People Are Amazed When They Learn That Muslim Christology Exists

— Aleksej Vasilievich…at the moment, on the background of the Israel-Iran conflict and the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall everyone is talking about growing inter-religious and inter-cultural tensions. Do you agree? Are tensions growing?

— If you want to speak about my special field of study, which is the relationship between Christians and Muslims, then for the course of the entire 1400-year period there have always been tensions, despite the fact that Muslims and Christians have always been in close contact. Historically speaking, there are four Christian-Muslim regions: the Middle East, Byzantium (while it existed), Western Europe (as we now call it) that was under the Latin Church in the Middle Ages, and Russia. And in our day, practically all the regions of the world are regions of co-habitation for Muslims and Christians. And at the same time and despite tensions, Christians and Muslims have always managed to interact on some level; there is always sharing of cultural, philosophical, and theological knowledge. But yes, at present the tensions are particularly high, and for this reason we might expect some breakages in Christian-Muslim relations.

— And how does this all play out in an academic environment? 

— I teach not only at SFI. I also teach a course called “The Muslim world in Russia (History and Culture)" at the Higher School of Economics (HSE). At the HSE I have approximately the same number of non-Muslim students as I do Muslim students, and a large portion of the Muslims are practicing and observe the rule of prayer. In terms of the Faculty of Religious Studies at SFI, it also differs from the Theology Faculty, for instance, in that not all the students are Orthodox. We have atheists, agnostics, representatives of various Christian confessions, and believers of other faiths. We also have Muslims take courses here.

I don’t feel any sort of tension in my lecture halls either at HSE or at SFI. I always begin by saying to those in the audience that we are not here to teach theology, but religious studies. Thus, what I intend to do is to present students with various views of Islam – not only with views of how Muslims see their faith, but with the different schools of Eastern Studies and how each of them interprets Islam. I tell them how Christians have viewed Islam, Mohammed, the Quran, etc, over the course of history. They take in all of this well. We read and discuss various points of view that would seem entirely irrelevant from the perspective of Islamic fundamentalism, such as “The Aramaic Reading of the Quran”, by Luxembourg. We use the so-called “historical-critical” school of Islamic Studies. Nevertheless, our students read everything with interest, discuss subject matter, and sometimes argue. Sometimes there is something they don’t understand or it seems to them that there is something incompatible with their own faith. About three years ago, an Iranian student from the Ibn Sina Islamic Cultural Foundation took my course at SFI on Christian-Muslim relations. He said that it was hard for him at the beginning and that it was very strange to hear some of the things that I said. But as soon as he understood that I was speaking about different points of view he was able to engage in his studies with great interest. Subsequently he successfully passed all graduation tests and was very happy to have taken the course.

— One of the main mission goals that the Religious Studies Faculty sets for itself is to overcome social tensions that result from low levels of cultural and inter-religious communication, as well as from poor knowledge of other faith traditions. Are we managing to achieve this goal in our tiny Faculty of Religious Studies? What educational approaches are necessary to acquaint a person with a faith that is not their own?

— Our faculty is tiny, indeed. As a rule, we have 10 to 18 people studying at a time. Within the framework of a two-year continuing education course on “Religion, Culture and Society”, I teach a big course on “Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations” for an entire semester. And I have a separate specialist career enhancement course called “Christian-Muslim Relations”, which is intended to be taught over a four-month period. The first part of my course is “The Quran in the Context of Monotheistic Religions” and the second part is the primary block on “Problems in Christian-Muslim Relations”. In addition to what I teach, Margarita Vasilieva Shilkina teaches a small course on “Introduction to Christianity”, given that not only Orthodox, but also Muslims, simple unbelievers, and those who have no religious education whatsoever come to study with us. In addition, within the framework of “Christian-Muslim Relations”, there is also a small course on the practices of Muslims in modern Russia. This programme is popular every year.

On the one hand, we provide a picture of how believers themselves see their faith, whether they are Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, etc. On the other hand, we show how one or another religion is described by modern secular scholarship, i.e. Religious Studies. We would like to simply show what people believe. Therefore, we need to look for paths of understanding and ways to have common fellowship. This is how we develop that quality which some call “tolerance of faith” and others call simply “tolerance” — i.e. it takes a positive interpretation and reception of the other person who confesses a different faith. This is a very important thing in terms of the situation in the world at large and for our multi-faith country.

A small but fitting contribution to the atmosphere of mutual-acceptance and tolerance is one of our most important tasks. How can we live up to this task? I am convinced that this will come primarily as a result of learning more about one’s own faith and about other religions. The reason for the majority of misunderstandings and instances of lack of comprehension in relation to those of different faiths has to do with a catastrophic lack of knowledge and a very poor general level of training in the faith. When people learn that in the Quran much is said about the Biblical prophets such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and that it is even possible to speak of Muslim Christology and Muslim Mariology, this is a revelation to them. And, by the way, Muslims that come to us find that they learn a lot about their own faith. When your knowledge base expands, you learn that other religions — especially the Abrahamic religions — really have more common than they have wrong or unacceptable ground.

For me it is very important to demonstrate how Christians’ historical impression of Muslims and Muslims’ historical impression of Christians came to be: what caused these things, how have we developed all our false mutual stereotypes, and how we might work to overcome them. At the end of each academic year, I am happiest when my students say, “our views about Islam have drastically changed; we have understood that Islam is a religion that is close to our own and that we really do have a lot in common.”

— Why do people come to study with you? Is it for professional reasons or more likely some sort of routine request, related to everyday life?

— There is a little bit of everything. Even a single person may have multiple motivations. We live in a society where there are many Muslims and we need to have contact with them and consider how best to speak with them. Christians often experience lack of understanding from Muslims and themselves don’t understand Muslims. They may just want to learn more about this different faith and culture. And yes, some people need such knowledge in a professional capacity.

— How are entrance exams structured?

— We have an entrance interview, at which it is most important for us to understand a person’s motivation — why is a person applying for study? We give him a minimal amount of literature as preparation reading, so that he is more or less ready for the first lecture, and we speak about the goals of the course. I would underscore that we are not engaged in any sort of missionary activity and don’t desire to convert anyone to one faith or another. But we do have one unchangeable condition: if you come to study with us you must have a respectful attitude to faiths other than your own.

On the 7th and 19th of June we have open days and will be holding master classes. On these occasions, as a rule, I speak about one of the suras in the Quran in order to demonstrate how I teach. Margarita Vasilieva Shilkina general speaks exegetically on a small fragment from the Gospel. 

Of course our Faculty is small, and on the global scale it isn’t even a drop of water in the ocean. But even water drops can sharpen stone over time. And if even several people from different religions learn something new and take a step toward each other — this is already a lot.

Sophia Androsenko, interviewing Prof Aleksej Zhuravskij