People of the Word: Reading John with a Muslim

Abstract

Christians, Muslims and Jews have in common a fundamental belief in the divine Word. Through this Word God created the world and continues to address it. We have all struggled with the question of the nature and status of this Word, the relationship between God and the Word, and the relationship between God's Word and the words of Scripture. The prologue to John's Gospel with its teaching on incarnation has been defining for Christian faith. To read that text with an attention to the Islamic tradition offers us both an understanding of some profound commonalities as well as an insight into the uniqueness of Christian faith in the Word. Jews and Christians are not simply People of the Scripture, as Muslims would understand us, but more accurately People of the Word. In the case of Christians, that Word is expressed in the first place in the incarnation. The words of our scriptures are privileged because they put us in touch with the Word-made-flesh.