A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God’s Friends

In A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God’s Friends, Hans A. Harmakaputra focuses on a question that emerges from today’s multi-faith context: Is it possible for Christians to recognize non-Christians as saints? To answer affirmatively, he offers a Christian perspective on an inclusive theology of saints through the lens of comparative theology that is based on the thought of Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim theologians: Karl Rahner, Jean-Luc Marion, Elizabeth Johnson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich, and Ibn Arabi’. As a result of this interreligious comparison, three theological constructs emerge: (1) saints as manifestations and revealers of God’s self-communication, (2) the hiddenness of saints, and (3) saints as companions.

These theological constructs redefine and reconfigure Christian understanding of saints on one hand, and on the other hand provide theological reasoning to include non-Christians in the Christian notion of the communion of saints.