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AR 25:8 - Islam's 40 years of "doom and decay" in the Middle East
In this issue:
EVANGELICALISM - what's behind the label?
ISLAM - "a superbly researched and subtly told story - current history at its best"
ROMAN CATHOLICISM - simmering since 2013, a tale of two present-day popes now threatens the Holy See
Apologia Report 25:8 (1,465)
February 27, 2020
EVANGELICALISM
Christianity Today's editors ask (Jan 27 '20) "What Does 'Evangelical' Mean?" and discuss "key distinctives of evangelical belief, identity, and spirituality" -- always an important question ... but even more so, now that mainstream news reports increasingly label highly cultic groups like "La Luz del Mundo" <www.bit.ly/2T4Xx9e> and the "Misión Israelita del Nuevo Pacto Universal" as "evangelical."
The piece opens: "What does it mean to be evangelical? The term, without a doubt, is widely misunderstood and frequently misrepresented. In recent years, the term evangelical has become highly politicized, invoked to describe a voting bloc or as a blanket label for those with conservative or, perhaps, fundamentalist views. Meanwhile, some from within the movement have dropped the label or left evangelicalism entirely, coining the moniker exvangelical."
What follows is an annotated listing of related items that have appeared in past CT issues touching on such topics as:
* - the "central characteristics of authentic evangelicalism"
* - how evangelicals are "defined by their beliefs"
* - how evangelicals might embrace justice "while holding to central doctrines of the faith"
* - how one writer "believes 'preserving my theological identity obliges me to redeem the term [evangelical] and unpack the movement's baggage'"
* - the understanding "that evangelicalism - a movement that by definition must be centered on the evangel, or 'gospel' - is a global movement that spans many cultures"
* - evangelical's "engagement with the Bible and their view of it as 'absolutely authoritative and trustworthy'"
* - how "there's much more to our hermeneutic" than our agreement on the 'divine inspiration, integrity, and authority of the Bible'"
* - why "we must clearly define ourselves lest others do it in ways we would not prefer" <www.bit.ly/2T95fiq>
* - and last, the option to "stop calling yourself 'evangelical' because you're *frustrated with the polls*" (i.e., "the impulse to break with other Christians because you disagree with them") - or perhaps, it is referring to frustration with my wife and I - RP
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ISLAM
"Islam against itself" sums up the recent book by Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion and Collective Memory in the Middle East [1]. In AR 25:5 <www.bit.ly/2v8uIA4> we briefly mentioned the review by Josef Joffe in the Wall Street Journal (Jan 27 '20) and felt it deserving of more attention.
"In the first line of Black Wave, Kim Ghattas raises the question that haunts the Muslim realm: 'What happened to us?' It recalls a famous line ("What went wrong?") by Bernard Lewis, the great Middle East historian [2]. There are two ways, he argued, in which cultures and nations deal with doom and decay. The first is to ask: 'What did we do wrong?' - triggering self-scrutiny and self-help. The second: 'Who did this to us?'
"No. 2 is a classic from Algeria to Afghanistan. It was 'them' who did us in. The culprits are colonialism, then Western domination and the Yahud, the Jew. It is a tale of conspiracy and victimization. Ms. Ghattas, a Lebanese-born journalist who has worked for the BBC and the Financial Times, lays out a story that whispers: We did it to ourselves.
"The book is packed with accounts of ambition, treachery and cruelty—with a wealth of historical detail down to the hour of the day. ... She paints riveting portraits of the protagonists: the murderous zealots, and the reformers who preached moderation until they were exiled or murdered. ...
"Colonialism-as-culprit cannot quite explain democratic India, nor the spectacular rise of China, once a playground of empires. Nor can it explain the tragedy of postcolonial independence. Two generations of self-rule may not suffice to embed liberal democracy. But what about implanting the seeds of peaceful change and economic growth not based on oil?
"The subtitle of Black Wave puts it concisely: 'Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion and Collective Memory in the Middle East.' Extend the list, as the author does, to include Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan, plus non-state actors like the PLO, ISIS and sundry terror groups." Joffe summarizes the sequence succinctly.
"The question 'What happened to us?' leads the first and the concluding chapters. The pages in between limn a dispiriting answer: We happened to us. To avoid the charge of 'Orientalism,' a perspective said to downgrade Arab-Islamic culture, the author refuses to end on a dissonant note. Almost in an afterthought, she fingers the outside world: 'Far too many progressive minds in the wider Middle East have been left to fend for themselves.' True. They were 'bludgeoned to death by forces ... that most often served Western interests.' Not quite, unless ISIS and Hezbollah, Syria's Assad or Iran's Khamenei are cast as lackeys of the West.
"Such an invocation of Western guilt is a minor blemish when compared to a superbly researched and subtly told story - current history at its best." <www.on.wsj.com/36U3NFD>
For more on reform in Islam from our past issues, visit <www.bit.ly/37Ra7yR>
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ROMAN CATHOLICISM
In "Can the Roman Catholic Church Survive Two Popes?," Leonardo De Chirico reviews "the chaos that ensued after Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013: his resignation left the Roman Catholic Church with one reigning pope (Francis) and a former living pope (Benedict) who still speaks, acts, and intervenes in ecclesiastical matters. ...
"The fact that Benedict wanted to keep his title as pope (adding 'emeritus') - as well as his white papal robe (a symbol of the papal office) and his residence inside the Vatican—indicated that, in spite of his pledge to remain silent for the rest of his days, the cohabitation between two popes would result in conflict.
"Sure enough, there's now wide polarization between supporters of Francis and Benedict - certainly beyond the intentions of both.
"The present turmoil surfaced in 2019. Both popes spoke on the sexual abuses committed in the Roman Church, but they took different positions. ...
"Two popes, two radically different interpretations of and solutions for the corruption within their church.
"More recently, a power struggle erupted between the popes. The Francis party pushed for changes in areas such as the readmission of the divorced to the Eucharist and the extension of the priesthood to married men; the Benedict party resisted those changes, denouncing them as heresies and confusions. ...
"The latest episode [involves] a forthcoming book [by Cardinal Robert Sarah, a prominent member of the traditionalist front, and] Pope Benedict [3]. ... The work is a heartfelt cry, seasoned with theological acumen, to maintain the traditional Roman Catholic doctrine and practice of priestly celibacy.
"The book arose out of fears that after the 2019 Synod <www.bit.ly/37ZBgil> for the Pan-Amazon region, Francis will allow some married men to access the priesthood."
De Chirico summarizes the contrasts "the tension between the 'Roman' Benedict and the 'Catholic' Francis" including how "Admitting divorced members to the Eucharist, fudging on traditional opposition to homosexuality, and extending the priesthood to married men have been perceived as the pope's latest (and dangerous) 'Catholic' moves that run contrary to the Roman tradition."
De Chirico also describes how, "If this situation remains unresolved, it will undermine the institution of the papacy" and the fears of "a two-party political system in the manner of an ordinary parliamentary monarchy." Stay tuned. <www.bit.ly/37P2h87>
Very much worth mentioning: On April 1st, 2018 (an auspicious date for doing so), the Rome-based Dr. De Chirico posted "The Intellectual Journey of J.M. Bergoglio, Now Pope Francis" for his Vatican Files blog - which he describes as a collection of "Evangelical Theological Perspectives on Roman Catholicism." <www.bit.ly/2VaZeVb>
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion and Collective Memory in the Middle East, by Kim Ghattas (Henry Holt, 2020, hardcover, 400 pages) <www.amzn.to/2SbW4xg>
2 - What Went Wrong? The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East, by Bernard Lewis (Oxford, 2001, hardcover, 192 pages) <www.amzn.to/2VsEcBl>
3 - From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, by Benedict XVI and Robert Cardinal Sarah (Ignatius, March 2020, hardcover, 152 pages) <www.amzn.to/3c1LT7J>
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