Wow! eBook
Fear and Friendship: Anglicans Engaging with Islam
Author(s): Sarah Coakley
- Publisher: Continuum
- Publication Date: 23 Feb. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 168 pages
- ISBN-10: 1441101497
- ISBN-13: 9781441101495
Book Description
Many encounters between people of different religions are marked by an initial sense of incompetence, ignorance and fear- of getting it wrong, of causing offence, of ulterior motives. Such fears are here explored honestly, in stories of actual situations and relationships often unexpected, sometimes funny, invariably profound. Friendship is presented as a public rather than merely a private phenomenon, enabling relations of trust and depth to develop and leading to the possibility of authentic talk and reciprocity of respect and courtesy. It emerges as a risky venture in learning how to be human, involving honest negotiation, self-sacrifice and a seeking after the truth. It can enable people to address the fears that so often prohibit inter-religious encounters from deepening beyond the superficial. A strong underlying theme is how the Church of England can contribute to social cohesion in a religiously pluralistic society, even if local clergy and congregations at first feel untrained or wary.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Sarah Coakley is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, UK and was previously Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, USA. She was an assistant curate at Littlemore, Oxford, for 7 years after her ordination in 2000 and is currently an Honorary Canon of Ely Cathedral.
Frances Ward is Dean of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich. She was formerly a Canon of Bradford Cathedral where she developed a particular interest in Islam and interfaith engagement. She is the co-editor of Fear and Friendship: Anglicans Engaging with Islam (2012).
