in praise of sheik shata

i'm so struck with the excellent three-part series in the new york times on the life and work of sheik reda shata.

andrea elliott has done something i've wanted--a personal story of islam's complexity portrayed, shown, as a centrist vision of faith. at the yale center for faith & culture (where i work, if you googled into this blog) we're trying to work on an understanding of religious faith that avoids twin dangers--one in which faith is so shallow that it has no impact in one's life at all, and another in which faith is a cover for other values that do work counter to the deepest expressions of faith. these two dangers can in some wooden way be said to be the liberal verse fundamentalist options. we'd like to point to a range of middling options where serious and committed faith combines with a life that seeks the flourishing of the world and its varied peoples. this portrayal of sheik reda shata begins for me to stake out this territory in islam, and i'm grateful for the times for pushing us to see what is too easy to miss: the reality behind the all too common stereotypes.

anon, and +peace

Comments

[joshua]

great post and great article. thanks for putting it up. the complexity, beauty, and challenge of religious life (islam or other) in america come across so well