Monday, October 19, 2009

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

"Orthodoxy is not the best term to use when characterizing Islam's sense of right religion. A better term is orthopraxy, which means 'right practice' and comes much closer to the reality of Muslim devotion and obedience to God. Here Islam is much closer in spirit and practice to Judaism that to Christianity. Christianity stresses doctrinal clarity and understanding by means of creeds, dogmas, and theologies. Islam and Judaism, on the other hand, view religion as a way of life and a ritual patterning of that life under God's lordship...

The fact that a Jewish-Islamic religious blending did not succeed does not mean that fundamental similarities and structural as well as functional affinities were lacking; it was because of the Jews' and Muslims' differing views on the provenance of Muhammad's prophecies."

Frederick Mathewson Denny, An Introduction to Islam, page 103

No comments:

Post a Comment