Father Joseph Azzi, the scholar of religions. Extracts of his words and writings, selected, translated and commented by Lwiis Saliba on Zoom, Wednesday 15/06/2022

Father Joseph Azzi, the scholar of religions. Extracts of his words and writings, selected, translated and commented by Lwiis Saliba on Zoom, Wednesday 15/06/2022

Father Joseph Azzi

Father Joseph Azzi (20/10/1937-30/05/2022) is a Lebanese monk, thinker, theologian and writer. He was born in Jiyeh/Chouf and died in Byblos. Following the publication of our book about him: “Revolutionaries of the Black Army: Lebanese Monks Who Walked Against the Tide, Biographies and Dissenting Opinions on Christianity, Islam, Women, Religions, and More,” in April 2021, we interviewed him on Zoom on Wednesday, 28/04/2021, and here is a selection of what he told us and what is written in his book, The Acquittal of God, with a faithful translation.

-My intention is not to avoid fame, but my work requires me not to waste much time in society. I spent my time writing, reading and diving into the subjects I researched. These were subjects that required a certain amount of boldness and isolation from society. That’s why it was my career and my life behaviour.

– You have to know the people you live with: know them by their doctrine, by their faith. This is what I aspired to. This knowledge has helped me a lot to understand and deepen Christianity. Therefore, I wonder how a Christian can be a Christian when he does not know Islam.

-I wonder how a bishop can be a metropolitan when he does not know Islam in its true form! How does the bishop know his truth and message if he does not know Islam? Islam has helped me a lot to know and deepen my Christianity, and I wonder how a Christian can be a true Christian when he does not know Islam!

-And our aim through our research is to present the truth, as difficult as it is, and to show the truth of the faith of Christians and Muslims, and thus to show the true identity of each believer, because what kills us is our ignorance of the truth of the other. (Between Christianity and Islam. p. 8).

-My express intention is the acquittal of the God of religions, for it was not he who revealed them. It is not he who sent down laws from heaven or wrote the books we call holy. Or who confirmed beliefs and truths, and fixed science and knowledge… God is innocent, free from all this” And man alone is responsible for these religions, sects, denominations and rigid truths… God is not responsible for any of them.”  (Acquittal of God, p20)

-No doubt: These religions are the cause of all the violence and fighting between peoples, These religions…and each group invokes a particular religion that came to them and did not come to another. How can God be a god for all, when he is the one who gave you something, and gave me something else to fight against each other!

“If religions do not agree on the identity of God, nor on His role and mission in the world, nor on His attributes and relationship to man, then how can these religions come from Him?!”

This means again that God is innocent of all these religions. He has nothing to do with them, He did not create them, He did not reveal them, rather they are the work of human beings who are different by nature. (…) So we must do all we can, believers and atheists, to abolish these religions from the face of the earth, so that God may once again become the God of all people (…) and work for the salvation of all people” (Acquittal, p 17).

–(Acknowledgement, p. 17). -That is why man must not only be humble, but respect God and say: ‘I do not know this absolute being’. Christians, especially theologians, claim that they know God perfectly! What does that mean? Who knows God? Nobody.

It is enough for us to accuse each other of disbelief (Takfir) because of our knowledge or lack of knowledge of God. Man and every human individual knows one side of God. And I know God as absolute, an absolute being who loves humans, loves the whole universe and its creation. And more than that, what do I know about God?

On the contrary, we should not pursue God either, go far and say that we know God.

God is incomprehensible!

-In fact, I want to conclude by saying: save God, save God. We were asking God to save us. Now we want to ask people to save God! God is not the one they know and write about and fight for. Our wars are divine wars on earth. Save God. This is my last word, Free man from God, and save God from man.

“”””””””””( )