on Islam in Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate as proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council, I establish the bases for a nascent Massignonian Catholic theology of Islam, whereby the two religions enjoy a complementary relationship such that the Church knows and communicates explicitly what remains implicit in Islam, while Islam provokes the Church toward greater fidelity, charity, and hospitality. In Chapter Five, I turn to the third stage of Massignon's life and work in which he was increasingly concerned to establish practical means for encouraging Muslim-Catholic understanding. I focus on the Badaliya Annual Letters (1947-1962) in which he articulates the philosophy of the Badaliya prayer sodality that he co-founded for the purpose of interiorizing the rites of Islam and praying with and for Muslims. I focus on Massignon's understanding of substitute mysticism, which I argue is actually an expanded understanding of Redemption such that through participation in what Massignon calls the secret of history, and what Bernard Lonergan, S.J. would call the Law of the Cross, the saints of Christianity and Islam (and other religions) knowingly or unknowingly participate in the saving mission of Jesus Christ. At the conclusion to each main body chapter I suggest possible lessons that one might draw from Massignon's engagement with Islam at that particular stage, and in Chapter Six I summarize the findings and the limitations of the dissertation and suggest possible lines of further enquiry.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
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Edited Volumes by Christian Krokus
Papers by Christian Krokus