Aquinas Lecture discusses interfaith conversation

Intermountain Catholic

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Holy Cross Sister Marianne Farina delivers the annual Aquinas Lecture on ?Christian-Muslim Relations: A Peaceable Excellence.? She compared Saint Thomas Aquinas and Hamid Al-Ghazali and spoke of the ways in which we can engage in respectful conversation after understanding fundamental principles.IC photo by Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Holy Cross Sister Marianne Farina presented a model for achieving genuine interfaith conversation and friendship between Christians and Muslims at the Aquinas Lecture at Saint Catherine of Siena Parish and Newman Center Jan. 25. This has become imperative in the effort to restore global peace.

Sr. Marianne is a professor at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology of Berkeley, Calif.

The main focus in Sr. Marianne’s current writings is comparing Saint Thomas Aquinas’ virtues to the virtue theories of cross-religious traditions. She is developing courses to increase the ability for all of us to engage in respectful conversation with those of different faiths.

"I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us as a faith community, and as a group here in Salt Lake City to think of ways that you and I can help cultivate peace and help us to grow in our understanding of who we are and who we can be together," said Sr. Marianne. "This is what I call the idea of a peaceable excellence. Can we imagine what it means for Christians and Muslims together to investigate our sacred past? To look at our traditions, and value our value, and within that create a world of better understanding and greater peace?

"I titled my talk ‘Christian-Muslim Dialogue: A Peaceable Excellence.’ "We are certainly living in remarkable times," said Sr. Marianne. "There have been changes in the administration, events, crises; yet some things remain the same. This past December, we commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was a sobering occasion because this important project is still unfinished.

"People in our local communities and throughout the world continue to struggle to secure basic rights," said Sr. Marianne. "The divide between the wealthy and the poor nations worsened, and the ongoing disparities and regional conflicts threaten the lives of so many.

"In recent years, some theorists have placed the blame for these conditions on religion and its extremist movements," said Sr. Marianne. "Yet others have noted faith communities are the system in preventing violence, defending human rights, and restoring right relationships within society. In fact over the last 40 years, we have seen religious leaders working together to promote education and social development in local and regional settings."

Sr. Marianne said since the 1990s, we have also seen the growth of new projects called "Religious Peace Building." These programs move beyond practical humanitarian concerns because they create communities of concern that engage in transformative action. The foundation for this religious peace building is to learn about the other, and through this process discover bridges of mutual understanding and the peaceable excellence which God has ordained for all creation.

Sr. Marianne said this is what Thomas Aquinas meant when he described the just and compassionate actions of Christians following the presets of charity – to love God and neighbor as fully as possible needs to possess the gift of wisdom so that we become peace builders. "Blessed are the peace makers."

"As Aquinas states, ‘It belongs to charity to be at peace, but it belongs to wisdom to make peace by setting things in order,’" said Sr. Marianne. "The model for the order, according to Acquinas, is God, who is peace."

Sr. Marianne said our pursuit of knowledge and love connects us to God’s work, the attribute of divine peace. Aquinas maintains that knowledge of God’s existence, natural theology, is available to everyone, for example in Hebrew Scripture, the Bible, and the Qur’an. Aquinas believed that science, philosophy, and theology are pathways to understand God’s governance of the world and therein discover wisdom. Aquinas suggested the pedagogy for this was conversation and that these dialogues can help us to realize true freedom. A freedom for excellence, happiness with God, and all others of God.

"How practical is this?" asked Sr. Marianne. "Aquinas based this idea on John 15:15 ‘I no longer call you servants, I call you friends,’ because the secrets of the Qur’an, knowledge and love, and the father are unifying, a co-naturality in which we realize God’s providence and God’s wisdom. This is an experience in which we become more in the image of God and where we are given the gift of eternal life – perfect happiness, which can only be fulfilled in the life to come."

Sr. Marianne said Aquinas in his day offered counsel to leaders of his day and through his writings helped initiate reform of religious and secular institutions.

Sr. Marianne said we look at Al-Ghazali to understand the Muslim tradition. Al-Ghazali spoke of the unity of God. He was a successful teacher of Islamic law and much sought-after advisor to political rulers. Using teachings from the Qur’an, experience of the Muslim community, and philosophical principles, Al-Ghazali offered recommendations for maintaining political order in accordance with Islamic law.

Al-Ghazali’s solution to the social and political crisis of his day was to restore faith and right relations in the community based on the intuitive knowledge of God and love for God. Describing perfect happiness for human beings as partaking in the vision of God in heaven, Al-Ghazali teaches that reaching this goal requires that Muslims become attentive to God’s presence in their lives through the science of Taqwa, developing God consciousness. Believers come to realize that perfect happiness is nearness to God when they reflect on the teachings of the Qur’an and put them into practice.

Sr. Marianne said Al-Ghazali teaches that practice begins with shaping interior motivations of the heart in ways that believers participate in their worship and carry out their social responsibilities with a desire for God. Believers engage in these actions not simply through obedience to divine demands, but as a voluntary ascent of trust in God’s plan for all creation. As trust of God deepens, so does love.

"Al-Ghazali proposed three fundamentals that were critical to moral development and the service of education for the mission of his moral development," said Sr. Marianne. "The first is knowledge, the second, development of the intellect, and third, the following of one’s conscience.

"There are four types of knowledge. Knowledge of self, knowledge of God, knowledge of this world as it really is, and knowledge of the next world," said Sr. Marianne. "The second stage is our emotions, the transformations of our affections, clarity about our nature, and the realities that we experience. Al-Ghazali said human perfection resides in that the love of God should be the ultimate perfection conquering the heart, and through that developing relationship with one another. These relationships are manifest with actions because acts exhibit values. Through our actions we move closer to God and to others.

"I would suggest that the virtue theories of both the Christian and Muslim traditions offer us important resources and guidance for cultivating peace," said Sr. Marianne. "The theological virtue theories of Aquinas and Al-Ghazali emerged from an understanding of peace as a participation in a harmony of being, a journey toward God, and a deepening of solidarity with others by means of an ongoing commitment through learning discernment, and action. Friendship with God means a love for God and for the common good that allows love and makes us capable of realizing a peaceable excellence."

Sr. Marianne said those who seek an intimacy with God are also responsible citizens in the community and greater society. The motivation for interreligious dialogue is practical. It is important to befriend a stranger, to learn about communities around us.

Sr. Marianne said through peaceable excellence, we have a common destiny. Religions can be houses of hospitality. In fact, we as a Catholic community see religion as mothers and teachers, and instruments of peace, as protectors of human dignity, as a light to the nation, as joy and hope through service, and a community called to greater unity.

Sr. Marianne said Vatican II released statements on ecumenism and in terms of unity, a Decree on Eastern Catholic Churches. We see the need to engage in interfaith, interreligious dialogue in our Pastoral Constitution.

"Nostra Aetate ‘in our times’ was born out of the reality of the fact that we are a world Church engaged in world society," said Sr. Marianne. "Pope John Paul II promoted the idea through his encyclicals that what we are about is Theocentric Humanism, an idea that God’s mercy should be noble and engaged, and no matter what religion, we are all committed to this unifying work of the spirit. It is a great promotion of the idea of solidarity."