Mohammed, Gandhi tie for most outstanding non-Christian leader

So says a panel of historians and Church scholars contacted by The Evangelist to reflect on various aspects of the first two millennia of Christianity.

In four previous articles, the panel picked the most outstanding non-Catholic Christian (Martin Luther), the most outstanding pope (John XXIII and Gregory the Great), the most pivotal period in Christian history (the first few centuries after Christ) and a work of art that best captures the message of Jesus (Michelangelo's "Pieta").

This month, the experts were asked this question: In the past 2,000 years, who is the most outstanding non-Christian religious figure? They came up with only two main choices, who tied in the voting:

MOHAMMED

"I choose Mohammed for the sheer impact his life and work has made on world history," said Maureen A. Tilley, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio. "Many of his followers, historically and in the present, have taken seriously the challenge to integrate the call to fidelity to God with life lived in community."

She added that "although here in the United States we have taken for granted the separation of Church and State, neither the rest of the world nor the history of our own religious tradition as Christians has taught that religion and politics ought to be totally separate spheres. Mohammed and his followers present this challenge to the 21st century: How can and ought religious believers integrate their fidelity to God with life in a pluralistic world?"

The 'other'

"Islam became the threatening 'other' outside Christian Europe," he explained. "Despite the intellectual heritage Christian scholars gained from Islam (including St. Thomas Aquinas), usually the Muslim world was viewed as something to be fought and conquered. Non-Christian militancy should be met, so the thinking went, with Christian militancy.

"From the Muslim perspective, though, expanding Islam globally was part of the Prophet's message. I am not condoning the violence resulting from this dichotomy; but nonetheless Islam's presence, started by and modeled after the prophet Mohammed, has certainly influenced Christianity."

Another vote for Mohammed came from Rev. Charles Skok, professor emeritus of religious studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.

Islam "is a powerful influence in the world -- and not only in the Middle East, Northern Africa, parts of Asia, and the Malay Indonesian regions where Muslims constitute the majority of the population," he said. "Islamic peoples brought mathematics, science and philosophy. Aristotle came into Western Europe and to Thomas Aquinas through Islam. Islamic empires have flourished over the centuries.

"The prophet Mohammed's influence, in many and varied forms, still touches the lives of millions of people," Father Skok noted, adding: "There is even a mosque in Ireland!"

Fruits of Islam

This spread of Islam through the world "certifies Mohammed as one of the greatest religious founders in world history," Prof. Dwyer said. "But, over and above all of this, Islam has produced great poets, profound mystics and outstanding thinkers. Today, it remains a powerful force, spiritually and politically, inspiring a fierce loyalty among its followers -- a loyalty which Christians would be hard pressed to equal."

Lawrence Cunningham from the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame selected Mohammed because "as founder of the third great monotheistic faith of the West, [he] completely changed the shape of our common history."

Effect on Christianity

"Although he did not personally affect Christianity, his immediate followers launched a holy war against the Byzantine Empire," Prof. Kelly said. "Those followers and their descendants conquered all of the Near East and North Africa as well as most of Spain. These areas had been heavily Christian and most of the important figures of the Early Church came from them, including Jesus, all of His apostles, and saints like Athanasius and Augustine.

"The Muslim conquests also cut off Western Christianity from the traditional sources of Christian learning, so that Western Christianity developed largely by itself, influenced by such countries as Italy and France, and later by Germany. The Western European character of Catholicism is still prevalent today."

GANDHI

Five others on the panel joined him in that choice.

"Although, like every human being, Gandhi had his failings," said Father Scully, "his life and message of peaceful resistance to evil and of non-violent non-cooperation with immoral laws and regimes had a powerful impact in India. While many did not listen or only partially listened to his message, it still touched the lives of millions of people in India and around the world. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other great leaders were influenced by his life, work and ideals."

Easy choice

"He was a man of almost incredible courage and fidelity to the truth as he understood it. His openness to what is good in religious traditions beyond the Hindu tradition, in which he himself was raised, can be seen as a kind of foreshadowing of the position that our Church officially adopted in Vatican II's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

"Moreover, as deeply religious as he was, Gandhi is an excellent model of the way in which one's religious convictions (including in a special way his practice of 'ahimsa,' non-violence) can be intimately connected with momentous social issues in the political arena. And let us not forget that the words that came spontaneously to his lips as he was felled by an assassin were a prayer to his Lord."

'Spiritual ideals'

"While Gandhi was not a religious leader in the sense of having an official position within the framework of an institutional religion," noted Prof. Cesareo, "his life and career reflected spiritual ideals that made a decisive impact not only on India, but the world at large.

"Gandhi developed and articulated a weapon for the weak that he called Satyagraha. He conceived of Satyagraha, which can be translated as 'Soul Force,' as a means of striving for truth and social justice through love, suffering and conversion of the oppressor. Satyagraha owed a good deal to the Christian Gospels. Gandhi was greatly influenced by Christ's call 'to love your enemies.'"

Prof. Cesareo noted that Gandhi "welcomed the outcast untouchables; he worked to help widows, promote cottage industry and end the use of alcohol. The result was the nurturing of self-respect among the people of India. Gandhi inspired people beyond India's borders, most especially Martin Luther King Jr., who was greatly influenced by his philosophy of non-violent action."

Gandhi's "witness gives hope that justice can be achieved through nonviolence," said Rev. James Dallen, professor of religious studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. "Especially at a time when violence seems to be the only possible reply to violence, such a witness is a challenge to Christians."

Interfaith leader

"He knew Christianity and drew some of his inspiration from it," Father Fiore explained. "He also knew Islam and tried to reconcile the hostilities between its adherents and the followers of Hindu belief and practice in his native India."

In addition, the priest said, Gandhi "was an astute political leader who spoke to the hearts of the people and whose message unlocked resources of self-reliance and pride in a nation dominated by colonial powers. His concern for the defense of human dignity went beyond borders of race, economics, geography, and religion as he resisted institutional prejudice inherent in situations as diverse as the race laws in South Africa and the caste system in India."

Father Fiore also sees Gandhi's "creed of nonviolence" in later movements throughout the world: "in the civil rights movement of the United States, the Solidarity Union of Poland, and the People Power Movement in the Philippines."

A sixth vote for Gandhi was cast by Rev. William McConville, professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville. He said that the apostle of non-violence "embodied much of Jesus' radical message as contained especially in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly active non-violence and voluntary poverty. He is a most 'Christ-like' icon."

(05-20-99) [[In-content Ad]]