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Re: orion Re: Response to Harrison
On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Paul Sodtke wrote:
> > I merely wished to point out that in any politics of
> >supersessionism, Islam has the superior claim. Perhaps I might sight
> >my own teacher of Islam, al-Farukhi, who made this very point in an
> >ecumenical discussion some twenty years ago.
> >Thomas
>
> True. (And, I suppose, Baha'i has a still higher claim of supersessionism,
> if I understand it correctly). I guess I was thinking of an earlier
> reference in your previous post to "ethnocentrism." I'm sure you would
> agree that it is the religious extremists of all varieties who most deserve
> that label.
The matter is more complex. Both Christianity and Islam employ a
supersessionist rhetoric to claim to possess the fullest historical
revelation of God. Christianity employs this in relation to Judaism;
Islam in relation to both Judaism and Christianity. BUT--in confonting
claims to possess prophetic revelation subsequent to the founding
revelation of the community, BOTH Christianity and Islam adopt a Judaic
rhetoric that links the authority of orthodoxy to its antiquity. This is
how the early Church dealt with Montanist prophecy and such subsequent
"heresies" as Mormonism, as well as with Islam itself. And this is the
position of Islam in relation to its own home-grown "heresies" such as
Bahai.
In sum: with regard to claiming the prophetic uniqueness and
completeness of one's own revelation the general rhetorical rule
is--whatever works.
M Jaffee