Abstract
Charles Kimball has provided an insightful overview of the turbulent interplay among the three great religions of “the book”—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—in the early years of the twenty-first century. Kimball is one of the foremost scholars of Islam among Christians and has had extensive experience in interreligious dialogue in both formal and informal settings. Even as a graduate student in 1979, Kimball already had earned a reputation as one who could engage across critical boundaries. He was one of two persons allowed to enter the US Embassy during the Iran hostage crisis and, during the course of that crisis, spent more than four months in Iran. He has lived in Egypt and visited the Middle East on more than forty occasions across the years. He has also had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with leaders of many of the groups “animating the compelling controversies that most Americans know primarily through news stories and headlines” (p. 10). This latest book offers both a frightening and hopeful glimpse of what the future holds as these religious traditions are confronted with the challenge of understanding each other and the challenge of learning to live with one another in peace.
The opening chapter of the book describes Kimball’s experience of sharing Christmas Day, 1979, with Ayatollah Khomeini in Qom, Iran. This snapshot provides the introduction to his discussion of other crisis experiences, illustrating the volatile ways religion and politics can mix to create explosive outcomes. The initial chapter discusses the ways in which the interplay of religious traditions has unfolded, with a focus on events since September 11, 2001. Kimball engages the confusion so often present on the part of those who cannot seem to sort through the barrage of information emerging from the crises of these difficult days and who can only ask, “What is Islam and why do Muslims hate America?” Kimball tries to identify some of the reasons so many fail to have a grasp of the distinctive features of religious traditions other than their own, and he attempts to suggest a means whereby that lack of understanding can be remedied.
One of the theses that is a thread running through the book is the inevitable link between religion and politics, regardless of context. That thesis is explored through discussions of Judaism (God Gave Us This Land: The Roots of Religion and Politics in Judaism); Christianity (“Render Unto Caesar”: Religion and Politics in Christianity); and Islam (There Is No God But God: Religion and Politics in Islam). With each of these foci, Kimball follows up with a discussion of factors that have influenced the way the tradition in question developed and the various factors that played a part in that development. The history of events that he summarizes is a very helpful contribution toward understanding some of the confounding situations the world today confronts. What emerges as a constant in all of the discussions is the complexity of perspectives and voices reflected in all three of these religious traditions. Any assumption of a stereotype in any of the traditions is clearly the result of either ignorance of reality or refusal to accept reality as it is. Kimball points out the perils presented by extremist voices that are found in each of the traditions, and that too often become the image of that tradition for those who observe from outside the tradition.
Of particular value for those of us who have had too little exposure to Islam is his careful and cogent summary of the development of Islam, from Muhammed to the present. Kimball obviously could not provide a detailed history, but he rather deftly summarizes the very complex ways in which various movements in Islam came to exist and the ways in which their interaction with one another has often been as volatile as that often perceived between Islam and Christianity and Judaism.
Kimball gives significant attention to Islamic extremists and the forces that drive them. He is also quick to call attention to the distinct minority they represent in the overall fabric of Islam. To the voices who cry out for Muslim leaders to condemn the violence of extremists, Kimball offers examples of how that has been and is being done repeatedly in every segment of Islam.
As I reflect on what I take from a reading of this very worthwhile book, the following ideas surface as most significant for me. First, even though I have had a passing awareness of some aspects of what Kimball discusses, e.g., the diversity within Islam, I was actually woefully ignorant of just how complex the various expressions of Islam are and how much that complexity is overlooked in the instinctive reactions to violence perpetrated by some in the name of Islam. Second, I find the thoughtful description of the various expressions of extremism in Christianity, in particular those related to evangelical fundamentalism, to be especially troubling. The degree to which such voices are able to influence political decisions is among the more frightening elements discussed in the book. Third, I am encouraged by Kimball’s hopeful sense of how the ignorance and fear that are reflected widely in all three of these great religious traditions can, in fact, be overcome. The answer is one that the community with which I most closely identify can certainly affirm: “summed up in three words: education, education, education” (p. 180).
Although When Religion Becomes Lethal was published in 2011, it seems to me that it has special value in light of events that unfolded in the election season of 2016. I commend it as an excellent resource and a good read.