15.04.2025

Islam and Christianity: How to Continue Tradition?

Sharing international experience: The workshop group after the morning devotion with Prof Dr Khorchide (2nd from left), Rev Lange-Sonntag (4th from right) and UEM General Secretary Rev Dr Parlindungan (left). Photo by: Johannes Schermuly, UEM

Interreligious dialogue between Islam and Christianity takes place on various levels – but there are still no permanent institutions for such dialogue specifically between the official representatives of both religions. Yet pastors and imams, too, can benefit in their work from the spirituality and experiences of the other religion. All the more reason to engage in conversation, thought Reverend Ralf Lange-Sonntag and Professor Mouhanad Khorchide, when they developed this seminar together with the oikos Institute of the UEM member church EKvW*.

Structures of Coming Together

They are now meeting for three days with eleven people, to set this dialogue in motion. Part of the program is a visit to the Mission House of United Evangelical Mission (UEM) in Wuppertal, Germany: The workshop group leads the morning devotion in the Mission House Chapel and talks to the staff of UEM. Khorchide already sees the need for conversations like this one in the training of religious leaders: “People always talk about imam training and further education in Germany, and I believe this should be part of that training and further education: We need structures that bring imams and pastors together.” He is Professor of Islamic Religious Education and Head of the Centre for Islamic Theology at the University of Münster, Germany.

On the seminar topic, he continues: “We need these structures because we live in a pluralistic society today. Here, all of us are being asked similar questions – such as our topic: ‘from generation to generation, passing on traditions’. Questions like: Where is religion important for young people? Why do we see fewer and fewer young people interested in religion? This is a question for Christianity as well as for Islam. And because of that, it is really nice to talk about them together, and to get into conversation.”

Profiting from International Experience

Ralf Lange-Sonntag is the EKvW’s representative for interreligious dialogue. For him, the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) is a particularly suitable space to learn more about how such dialogue can be practised: “We meet here as Muslims, as Christians – but we have the UEM as a global player, which has been engaging with this topic for decades. The UEM member churches in Africa and Asia have long-standing experience in Christian-Muslim dialogue. We would like to hear more about how things are going in Indonesia, for instance, or in Tanzania. How does dialogue between Christians and Muslims work there? Is it something we can learn from here in Germany? That is the basic idea: to benefit from the resources of the UEM, from the treasure that already exists.” For this, at UEM they meet with General Secretary Rev Dr Andar Parlindungan who introduces them to the work of UEM in Asia, Africa and Europe, answers their questions and talks with them about how religions can pass on their tradition.

Khorchide and Lange-Sonntag hope to strengthen and institutionalise this dialogue in the future.

*EKvW = Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen (Evangelical Church in Westphalia)