Christians, Muslims should first recognize commonalities
An American professor of philosophy, Charles Taliaferro, says the first step for peaceful coexistence is to recognize commonalities as Muslims and Christians can focus on their recognition of Jesus Christ.
Share It :
An emeritus professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College in an interview with Iran’s Qur’an News Agency (IQNA) highlighted importance of relying on common religious grounds and eliminating divergence among followers of religions.
When asked on the way Christians and Muslims can peacefully live together, he said,” They need to recognize what they have in common. Both Muslims and Christians recognize Jesus as a Great Prophet. Begin with agreement, then engage respectfully and lovingly where there is divergence.
The American researcher explained his views on possibility of world peace to materialize and said,” Few philosophers have thought world peace is easy, Immanuel Kant proposed that if the world united in a league of nations, we may progress toward a universal respect for human dignity.”
Taliaferro referred to the ways to achieve peace and stressed the “immense value of education and cooperation” in the pursuit of the common good and continued,” Some religions would claim this is not enough: we need to love each other and some --Muslims, Christians, Jews, theistic Hindus, think the love of God is needed.”
He expressed regret over misuse of freedom of speech by insulting religions and divine prophets in recent years saying,” We wind up tolerating many acts that we ourselves find reprehensible for the sake of respecting freedom and not using coercion. But in some cases, the offense may be so radically offensive (as when someone advocates violence against others) we intervene.”
Charles Taliaferro is an emeritus professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Faithful Research, and a member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of twenty books, most recently The Image in Mind; Theism, Naturalism and the Imagination, co-authored with the American artist Jill Evans. He has been a visiting scholar or guest lecturer at a large number of universities, including Brown, Cambridge, Notre Dame, Oxford, Princeton, and the University of Chicago. Since 2013 Taliaferro is editor-in-chief of the journal Open Theology.
