Page 224 - Prophet Jesus (Pbuh): A Prophet Not A Son, Of God

222 Prophet Jesus (pbuh): A Prophet, Not A Son, of God

Unlike Christianity Islam is unmistakably monotheistic, and unlike
Judaism was not confined to one people. We might begin any effort
to connect with Islam with this: acknowledge that we share com-
mon historical ground in this intuition about and understand of
God's singularity. In the Middle Ages it was Islam tolerance that al-
lowed a cultural bridge between Christianity and Islam to develop.
This Spanish Renaissance influenced a person we claim as our intel-
lectual forebear, Michael Servetus. Servetus was born in 1511 in
northern Spain and while we know some of the details and influ-
ence upon his life, we don't know exactly how his ideas developed
or what precipitated the publishing in 1531 of his book On the
Errors of the Trinity… While Islam had created the political and in-
tellectual conditions that contributed to the emerging of Servetus'
ideas in the West, it was also responsible for the political conditions
that allowed Unitarianism to germinate, blossom and spread in
eastern Europe… In a sense we are indebted to Islam. For me that
suggest that we need to stop viewing Islam as something foreign
and incomprehensible. Instead, it is time to recognize that not only
are we historically connected but that we share some common val-
ues, as well. 99
These statements of different Uniterian clergymen reveal the cli-
mate of tolerance in Ottoman territories and the common values shared
by these two revealed religions.