What Matters Most What makes a person a Saint? A Conversation with Dr. Hans Harmakaputra
We are deep into season 2 now with the nineteenth episode of What Matters Most. I spoke with Dr. Hans A. Harmakaputra, an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classics at Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota about Christian and Muslim saints and views of sainthood. Hans Harmakaputra is the author of A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God's Friends, which was at the heart of much of our discussion on today’s podcast.
Hans is from Indonesia, a country whose religious environment shaped much of the research for this book. Indonesia is a majority Muslim country, with a substantial Christian minority, Protestant and Catholic. It’s Indonesia that led to questions about what makes a person a saint because both Muslims and Christians share this conception and Hans will talk about an Indonesian Muslim, Abdurrahman Wahid, who is widely considered a saint among Christians and Muslims in Indonesia. Some of this emerges from popular conceptions of sainthood, but as Hans says in the podcast, “some people make a difference between popular religion and this is the official theology. And for me, there is no such thing. People always try their best to connect with the tradition, but also have a hybrid forms of religiosity.”
As a scholar, Harmakaputra writes, “I employ a comparative theology method to draw insights from a Muslim understanding of saints and sainthood in order to enrich the Christian theological discourse on saints.” He examines in his book and we discuss scholars such as the Jesuit priest Frans Van der Lugt and the Muslim poet and Philosopher Ibn Arabi, as well as catholic scholars Karl Rahner, Jean-Luc Marion, and Elizabeth Johnson, and Protestant scholars Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich. Below you will find links to his book and the major thinkers we discussed:
A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God's Friends;
The Jesuit priest and martyr Frans Van der Lugt;
The Muslim poet and Philosopher Ibn Arabi;
and Paul Tillich.
What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.
Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series.
Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think.
I also want to thank people who have been rating the podcast. The ratings have grown in number and they remain at 5 stars. Thank you so much for your kind support. ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. This lets people find the podcast more easily and lets people like you enjoy the work that we are doing. I think these are important and inspiring discussions and I would like people to have a chance to listen in!
Upcoming Episodes:
And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes:
Mr. Inderjeet Singh, Sikh chaplain at UBC;
Dr. Jaime Waters, Boston College;
Dr. Sara Parks, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Finally, some upcoming events:
May 17, 2024 Sister Damien Marie Savino will be offering the second annual Laudato Si’ lecture, Educating for Laudato Si' at St. Mark’s College. Please click on the link to register!
May 16, 2024, Sister Damien Marie Savino will also be doing a workshop on Laudato Si’ at St Joseph the Worker church in Richmond, B.C., so if you are local please come for 7 pm to the parish centre on May 16.
Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to present a paper, we will cover your conference registration fees and the cost of the conference banquet. You do not have to present a paper to come. You can purchase a conference pass and simply attend all of the sessions. Consider joining us in Vancouver in 2025.
Three Confirmed Pleanry Speakers:
Dr. Margaret MacDonald, St. Mary's University, Halifax
Dr. Samuel Rocha, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo, De Paul University, Chicago
John W. Martens
Director, Centre for Christian Engagement, St. Mark's College at UBC