The Dominican Friar Serge De Beaurecueil’s Praxis Mystica and Muslim-Christian Encounter

Abstract

”Are there locks upon our hearts?” That is the question posed by Kenneth Cragg when considering whether we are “adequately susceptible, in our thinking and our relationships, to the content: and inward force of the non-Christian other. “: The Christian discipleship of Catholic religious men and women living as guests in the dār al-Islam is a poignant nexus to apply this question.³ This essay focuses on the praxis mystica, or “être l’autre chez Pautre,” of the Dominican friar Serge de Beaurecueil (d, 2005). He was a founding member of L’ Institut Dominicain des Etudes Orientales du Caire (TDEO)⁴ and the foremost expert on the life and works of the I-lanbali Sufi ‘Abdullah Ansiirï of Herat fd. 1089).⁵ This study is not particularly concerned with de Beaurecueil’s erudite scholarship or the incompatibilities of Islam with Christian praxis. Rather, it focuses on the friar’s life experience in Kabul (Afghanistan), which points to the possibility of a genuine hospitality between Christians and Muslims, This investigation is a window into de Beaurecueil’s spirituality or mystical theology, which is Catholic and Dominican in scope. dialogical in commitment, intuitive, and yet practical in its goals.

First published as “Serge de BeaurecueiTs praxis mystica in dai al Islam,¹’ Science et Esprit 66, no. 3 (2014): 459–71.