characteristics within each of these religions that are viewed by their followers
as
most essential to their faith; these details can
even prompt violent action
against others. So when seemingly small theological differences can stir up
hatred, violence, and war, it is a sure sign that a great deal more is going on than
mere theological dispute. It is like a furious marital blowup in the kitchen over
whether the pasta is overcooked: the anger is very real, but outside observers
instantly grasp that something more is going on here beyond whether the pasta is
al dente.
So in the case of the Middle East and its religions,
it is not the theology that
really represents the source of conflict. Other things are obviously at stake:
identities, communities, states, politics, power, regional nationalisms. Religion
serves as a handy tag, constitutes an important element of identity in which the
specific theology is really only incidental. In fact, we are rarely Christians,
Muslims, or Jews by choice; we are born into one of these traditions whose
richness
of community we accept; it is not about balancing or choosing among
alternative theological arguments offered to us. Jewish communities have been a
powerful cultural force over history, but not because of the specific ritual details
of Judaism. Those could vary, and do. It is really the
cultural identity and glue of
theology—any theology—that sustains a community on an ethnic or a religious
basis. The same goes for the diversity of Christian sects.
The religion helps
establish communities; communities can drift into conflict or even war over
community security, resources, leadership, and turf.
In our modern era, the world has made some modest but serious steps toward
religious reconciliation and ecumenism, even
acknowledgments of shared
commonalities. For example, our regular use of the term “Judeo-Christian” is
quite recent, coming to prominence only at the start of the twentieth century. It
was designed to acknowledge certain religious commonalities ignored in periods
of anti-Jewish discrimination during most of the history of Christianity—even
though, in theological terms, the differences between Christianity and Judaism
are the greatest among the three faiths. And in the past twenty or thirty years, we
now see the term “Abrahamic faiths” beginning to achieve some currency,
bringing Islam into the fold of commonality. Theologies have not changed much;
human desire to overcome the differences has.