Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 86 No. 2, 2016.
Preliminary communication
A Review and evaluation of the conciliar discourse on islam: fifty years later
Tomislav Kovač
orcid.org/0000-0001-9157-2079
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
After fourteen centuries of mostly mutual polemics and conflicts between Christians and Muslims, the Catholic Church has made a monumental turn in its relation to members of religion of Islam at the Second Vatican Council. Namely, for the first time in its history the Church Magisterium has made official positive statements on Islam at the Council. This occurred in two instances: in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church (no. 16) and, more extendedly, in the Declaration Nostra aetate on the relation of the Church towards non-Christian religions (no. 3). In the atmosphere of marking the ending of the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, the article wishes to remind and evaluate this monumental turn in the conciliar discourse on Islam. For that purpose the author contextualises conciliar texts on Islam, presents and interprets their contents, and critically evaluates their reach and boundaries. The author focuses mostly on the declaration Nostra aetate that is still considered to be magna charta of interreligious and, therefore, also Christian-Muslim dialogue. In the conclusion the author points out that conciliar incentive towards Islam has not lost its relevancy and importance even today, fifty years after the Council. In this largely different and globalised world, torn apart by the economic crisis, military conflicts, and the spread of various forms of fundamentalism, Christians and Muslims are called to get to know each other more, to jointly testify their faith in one God, and to cooperate for the common good of society and areas in which they live.
Keywords
Christianity; Islam; Catholic Churc; Second Vatican Council; Declaration Nostra aetate; interreligious dialogue; Christian-Muslim dialogue
Hrčak ID:
162695
URI
Publication date:
26.7.2016.
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