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PDF versionKillng bin Laden and common Islamic and Christian myths
by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Jun. 16, 2011
It is almost overwhelmingly ironic that the military intervention to kill bin Laden -- symbol of the seemingly nothing-in-common state of Islamic–Christian relations -- was a Night Journey, an example of the mythic religious themes that Christianity shares with Islam.
These are found in Andalusia’s Cordoba where, cascading through history, a big two-hearted river of Muslim and Christian beliefs and practices deposited its treasures and its traces in what is now called the “mosque/cathedral.” The Catholic bishop insists that it is strictly a Roman rite cathedral and the city’s Muslim leader claims that it is solely a Muslim mosque.
The walls of this “mosque/cathedral,” however, hold the faded inscriptions of the shared symbols and images of creation, life, and love that make Islam and Christianity seem as if they were twins separated at birth rather than Cain raising a rock above Abel on the far side of Eden.
The embattled “mosque/cathedral” is less a blunted and muddied salient of religious conflict than a still radiant point of convergence, in which are displayed not the trophies of war but the bounty of mystical traditions shared by Islam and Christianity and, therefore, by almost the whole world.
These include the master concept of the “pilgrimage” -- that ageless spiritual/physical mode of transit through which we can still join the mythic “hero’s journey.”
Pilgrimage, according to David Leeming, is “the defining character of the human species” so that “we live with the constantly present metaphor of a journey.” We are the only species concerned with the “idea of the journey of life,” with mythos, the story we tell, ever the same beneath surface variations, of our being on pilgrimage in life.
The notion of the Pilgrimage is the backbone of both Islam and Christianity for their teachings were disseminated through similar aching and dusty pilgrimages.
Standing amidst the candy striped pillars of Cordoba’s “mosque-cathedral” we hear overlapping Muslim and Christian voices singing of such shared mythic concepts as the dark night of the soul and the descent into the underworld.
Night Journeys are found in each tradition, including Muhammad’s from Mecca to Medina -- generating the same aura of mystery as that of the descent of the Jews into and passage out of Egypt and of Jesus’ silently slipping into the desert or noisily entering Jerusalem. Are Christians surprised that Islam too has a Garden of Eden and in which a Fall occurred with dire consequences for all humans?
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Here pawing the ground is the miraculous “winged mule” that carried Muhammad on his night journey to Jerusalem; is this not, mythologically speaking, also the rough beast that bore Christ to Jerusalem, where each would be confirmed in his calling?
Is this not, in Judaism, the same mythic mule that carried Abraham (Ibrahim) to find Hagar and Ismael (Ismail)?
Each tradition also speaks of ascents -- mystical metaphors in each dispensation for the passage (again invoking the theme of pilgrimage) to wholeness or enlightenment.
To this day, pilgrimages, whether as grand as those crowding into Rome or Mecca or as simple as a lonely widow’s making the Stations of the Cross in a mission church, allow believers to participate in the original mythic passages.
We also learn that Cordoba was once a lively common ground, a university, so to speak, for fruitful conversations between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Their common myths, or stories, tell us that they were exploring identical spiritual questions and pursuing a shared destiny (a word that comes from the pilgrimage notion of destination) and imagining and speaking of them in very similar ways.
The night journey of the brave Navy Seals to kill bin Laden shouts of an estranging war between Islam and Christianity but it also whispers of how much beyond any counting of it these religious traditions share with each other.
[Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.]
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Thank you, Gene, for sharing
Thank you, Gene, for sharing these intertwining life realities from the Peoples of the Book. I was only vaguely aware of the Islamic and Hebrew pilgrimage theme mingling with the Passover of the Christian, both individually and communally. .as people emerging from and often passing through the Darkness of Night into the Light of the New Adam, died and risen. . with our Red Sea-Baptism washings, enriching, preparing us to the pushed by the Spirit into the Desert Experience to confront the Evil, be nourished and strengthened, emerging fresh for the Journey.
All three of our traditions involve the desert which forms and shapes so much of our Pilgrimage. . .I was a young priest in the Council years when you were teaching us about the mystical-theological-psychological journey of the individual living in human ecclesial community. .and you are still teaching those of us with a heart to hear about the " 'ascents' -- mystical metaphors in each dispensation for the passage (again invoking the theme of pilgrimage) to wholeness or enlightenment".
Thank you, Brother Pilgrim.
Thank you for the beautiful
Thank you for the beautiful description of the Mosque in Cordoba! One of my favorite sites! I have never before heard its syncretic beauty described better!
Thank you also for the description of the Night Journeys...
I don't see the bishop ever admitting the shared roots of the Mosque. It is a Church today, and I don't see that changing... But would it not be nice if it became a center of shared cultural studies?
I note that the tomb of St. Isidore of Sevilla is carved in the three scholarly languages extant in Spain in his time: Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. He is recognized as an important scholar in all three faiths. Time to start emulating him I say!
--Andy Jo--
"I don't see the bishop ever
"I don't see the bishop ever admitting the shared roots of the Mosque."
- Part of the basic structure of the Cathedral at Cordoba started as a pagan temple. It was turned into a Church during the conversions. It was not a mosque until the Umayyad Moors invaded Spain and desecrated it. It was reconsecrated when the invaders were driven out. It doesn't have 'shared roots' of a mosque. That's like saying many European Churches have shared roots with American Army barracks, as during WWII, many were used as such as the situation was needed.
"It is a Church today, and I don't see that changing... But would it not be nice if it became a center of shared cultural studies? "
- Perhaps when the Turks allow Christians to celebrate Mass in the Hagia Sophia again, then we'll talk.
Well said, Pete. Hagia
Well said, Pete. Hagia Sophia was once the pride of Christendom, one of, if not THE, most beautiful churches in the world, until the Turks invaded, conquered Constantinople and desecrated that majestic house of God.
"It was not a mosque until
"It was not a mosque until the Umayyad Moors invaded Spain and desecrated it. It was reconsecrated when the invaders were driven out."
Pete, upon what historical text to you base your story telling here, and choice of heavily laden terminology, including pagan, and your final pontification?
Did not this pontiff pray barefoot and silently within the Blue Mosque?
Please read carefully The Tent of Abraham written in large part by the very Reverend Sister Joan Chittister OSB, NCR's very own.
Here a great Spanish poet,
Here a great Spanish poet, murdered mysteriously by Franco's anti-democratic forces during the Spanish Civil War, describes one such pilgrimage to Cordoba
Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936)
CANCION DEL JINETE
Córdoba.
Lejana y sola.
Jaca negra, luna grande,
y aceitunas en mi alforja.
Aunque sepa los caminos
yo nunca llegaré a Córdoba.
Por el llano, por el viento,
jaca negra, luna roja.
La muerte me está mirando
desde las torres de Córdoba.
¡Ay qué camino tan largo!
¡Ay mi jaca valerosa!
¡Ay, que la muerte me espera,
antes de llegar a Córdoba!
Córdoba.
Lejana y sola.
As usual this piece, due to
As usual this piece, due to its reminding us of the connectedness of humanity, is a great one. However this time Eugene, I think because you let your fingers do the walking, you goofed a bit. I don't think you meant to say the woman journeying along the stations was "lonely"; I think that probably you intended her to be a "lone" widow. Correct me if I'm wrong.
may she not as well be
may she not as well be lonely, being alone? You may see her statistical material state; Kennedy's professional perspectives view the spiritual, the psychological . . .
I am still waiting for a
I am still waiting for a Christian place of worship in Mecca. BTW,there is a mosque in Rome.
Yes, there is a Mosque in
Yes, there is a Mosque in Rome, capital of Italy -- a secular European state where the majority of citizens happen to be Christians -- and those are mostly Roman Catholic. There is also a really big one in Madrid (capital of Spain -- same description as Italy). I could go through the other capitals of Europe, but I won't.
Unless I am gravely mistaken, there is not a mosque inside Vatican City -- another sovereign state which happens to exist within the confines of the city of Rome. I don't think anyone would try to claim there should be one.
That's why I don't see why a church should be permitted in Mecca specifically.
That said, the lack of religious freedom is troubling throughout the Middle East, but that is a different thread. Depending upon the country, you could list different religions which are persecuted -- some of them minority Muslim faiths. The only constant is everybody hates the Jews. Even so, two wrongs don't make a right. This is not the Oppression Olympics. We get nowhere by poking others in the eye.
There would be nothing wrong with building a multicultural center within the confines of the Mezquita in Cordoba. It would not need to be a mosque, but it could be a very good place to engender understanding between religions. Why not a similar one in Hagia Sofia -- it would not need to be a Church... Maybe we can all move in that direction, but we never will if we keep pointing fingers at each other and saying "they're more intolerant than we are, so there!".
--Andy Jo--
It is interesting how NCR and
It is interesting how NCR and its writers have put a spin on the killing of Bin Laden. If the assassination of Bin Laden had been accomplished under President Bush, NCR and its columnists would have been condemning the assassination. Since it was ordered by President Obama, people like Eugene Kennedy put this spin on it.
When will Saudi Arabia admit
When will Saudi Arabia admit Jews to enter? 20% of the popoulation of Israel is Muslim, and Muslimes are well represented in the Knesset.
The Pentagon mislead
The Pentagon mislead President Obama into a needless barbaric killing of bin Laden.
No hotile action was needed.
Instead the President should have dropped a dozen atomic bombs on his compound. Turned the entire city, and everyone in it, into glass. But that's not hostile. Our bomber pilots would have been out of danger, so it wouldnt have "hostilities" acoording to the President's defintion.
Ask the NCR. This is why abortion isnt violent. The baby cant fight back.
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So, are you saying we should,
So, are you saying we should, or should not, have killed Bin Laden? I can't really understand from your text. Or, are you saying we should have killed more people with nuclear bombs? Its very confusing.
And, why don't you think abortion is violent? I'd be interested to hear you further elaborate on your theory that violence depends on whether someone can fight back or not. I've never heard that idea proposed, before. Are you saying that if someone is in a coma, it would not be an act of violence to attack them? I don't think that idea fits with Catholic teaching.
No matter what Obama does he
No matter what Obama does he is criticized. Now the criticism is of the killing of an American traitor to his country, Anwar al-Aulaqi, and there are those that said he should have gotten due process. If we had followed this type of operation from day one and not sent troops to Iraq and to Afghanistan think of the lives and money that could have been saved.
Both men were killed as enemy combatants who had declared war on the US.
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