Mahmoud Abdallah: Islamische Seelsorgelehre: Theologische Grundlegung und Perspektiven in einer pluralistischen Gesellschaft, Ostfildern (Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag) 2022, 426 pp., ISBN 978-3-7867-3292-1, 52,00 €.

a) The comprehensive compendium Islamische Seelsorgelehre by Dr. phil. Mahmoud Abdallah (Germany and Austria – Islamic Theology Tübingen, Innsbruck and Vienna) sees itself as “a theological foundation of Islamic pastoral care” (23) in Europe and beyond. In the “formation phase” (23) of this young discipline, Abdallah’s work contributes to the development of Islamic pastoral care as an academic, professionalized and institutionalized discipline (20), which is attuned to the social situation of plurality, individualization and secularity (67ff). His concept of Islamic pastoral care promotes the “homeing of Islam in Europe” (22) and its positive contribution to European society (70ff). The book is aimed at pastoral counselors, students of Islamic theology as well as practical theologians of other faith traditions who are interested in an interreligious theory of pastoral care.

b) Abdallah presents its own definition of Islamic pastoral care (95ff), grounded both in the Qur’anic concept of Birr as “doing what is pleasing to God” (121–154) and in a contemporary interpretation of Islamic anthropology (197–246). The argument unfolds on three complementary levels: First, the author deals with central material topics of Islamic pastoral care: repentance and forgiveness as well as the Islamic attitude of “beautiful patience” in the face of suffering. Second, Abdallah addresses questions of Islamic pastoral care as an academic discipline: subject matter, methodology, and its relationship to other sciences. Third, the book closes with perspectives on the beginning institutionalization of Islamic pastoral care in Germany: legal provisions, financial sponsorship and education programs.

The three levels converge in a “practical hermeneutics” (347) of the Qur’an for theory and practice of pastoral care. The author exemplifies this hermeneutic by making the Qur’anic prophetic narratives fruitful for pastoral care.

Abdallah understands Islamic pastoral care as “help in questions of life and faith, motivated by the Islamic faith and without preconditions” (99f). It responds to the divine command to interpersonal responsibility (100) and meets the vulnerability of the human being (118). The adoption of the originally Christian concept of “pastoral care” for Islam in Europe is deliberate. It signals both the interest in Christian theory of pastoral care (98) and the concern to anchor Islamic pastoral care in contemporary European society (119). The reception of Christian approaches to pastoral care runs like a thread through the work, unfolding a fruitful dialogue of Christian-theological and Islamic-theological perspectives on pastoral care. As Islamic sources, the author introduces a Qur’anic concept of the soul and identifies Muslim charitable foundations (waqf) as historical precursors of institutionalized Islamic pastoral care (105).

The author argues forcefully against an authoritarian, religious-catechetical and plurality-denying understanding of pastoral care and thus obviously reacts to virulent discourses in the Muslim community. Abdallah’s subject-oriented and plurality-affirming counter-draft is based on his liberal interpretation of the Islamic authorities of the Qur’an and Hadith. He affirms religious plurality and intercultural cooperation (72.233ff), which finds a common interreligious ground in the birr concept (142ff). Abdallah asserts ambiguities over dichotomous judgments (153), conceives of the positively conceived human being (adam) as the autonomous subject of pastoral care (202.230), and emphasizes freedom of faith in Islam (233). Abdallah understands his conception of pastoral care not primarily as a concession to modernity, but as a well-founded interpretation of Islamic tradition.

c) This positioning means a far-reaching agreement with the premises of contemporary Christian pastoral care. Consequently, pastoral care of the two religious traditions becomes connectable. The author proposes to understand “pastoral care as an umbrella term of helping communication. Each Religion (or worldview) fills this umbrella with its specific contents.” (119) The “interreligious shaping of the new discipline” is of “elementary importance” for the author (31). Overall, Abdallah’s work testifies both to a pronounced interest in the interreligious connectivity of Islamic pastoral care and to the engagement with the context of a pluralized European society.

Mahmoud Abdallah defines Islamic pastoral care primarily as interpersonal help in the face of individual distress and crisis. Protestant poimenics has been well acquainted with such a definition since Friedrich Schleiermacher. However, more recent Protestant contributions discuss both the fundamental problems of this model of crisis intervention (Henning Luther: Alltagssorge und Seelsorge) and the need for supplementation. Pastoral care also takes the form of everyday conversation without an obvious crisis horizon (Eberhard Hauschildt: Alltagsseelsorge), the form of intention-free attention in the personal encounter (Wolfgang Drechsel: Gemeindeseelsorge), the form of biography work (Albrecht Grözinger: Rekonstruktion von Lebensgeschichte). Beyond any crisis intervention, these forms of pastoral care can also claim a theologically justified value for themselves. It will be interesting to see how this diversity can also be incorporated into a comprehensive understanding of Islamic pastoral care that accounts for its various forms and occasions.

As method of argumentation, the book mainly applies interpretation of the normative sources of Islam. Therein lies the great strength of the book to develop a contemporary understanding of pastoral care which is, at the same time, tied back to the normative sources of Islam and its basic normative theological questions of the image of man and the image of God. The author strongly advocates a reference of Islamic pastoral care to the human sciences (333–336), but without carrying out this reference in his work. To what extent and in what way an empirical turn will take shape in the teaching of Islamic pastoral care remains an exciting question for the future.

With his Islamic Pastoral Care, Mahmoud Abdallah presents an excellent comprehensive compendium and a potential standard work of the young discipline, the reading of which will be inspiring for Islamic and Christian theologians and pastoral counselors alike.