The Muslim Jesus: How Christ Is Viewed In Islam
An interesting UK-based ITV documentary narrated by Melvin Bragg about how Jesus is viewed in Islam. Most of us know Jesus is viewed as an important prophet in Islam rather than the Son of God as he is in Christianity; other than this difference in the recognition of divinity, this documentary reveals other fascinating facts about how Jesus and other prominent biblical figures such as Mary are viewed by Muslims. The Qur’an does affirm the Immaculate Conception, for example, and there has been a major Iranian film on Mary’s life.
Directed and produced by Irshad Ashraf. R/T: 45mins (disregard the eye-rollingly sensationalist first 45 seconds—otherwise its a great bridge-builder).
Very interesting. Thanks, Ann.
It is interesting that Islam accommodates multiple localized realities (religions) quite easily and prompts believers to think about the differences, while Christianity has an incomplete account of other traditions and tends to ignore them altogether. That cultural solipsism has bothered me since Sunday school days. I remember asking myself when I was quite young why would God, who is synonymous with justice, exclude so many people from non-Christian traditions and throw everyone in Hell who had never heard of Jesus.
Thanks for prompting me to read the Da Vinci Code. I am not really interested in reconciling such things, but DVC did make it a lot easier to hold the possibility of disparate narratives in the mind simultaneously. The idea that the Christian narrative was constructed by a committee out of competing oral traditions hundreds of years after Christ lived makes it plausible that we’ve received a self-serving vision of Christ from the church administration. For me, the Christian ideal is profound enough standing by itself without all the administrative twiddling and teleology. Love thy neighbor as thy self. It’s pretty universal and it’s easy to dance to.
Those who are interested in reconciling such things might be interested in the Baha’i Faith, which originated in Iran in the 1860’s. I’ve known quite a few Baha’is and they have a wonderful way of looking at the relationship between the one and the many.
very good. Thanks for the video!