Sumanto Al Qurtuby
Co-founder & Chairman, Center for the Study of Religion and Christian-Muslim Relations, Satya Wacana Christian University, and Research Associate, Center for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford, United Kingdom
The world mourns the passing of John Esposito, the Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Religion and International Affairs and Professor of Islamic Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. An internationally renowned Catholic scholar of Islam, interreligious studies, international affairs, and Christian-Muslim relations, Esposito passed away at the age of 86 due to complications from heart surgery in Philadelphia.
Born in 1940 from a working-class Italian-American Catholic family in Brooklyn, New York, Esposito, who was also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Religion and Christian-Muslim Relations (CSR-CMR) at Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU), which I co-founded and chair, is survived by his wife, Jean Esposito (Jeannette Paisker), whom he married in 1965.
Last year, when I requested him to serve on the Advisory Board of my CSR-CMR, Professor Esposito replied enthusiastically: “Delighted to hear from you and learn of your creation of the Center for the Study of Religion and Christian-Muslim Relations at Satya Wacana Christian University. I would be delighted to serve on the advisory board. I have many fond memories of the many times I was in Indonesia.”
Several days later, Esposito emailed me again about the center’s progress, indicating his deep interest and enthusiasm for the new initiative. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time yet to invite him to visit my center, though I plan to invite him to the Christian-Muslim studies conference at SWCU.
After his death, worldwide leaders and scholars, including Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül, and representatives of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, sent condolences. Anwar Ibrahim described Esposito as “an influential scholar who built the intellectual foundations for a deeper understanding of Islam in the West,” while Abdullah Gül stated that Esposito’s introduction of Islam to the West was “beautiful and graceful.”
Commenting on his passing, my friend Nader Hashemi, a specialist in political Islam and Middle East societies and the current director of Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, where Esposito founded it in 1993, stated briefly through my WhatsApp: “It is a huge loss; he was in good health. I am devastated.” Nader, who visited my center on Esposito’s behalf and gave a public lecture last year, also shared his obituary piece (published by Aljazeera), titled John Esposito Transformed How the West Understood Islam, stating that Esposito challenged Orientalist orthodoxies and reshaped the study of Islam and Muslim societies.
The passing of Esposito was also circulated in a WhatsApp group of scholars and practitioners in Christian-Muslim studies and relations worldwide, in which many have expressed their grief for the loss of one of the world’s respected Christian scholars of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations.
Esposito’s Academic Legacies
Like many scholars, I am also deeply saddened to hear of Esposito’s demise, whose books I began collecting during my graduate studies in the United States several years after the 9/11 terrorist tragedy (first at Eastern Mennonite University and then Boston University). Those who study Islam (or religion more broadly) and Christian-Muslim relations in the United States (or the West) are generally familiar with and thankful for Esposito’s abundant academic work.
Since the 1980s, Esposito has written over 50 academic works (as author, co-author, or editor) on Islam, Muslim societies, religion and global affairs, or Christian-Muslim relations, some of which have been influential in Islamic/religious studies circles and were instrumental in contributing to a balanced perspective and analysis of Islam and Muslim societies.
Among Esposito’s works on Islam are Islam: The Straight Path; Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (co-author with Dalia Mogahed); What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam; Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam; and The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality, among many others. In addition, Esposito served as the editor-in-chief of a number of Oxford reference works, including The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (six volumes), and Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
In a world where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim forces are widespread and disheartening, particularly in Western societies, Esposito’s works were really helpful and illuminating in clarifying and expounding so much misunderstanding and biased perceptions of Islam and Muslim societies.
Esposito’s roles and contributions to the study of Islam in Western academia have been significant, particularly because he was a non-Muslim but had an empathetic perspective of Islamic tradition and Muslim cultures and societies. Unlike some unfriendly Western scholars, religious leaders, and orientalists who have clearly shown their biased viewpoints, negative attitudes, cynicism, and/or skepticism about Islam and Muslim societies, Esposito took the opposite direction, making it like an oasis in the middle of a bleak desert.
Esposito’s stance on, defense of, and appreciation for Islam and the Muslim world was not new. Since the late 1960s or early 1970s, when most Western or non-Muslim scholars were not interested in studying Islam, Esposito had shown his deep interest in the study of Islam and Muslim societies, pursuing doctoral studies at Temple University (Philadelphia) with a major in Islamic studies and a minor in comparative religions.
Esposito completed his doctoral studies in the early 1970s under the guidance and mentorship of Isma’il Raji’ al-Faruqi (1921-1986), a prolific author, influential Palestinian-American Muslim philosopher, noted scholar of Islam and comparative religion, and defender of an interfaith “trialogue” (a model of interreligious engagement involving adherents of three Abrahamic faiths: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism). In many respects, Esposito’s academic and practical career followed al-Faruqi’s steps. Esposito was also one of the earliest Western/non-Muslim scholars hired to teach Islamic studies at an American higher education institution.
Lesson for Muslim Scholars
To me, the late Esposito was more than a fine scholar of Islam. He was also a successful institution builder. In 1993, he founded the world-renowned Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University, one of the finest Catholic universities in the West, and served as its founding director. Since its inception, ACMCU has been a globally recognized center for the study of the history of Muslim-Christian relations and the promotion of improved relations through dialogue. After successfully establishing ACMCU, Esposito founded The Bridge Initiative on Protecting Pluralism and Ending Islamophobia and served as its founding director.
This brief essay is not enough to depict Esposito’s huge contribution and role in defending Islam, fighting against Islamophobia, and nurturing Christian-Muslim studies and understanding in the West and globally. I hope more non-Muslim scholars, especially Christians, in the West will follow Esposito’s steps and legacies: studying, writing, teaching, and lecturing on Islam and Muslim societies with fairness, unbiasedness, and empathy, not suspicion, bias, and antipathy, as well as fostering a constructive dialogue between Muslims and Christians (also Jews and other religious adherents). Such efforts not only require deep knowledge and thorough understanding of other religious traditions but also genuine courage.
Equally, Esposito taught many lessons for Muslim scholars (including myself) to study other religious traditions with deep respect, fight Christianophobia and antisemitism, and promote interfaith dialogue in their communities, societies, and countries. In a world where many followers of religion are suspicious of one another and misunderstood by other faiths, and where fruitful interreligious initiatives (including Christian-Muslim initiatives) are extremely lacking, Esposito’s works are not only heartening but also deeply needed.
Rest in peace, John. Your body can be gone, but your soul, spirit, and enthusiasm should stay forever in this world that is filled with interreligious hatred and hostility.