This talk explores badaliya, a theology of Christian/Muslim substitution, in which the former sacrifices his or her own salvation for the latter. Originally developed by Louis Massignon at the height of the Orientalist encounter, the concept has been reinterpreted in recent decades by Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, an Italian Jesuit priest in Syria, whose interfaith work of over thirty years culminated in his likely martyrdom as he pursued dialogue with the Islamic State militant group in 2013. Badaliya, as Fr. Paolo envisioned, is a theology by which to transcend conventional dialogue by embodying Christian doctrines of atonement and martyrdom. Based on a reading of Fr. Paolo’s writings as well as ethnographic fieldwork with members of his monastic community, Arpan Roy situates badaliya as a political theology within the political crises of the Levantine Arab region, arguing that dialogue as such unsettles the monastic ideal of withdrawal (insihab). Moreover, Arpan Roy shows how salvation through self-sacrifice carries with it an underlying spirit of evangelism that is teleological in the classic Aristotelian sense. By examining badaliya through anthropological, theological, and phenomenological perspectives, this talk interrogates the boundaries of self-sacrifice, dialogue, and relational death, offering insights into the interplay of faith, ethics, and the Christian/Muslim encounter in contemporary Syria.

This is a hybrid Event and online Participation will be possible under the following link: 
https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin-en/j.php?MTID=mf6567731b9d89b015f90863e42eff5c4