Wednesday, June 3, 2009
my roots are showing
last night, a conversation on religion with my host father extended from the dining room to the living room over a course of two hours. pretty intense. it was fascinating to discuss ideas with him though; i managed to explain in french my personal answers to his questions about christianity, which ranged from the trinity (jesus is the son of god, and became god, but he is not god because he is not omnipresent? that one was hard, even in english, to go through) to the literal application of religious texts (the bible was translated many times, and written over a long period of time, whereas the qur'an is still in the original classical arabic, and was written during mohammed's lifetime, so should its message be taken more literally?). i'm terrible at recreating a conversation, but it was fascinating to me to be able to see how christianity looks from a muslim perspective. we'll continue our dialogue during my stay and i hope to learn more about islam and how it functions in society.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
As you say, Mary, such a conversation would be challenging in English, but less French! I know plenty of Christians, including pastors, who have a hard time describing/explaining much less defending the doctrine of the Trinity. (This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday in the liturgical year.) You might try the children's sermon approach: There's ice, which melts into water, which steams into vapor, but it's all H2O. God in three forms, or God embodying three particular verbs: creating/Creator, loving/Savior/Christ, sustaining Spirit. This is probably much more than you wanted from your preacher mom!
haha... and I thought you were talking about having your hi-lights in your hair growing out... ;}
But I am most impressed you were able to have a two-hour conversation in French, much less about something so complicated as religion! Do most Morroccans speak not only French and Arabic, but another form? Is it harder to understand than the French of France? Very intriguing... hope you're having a blast!
And if you're near Fez, any sign of remnants from U2's stay?? :)
your silly bro
Post a Comment