ISLAM-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE

169 DO WE BELIEVE IN THE SAME GOD? Dr. Giuseppe Samir Eid presented Don Walter with some clarifications on the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis "Evangelii gaudium" to which our parish priest willingly replied. Dear Don Walter, the Muslims "worship with us a single, merciful God" (E. G. n. 252). I would take this sentence with caution. It is true that Muslims worship a unique and merciful God. But this sentence suggests that the two conceptions of God are equal. Instead, in Christianity God is Trinity in its essence, plurality united by love. And that is a little more than just clemency and mercy. We have two quite different conceptions of divine uniqueness. The Muslim one features God as inacces- sible. The Christian vision of Trinitarian uniqueness emphasizes that God is Love that is communicated: Father-Son-Spi- rit, or Lover-Love, as Saint Augustine suggested. Then, what does the mercy of the Islamic God also mean? That he gives mercy to those he wants and does not give it to those he does not want. "God gives mercy to those He wants." (Quran 48:25). But you never get to say that "God is Love" (1 John 4:16), as St. John expresses it. Mercy in the case of Islam is that of the rich man who leans over the poor and gives him something. But the Christian God is the one who de- scends towards the poor to raise them to his level; he does not show his wealth to be respected (or feared) by the poor: he gives himself to make the poor live. The- se differences should not discourage pe- ople of good will from sharing precious resources to build the global culture of Peace and Fraternity. Giuseppe Samir Eid Dear Joseph 1. What you say is true, but the cor- rectness of the affirmation that Muslims "worship with us a single, merciful God" is explained by the fact that, for cor- rectness of reading, one should not or should not stop at the affirmation of No. 252 of the "Evangelii gaudium", but one should read it in its entirety, highlighting its intention which is the rediscovery of a joyful proclamation of the Gospel of Je- sus Christ in the world with temporary. 2. Taking also into account, for example, that in the previous issue, 251, it is stated that "in this dialogue, always friendly and cordial, the essential bond between dia- logue and proclamation, which leads the Church to maintain and intensify relations