Lavigerie and Islam: An Ambiguous Legacy (original) (raw)

"Lavigerie and Islam: An Ambiguous Legacy”, Islamochristiana 46 (2020) 141-156 In a recent article on the contribution of the White Fathers to the renewal of Catholic attitudes towards Islam, Rémi Caucanas rightly notes that their founder's legacy "was not without ambiguity" in this regard and that this missionary society's option for dialogue took place only in the first part of the twentieth century. After briefly recalling the biography of Cardinal Charles Lavigerie (1825-1882), this article attempts to sketch his evolving views on Christian-Muslim relations as reflected in his vast personal correspondence, his pastoral letters and the detailed instructions he wrote for his missionaries.