"I think that it should be possible for us to come up with a reasonable definition of "prophet" such that a good number of Christians will allow for future prophets after Jesus but the typical Muslim will not allow for future prophets after Muhammad."
Dear Gilberto, Obviously if one wanted to come up with such a conclusion as was prepared to ignore the fact that Paul and Muslims are talking about very different things when the refer to prophets one could come to that conclusion. While there might well be 'prophets' within the church they could not add anything to scripture. But when a Muslim talks about prophets they usually mean one who brings a Book. Christianity did not allow for that. The last passage of the Book of Revelation, however misinterpreted, was understood by most Christians to mean that nothing else could be added to scripture. Furthermore, the guidance of the church through the Holy Spirit was thought to make further revelations of this type unneccesary. Paul's statement in Galatians, which has already been quoted, was understood the same way. But don't take our word for this. Ask the next five Christians you meet whether they believe it is possible for God to send a prophet with a books to add to the scripture and see what they say. They are in a better position to tell us what they believe than you or I. "Not everyone was a prophet. Prophet is still a meaningful category." Yes, it was a particular office within the church. But it has no bearing on the station of prophethood in Islam which goes by that name. Mark: "> Regardless of whether one equates Paul's view of a prophet with Muhammad's, to Paul, prophecy takes place in the context of the Gospel of Christ. Paul's christocentrism was unaffected. Gilberto: And what you are calling ethnocentrism I would probably call exclusivism (not finality)" He said Christocentric, not ethnocentric. That's a very different thing. "That would be alot more convincing if Paul didn't write more of the Bible than any other person, including Jesus." That is really irrelevant to the question of whether or not Christianity makes the same claims to exclusivity and finality as does Islam. Ultimately no religion likes to be superceded. As the Qur'an says: "And to you there came Joseph in times gone by, with Clear Signs, but ye ceased not to doubt of the (Mission) for which he had come: At length, when he died, ye said: 'No messenger will Allah send after him.'" warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
