Denominations and traditions: Roman Catholics & Orthodox
In 2001 Pope John Paul II became the first Roman Catholic pope to visit a mosque when he entered the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, accompanied by the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro. Of course, there were plenty of Muslims and Christians who were unhappy about this groundbreaking event, but at least it was peaceful. In stark contrast, in 2013 in the same country, the Syrian Orthodox bishop, Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, and the Greek Orthodox bishop, Boulos Yazigi, were kidnapped by unknown assailants presumed to be connected to Muslim terror groups. Shockingly, their fate is still unknown.
This illustrates the different geographical, historical and political factors, explored in Blog #3, that influence Christian responses to Islam. Certainly, it would not be surprising if the different experiences of the Christians above affected their relationship with Muslims and views of Islam – although amazingly there are Christians who are able to forgive those who have abused them.[1] This blog explores the influence of Christian tradition and denomination on those reactions.
The major denominations tend to have uniform responses to Islam laid out in formal statements, guiding the interaction of leaders, representatives and committees in their interaction with Muslims. This is certainly true of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches which we shall explore in this blog, although, of course, within all denominations, congregations and individuals, including maverick preachers, have their own idiosyncratic approaches.
Roman Catholic
Up until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) little had changed in Roman Catholic relations with Muslims since medieval times. This was not least because, unlike for the churches of the east, there had been limited contacted between the church in the west and Muslims to the east, apart from crusades, wars and missionary activity. However, at Vatican II, as the council is called, an important document called Nostra Aetate (‘in our times’) was drawn up and affirmed. It began to define the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and other world religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and importantly Judaism, stating that ‘the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions’. With regard to Islam, it recognised that ‘in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems (sic)’ but urged Catholics ‘to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom’. Specifically, the document says that ‘the Church regards with esteem also the Moslems (as) they adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself … the Creator of heaven and earth’. It also recognises that ‘though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet’ and it appreciates Muslims’ honouring of the Virgin Mary. This was supported by another important document titled Lumen Gentium (‘light to the nations’) which affirmed that ‘the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans (sic), who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind’. The Roman Catholic theologians who wrote this document, including Karl Rahner (see Blog #6) , believed that ‘Divine Providence (does not) deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel’.
Following the publication of these seminal documents, Catholics increasingly engaged in dialogue with Muslims and popes began to make visits to Muslim-majority countries. Pope John Paul II visited Morocco, Jordan, Turkey and Syria. Pope Benedict visited Turkey and hosted Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at the Vatican in 2007, another first. Pope Francis continued the pattern and when I visited Baghdad in 2024 there were still large posters on the walls welcoming him to Iraq in 2021!
During Vatican II, a body, now known as the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, was set up to: ‘promote mutual understanding, respect and collaboration between Catholics and the followers of others religious traditions; to encourage the study of religions; and to promote the formation of persons dedicated to dialogue’.[2] This body is still the nexus of all official dialogue between Roman Catholics and Muslims. This obviously does not mean that all Catholics are well-disposed to Muslims. For instance, Robert Spencer, the well-known American anti-Muslim author and founder of the Jihad Watch blog, has belonged to both the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church but is very critical of the Roman Catholic dialogue with Muslims.[3] Influenced by Spencer, Father C.J.McCloskey, founder of the Catholic Information Center in Washington DC, wrote, ‘the Muslim hates us … at its worst, Islam is diabolical; at its best, it is Christian heresy’.[4] Such outliers notwithstanding, the official policy of the Roman Catholic Church is to engage with Muslims respectfully.
Churches of the East
The churches of the east include the Eastern Orthodox Churches (Greek, Syrian etc), the Oriental Orthodox Churches (including Coptic, Ethiopian Tewahedo and Armenian) and the Church of the East (also called Assyrian, Chaldean or Nestorian). These churches have had the longest prolonged contact with Muslims of any Christians. The contact dates to the early centuries of Islam before the Great Schism of 1054 and started with the writings of notables such as the Greek Orthodox Arab monk, John of Damascus (c.675-749), Patriarch Timothy of the Church of the East (c.740-823) and the Melkite bishop, Theodore Abu Qurrah (750-825). Of course, the eastern churches are extremely diverse (see the CMCSO Hikmah Guide to Christians, Muslims and Diversity) and it would be impossible to deal with all their responses in a short blog. However, the experiences of the Eastern Orthodox churches give a flavour. Each national church is autocephalous, that is it has its own ‘head’ or patriarch, and each has its own history of responding to Islam. This oftens depends whether it has been affiliated with the ruling power, such as the Greek or Russian Orthodox, or whether it has been part of a minority living under Muslim rule, such as the Patriarchate of Constantinople under the Ottomans or the Syrian Orthodox Church in postwar Syria.[5] Similarly to the Roman Catholic Church, little changed in Orthodox relations with Muslims until late in the C20th, when some key Orthodox figures began to write on Islam.[6] Then in 2020, an important document, titled For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church, was promulgated by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.[7] Similar to Nostra Aetate, it acknowledges Islam as an ‘Abrahamic tradition’ and Muslims as ‘people of the book’. It declares that ‘the Church can and does engage the beauty and spiritual truths of Islam in all its multiple traditions, acknowledging points of contact’ such as the Virgin Birth and ‘its recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, Messenger, Word, and Spirit of God’. However, it also acknowledges the limitations and differences surrounding the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity. Nonetheless, it invites ‘Islam and Orthodoxy to enter into an intimate conversation for the advancement of peace and understanding among all peoples’.[8] However, this does not preclude Orthodox Christians viewing Muslims as heretics who need to be helped back onto the right path.[9]
There are, of course, Orthodox Christians who take a more combative approach to Islam. One of the best know of them is Zakaria Botross, an Egyptian Coptic priest who, after being exiled from Egypt for his preaching, began to broadcast on TV and satellite from the USA questioning Islam and challenging the teachings of the Qur’an.
Sadly, there have been more extreme reactions too. For instance, some within the Serbian Orthodox Church supported the Bosnian Serb forces which committed atrocities against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. The Lebanese Civil War (1975-90) also saw both Orthodox and Catholic churches supporting various militia fighting against Muslims (both Sunnis and Shia). These were extreme examples but illustrate how religious, or even denominational, identity can at times fuel and condone political violence. These should be cautionary tales for those using religious labels to foment nationalism and civil unrest in other contexts today.
[1] See for two of many examples the story of Jacques Mourad, a Catholic priest kidnapped by ISIS, and Afordia , a Nigerian woman whose husband was killed by Boko Haram in 2014.
[2] Previously known as the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
[3] See his 2012 article ‘Islam and Catholicism’ written before he converted back to Orthodoxy.
[4] Quoted in DUFFNER, J. D. 2021. Islamophobia: what Christians should know (and do) about anti-Muslim discrimination, Maryknoll, New York, Orbis Books, 115.
[5] For an account see Dorroll, P. 2025. ‘Wielding God's Power: A Framework for Understanding Orthodox Christian‐Muslim Relations’. Religion Compass, 1-11, for more discussion of Orthodox-Muslim relations.
[6] See for instance, the writing of Dr Tarek Mitri (e.g. Religion, Law and Society: A Christian-Muslim Discussion, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1995), Archbishop Yannoulatos Anastasios (e.g. Coexistence: Peace, Nature, Poverty, Terrorism, Values, Geneva, WCC Publications, 2021) and articles by Metropolitan Georges Khodr.
[7] I’m grateful to Dr Philip Dorroll for pointing this out during his lecture on the 2025 CMCS Houston online course.
[8] Section 56 of For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church. See Dorroll, P. 2020. Islam from an Orthodox Perspective: A Review of Paragraph 56 of the Social Ethos Document, Public Orthodoxy, for more discussion.
[9] See for instance, ‘From the Archives: An Explanation of the (Christian) Heresy of Islam for Orthodox Believers’ by Fr. Anthony Perkins (2015).