VIEWSrnCauses and CatapultsrnThe Incarnation and Its E^nemiesrnby Philip JenkinsrnFor over a thousand ears, Western ciilization was definedrnb’ the shifting rcHgioiis fi^onrier behveen Christianih andrnIshim, and the MusHm rehgion was the uUiniate enemy.rnWhenever Western Cliristians wished to eondenin a person orrna movement, the obvious tactic was to compare it to Islam.rnWhen a mecHeval French king wanted to justify his bloodvrnplunder of the order of Knights Templar, he claimed (falsely)rnthat the knights worshiped a sinister pagan idol calledrnBaphomet, a simple mangling of the name of “Mahomet.” hirnStuart England, orthodox Chrishans faced a rationalist challengernfrom skeptical Deists, and they replied in the traditionalrnmanner b’ accusing their critics of being closet Muslims. As arnpiece of scholarly name-calling, it is difficult to beat HumphreyrnPrideaux’s Life of Mahomet (1697), more fully The True Naturernof Imposture Fully Display’d in the Life of Mahomet. . . Offeredrnto the Consideration of the Deists of the Present Age.rnAnti-Muslim rhetoric is nothing new for Western socich’, butrnwithin the past centurv’, some distinguished Christian thinkersrnhave explored the full significance of that chasm between thernCross and the Crescent. Mtcr all, jirst looking at the countlessrnwars between the hvo sides, there is remarkabK” little to choosernbetween them in terms of the saints and villains each produced.rnEven in the era of the Crusades, it was the Muslims who produced,rnin Saladin, the true chevaher sans peiir et sans reproche.rnIn modern times, it was the highly technological Christianrnstates that inflicted the most horrendous brutalities upon theirrncoreligionist neighbors. This question of distincfions troubledrndie great Anglican poet and theologian Charles Williams, whorndealt with the war between Christians and pagans in hisrnArthurian epic cycle T/ie Region of the Summer Stars. In onernPhihp Jenkins is the author, most recently, of Hidden Gospels:rnHow the Search for Jesus Lost Its Wav (Oxford University’rnPress).rnpoem (“The Prayers of the Pope”), the pope asks in his prayers:rn”Where is the difference between us? / What does the linernalong the rivers define? /Causes and catapults they have and vernhave, /And the death of a brave beauU’ is mutual cveni-where.”rnIs it all just a matter of polihcs, of causes and catapults? Or ofrnwho has the most rifles, the best Cruise missiles?rnAs so often, the best answer to our theological dilemmas mayrnbe found in the work of G.K. Cliesterton, that remarkable andrnman-sided writer who, as time goes on, increasingly looks likernone of the most important minds of the 20th century. ForrnChesterton, Chrishans and Muslims were divided by one simplernfact, namely, the Incarnation. The notion that God, thernCreator of the Universe, had taken human form, had lived, andrndied, and was resurrected on earth, was not just one tlieologicalrnpoint among many: It was the rock upon which all subsequentrndoctrines and beliefs were founded, including such basic nohonsrnas human dignit}-. Incarnahon was not just a truth, butrnThe Truth. As Chesterton wrote in Orthodox)’, “having foundrnthe moral atmosphere of the Incarnation to be common sense,rnI then looked at the established intellectual arguments againstrnthe Incarnation and found them to be common non.sense.”rnChristians believe in the fact of the Incarnation; Muslims dornnot; and, ftiereforc, there can ulhmately be no compromise betweenrnthe two. Ideally, Christians and Muslims might well liverntogether in harmony, exercise cliarit)’ toward one another, andrnhold intelligent and thoughtful debates—in short, they miglitrnact like civilized human beings; but the two worldviews will alwaysrnbe utterly different, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise.rnThere will also be insuperable obstacles to what is optimisticallyrndescribed as “interfaith dialogue,” since such a process canrnonly advance by having one side abandon its most fundamentalrnbeliefs. C’liestcrton was appropriately amused at the notion thatrnChristinas represented an amiable and uncontroversial fiice ofrnChristianit)’, a happy ecumenical festival when those of differ-rn14/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn