January 2016 (Vol. 31, No. 3)

While the Russian Orthodox Church is often portrayed as a monolithic church under the sway of Vladimir Putin and nationalism, new movements and groups are creating more space for dissent, especially in the provinces, reports Wallace Daniel in the Christian Century (Dec. 9). Even the stance of Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow suggests the different complexions of Orthodox nationalism; he is constricted by his political alignment with Putin and cannot criticize his action in Ukraine, yet he also stresses the need for peace, negotiations, and an “end to civil strife—an implicit response to the government’s military assault.” The patriarch has also reinvigorated theological education, creating seminaries and other theological institutions that have aided movements and initiatives challenging the status quo, according to Wallace. It is in such provinces as Ivanovo and Vladimir to the north of Moscow, the priests have been considerable freedom by their bishops to address social problems, as well as launching initiatives to engage in social outreach and educational programs on local issues.

Sergei Filatov, a leading scholar of Russian religion, says that “While their leaders remain conservative in their theological beliefs, they are not wedded to the past in their activities. They are developing a different form of Orthodox conservatism, which is very socially oriented and emphasizes social outreach and compassion for the marginalized.” Signs of alternative movements within Russian Orthodoxy have surfaced in relation to the work of Alexander Men, a priest and writer who was murdered in 1990. For many years after his death, his once-popular works, such as on ecumenism, were no longer carried in church bookstores. But that has changed with Kirill paying homage to Men in 2014. Additionally, last September, the publishing house of the Moscow patriarchate published the 15-volume set of his writings for the first time. Men is still a source of controversy and tension in the church, especially his call for the church to repent for its collaboration with oppression in the czarist and Soviet eras. The Kiev Patriarchate church also presents a more militaristic image on its web site than the other two churches, showing a greater degree of support of the army. This includes more information on military chaplain activities, blessings of troops, and participation in funerals and other ceremonies as well as raising funds for the army’s needs.

(The Christian Century, https://www.christiancentury.org)

Although forces against change remain strong and often intimidating for those who think otherwise within the community, changes are taking place among Orthodox Jews in Israel, among other places, as evidenced by the 5,000 Orthodox Jews who now serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), writes Andrew Friedman in The Jerusalem Report (Dec. 28). There is a cultural war going on in the Orthodox world between those who would like to remain immune to modernity in order to maintain their religious standards, and those—especially young people—who are no longer willing to live behind the walls erected by their ancestors. Economic challenges have played a role; lack of prospects for young Orthodox people due to their kind of training led to opening ultra-Orthodox vocational schools over the past decades. In 2014, 9,000 ultra-Orthodox students were studying for an undergraduate degree. However, the Internet and associated developments have proved to be the greatest challenge for Orthodox Jews, much more difficult to control than television (see RW, October 2015). It has given young Orthodox exposure to many things outside of their lifestyle. “One can still be a Haredi in the age of the Internet. But, Haredi after the Internet is not the same as Haredi before the Internet,” summarizes Rabbi Bezalel Cohen, founder of an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva high school in Jerusalem.

Another important change relates to evolving attitudes of many ultra-Orthodox toward Zionism, reports Amotz Asa-El in another article in the same issue of The Jerusalem Report. While Zionism used to be seen as the main enemy of Judaism, more than half a million ultra-Orthodox Jews now speak no other language than Hebrew (which Zionism revived), there is an ultra-Orthodox minister in Israel’s government, and the police force has trained and hired 15 ultra-Orthodox criminal investigators last year. While many ultra-Orthodox still keep the old walls of separation erect, an increasing number have now in practice made allegiance to the Zionist project that their forefathers used to reject.

Shia Islam may be taking the place of the Sunni branch of the faith in making an effort to foster interreligious diplomacy in the Middle East, according to The Economist (Dec. 5). This shift is most evident in Najaf in Iraq, the most revered place in Shia Islam. The Shia holy site of the Imam Ali Shrine recently hosted an interfaith gathering of such diverse faiths as Melkite and Orthodox Christians, Sunni Muslims and members of smaller religious minorities, such as Yazidis and Mandeans. They also visited an 11-story academy for interreligious studies under construction opposite the shrine’s gates. “And in an apparently unprecedented gesture, a Grand Ayatollah, one of four clergy of that rank in Najaf, invited them in for a bite to eat.” Another interfaith initiative is already in place at the Faculty of Islamic Law at Kufa University, Najaf’s largest college. “We want to turn Najaf into a meeting place of religions,” says Walid Farajallah al-Asali, the dean and a cleric who specializes in the Babylonian Talmud. “There is even talk of a papal visit to Najaf. Followers of Grand Ayatollah Sistani have made similar gestures, with one imam in Lebanon giving sermons in Beirut’s Christian churches.”

The article comments: “It was not always so. A century ago, the country’s Shia clergy considered it sacrilege to shake hands or sit at table with non-Muslims, on grounds that the presence of non-believers would render their food impure. But now a historical reversal seems to be going on. For centuries, Iraq’s multi-faith tradition has been preserved under Sunni leadership; now, as Sunni fanatics assault that tradition, the Shia clerics of Najaf are keen to emphasize their openness to others.” The open-door policy in Najaf’s holy sites is unusual enough in the Middle East, where such sites as Mecca and the Fatima Masumeh, the holiest shrine in Iran’s theological center of Qom, are for Muslims only. Critics charge that the ayatollahs’ openness “has yet to percolate down to their devotees,” a criticism the clerics say they are addressing. “Beyond the clerical ivory tower of Najaf,” Shia militias engaging in sectarian cleansing continues, as does popular prejudice against groups such as the Mandeans and Yazidis, the article concludes.

A new era of dialogue between Islam and modern science is based more on the harmony between these fields compared to past attempts to “Islamicize” science, writes Nidhal Guessoum in the journal Zygon (December). The 1970s and 80s saw the growth of a number of schools of Islamic thought seeking to reconcile science and the faith, which included attempts to mine the miraculous scientific content of the Koran and to merge classical Islamist thought with the philosophy of science by the thinker Seyyed Hossein Nasr (known as traditionalism). The most ambitious program was what is called the Islamicization of knowledge, which sought to rewrite science from an Islamic perspective and is largely based in Malaysia and at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Washington. While most of these schools lost momentum since the 1990s, the endeavor to find modern scientific concepts prefigured in the Koran continues to find a strong following in Islamic schools, media, and academic conferences throughout the world. But, a “new generation of thinkers” has recently emerged that stresses affinity with modern scientific developments, such as evolution, and is conversant with philosophy.

The fact that several of these thinkers stressing harmony with science are practicing scientists and are open to Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical/religious traditions may lend them more influence among educated Muslim and non-Muslims. The thinkers, including Mehdi Golshani, Basil Altaie, Guessoum himself, and Usama Hasan, tend to criticize Islamic creationism and intelligent design and accept theistic evolution and big bang cosmology, even if some may not follow the implications of these views for traditional Islamic teachings (such as on the existence of miracles and the historicity of Adam). The issue remains that the new generation of Islam-science thinkers are from a dominant movement and, as practicing scientists, they may have to initially make their contribution as authorities on more practical issues in the Islamic community. This includes matters such as the role of Islamic astronomy (determining holy days and months, and the calculation of prayer times), as well as in the growing field of bioethics—from abortion and euthanasia to cloning and transhumanism.

(Zygon, http://www.zygonjournal.org/)