Abstract
Christian mission initiatives towards Muslim peoples which originate from the West are often perceived as an expression of a colonialist mindset expressed through religion. This article proposes to listen attentively to that critique, first through the writings of Edward Said (Orientalism) and Ussama Makdisi (Artillery of Heaven). Contemporary political and military developments in the Muslim world are also observed as factors in the colonialist narrative. These include the Iraq War, the issue of Israel–Palestine and the current flight of historic Christians from the Middle East. Each of these tragic developments implicates Western Christianity, reinforcing Eastern proclivities to the accusation of colonialist mission. Though the accusation of colonialism is unlikely to disappear, Western mission efforts can take measures to soften its blow. By renouncing political affiliations and working collaboratively and holistically, Western Christians can continue to pursue mission objectives in the Muslim world.
Keywords
Introduction
“Sitting like a deaf man in a wedding procession!” This Egyptian Arabic quip may offend Western sensibilities concerning physical impairments. Nevertheless, it captures the idea that one can be present and yet unaware of what is taking place in the surrounding context. As the deaf person is unaware of the cacophony associated with a Middle Eastern wedding, so also Western Christians may step into mission among Muslims with little historical and social awareness.
The accusation that Protestant and evangelical mission is little more than a religious expression of Western domination or a product of “neocolonialism” is widespread in the Muslim world. This article does not endorse that idea, especially not its popular “conspiratorial” expressions. Even in its more careful articulations, the pertinent facts are not always carefully weighed. Yet, the accusation contains enough truth to oblige mission theorists and practitioners to reflect on its core concerns.
The Great Commission of Jesus Christ forms the conceptual foundation for mission in both its mainline and evangelical expressions. How is “discipling the nations” implemented in a neocolonial world? Can the charge of enmeshment with Western political and economic domination be avoided? First, consider the views of contemporary critics of evangelical mission in the Middle East.
Historical hurdles
In an afterword to his epoch-making book, Orientalism, Edward Said proposes to have “crossed over” the East–West divide, availing himself of the scholarly apparatus of Western intellectuals to do what, in fact, Orientalism had not envisaged—to talk back to Western scholars, to challenge their vantage point, to invite them to see the world through the lens of the reified “other.” Said perceived his work in Orientalism as an Eastern voice in the garb of Western intellectual discourse, inviting to a “non-dominative and non-essentialist type of learning.” 1
Said was responding to a need broadly perceived in the Middle East—to reassert the dignity of the East in an era of American and Western political, military, and economic hegemony. For many Eastern intellectuals, Said gave voice to their cause. For insightful non-Eastern readers, Orientalism served as a wake-up call, a reminder of the subtle infiltration of power structures into even the most well-meaning interactions. While the ideal of Christian mission is self-denial, it remains an incorporated effort, integrated with the societies and power structures from which it originates. As such, to argue that “mission” is free of imperialist tendencies betrays cultural blinders, precisely the kind Said sought to expose.
Said deals in intellectual categories including the perceived polarity of Islam and Christianity.
European interest in Islam derived not from curiosity, but from fear of a monotheistic, culturally and militarily formidable competitor to Christianity. . . . In one way or another that combination of fear and hostility has persisted to the present day, both in scholarly and non-scholarly attention to an Islam which is viewed as belonging to a part of the world—the orient—counterposed imaginatively, geographically, and historically against Europe and the West.
2
A second work, Artillery of Heaven by Ussama Makdisi, unfolds the narrative of the conversion and martyrdom of a Lebanese Maronite (Catholic), Asʽad Shidyaq. Makdisi digs deeply into North American mission history, setting evangelical mission in the Middle East against the backdrop of the Puritan mission among the native American population of New England led by John Eliot and David Brainerd. From Makdisi’s point of view, the mission to the native Americans failed miserably and its hagiography scarcely noted their ruthless displacement. 3 Makdisi notes the ironic lack of cultural empathy for native Americans coupled with Brainerd’s brooding self-introspection. “He confirmed a fundamental conceit of mission work: those to be saved were to be the objects of unilateral transformation, their culture disparaged, their history ignored, their equality consistently denied.” 4
The missionaries’ evangelical passion to “change the world” searched for a broader field which was discovered in Mount Lebanon (among other locations). The Maronite 5 population existed within a sometimes turbulent, but predominantly tolerant Ottoman Empire, dividing the sectarian confessions sharply and leaving little room for the Protestant innovators. The Maronite self-perception as part of a religiously diverse tapestry of Mt. Lebanon ruled by the Ottoman Sultan contrasted starkly with American Protestant conversionist, millennialist, and exclusionary enthusiasm. 6
Asʽad Shidyaq’s tragic death while chained in solitary confinement in the Qanoubine Monastery of north Lebanon provided missionaries with their first Protestant martyr. Makdisi contends it was the tragic fruit of the Americans’ inability to grasp the complex cultural and religious heritage of the Maronites.
The point of introducing this article through the writings of two academics of Palestinian descent is not to castigate all missionary approaches in the Middle East. Indeed, many positive outcomes of Protestant mission could more easily be adduced. 7 The point is to recognize that in many quarters of the Muslim world, the Western missional incursion is seen as an imposition of power, a thinly veiled expression of colonialism. The two Palestinian intellectuals permit us to listen to the strongest critics of mission. Protestant mission history carries baggage, among both the historic Christian and Muslim communities of the Middle East. Ignorance of that history ensures that it will be repeated. By listening to its critics, more fruitful ways of engaging in the mission of Christ’s Kingdom in the Arab and broader Muslim world may be discovered. 8
Contemporary mission practitioners may assume this history is past and irrelevant. The truth is that in the highly politicized climate of the Middle East, the historical critique is reinforced by contemporary political and economic realities.
Contemporary challenges
The Iraq War and Syrian crisis
Consider one example of East–West tension—the Iraq war. The trigger word “crusade” appeared in the political rhetoric concerning the US war on terror. 9 The association was picked up in Arab media, already highly suspicious of US motives in the area. Though the new “crusade” was not fundamentally religious, the use of the word added fuel to the suspicion that the war was a profound “clash of cultures”—a case of East versus West, the Muslim East versus the Christian West. 10
The ostensible purpose of the US invasion was to displace Baghdad’s strongman—Saddam Hussein—whose weapons of mass destruction threatened world stability. The weapons were never found. The democratic reform of Iraq remains elusive. 11 The wholesale dismissal of the Iraqi internal security apparatus contributed a logistically savvy Iraqi elite to the formation of ISIS. 12 The resulting instability has given Iran greater influence in Iraq’s internal affairs. 13
The widely shared street view from the Middle East concerning the emergence of ISIS is that it resulted from a combination of gaffes in the prosecution of the war in Iraq and a concealed plan to keep Muslim militants engaged in warfare. One Syrian Muslim political leader suggested that ISIS fighters were likely trained in US universities supplied by Saudi funding. 14 Though the comment reveals a conspiratorial and superficial reading of events, it is nonetheless a common theme in the Syrian narrative of the crisis.
Israel–Palestine
The long-term stalemate of Palestine–Israel is a missiological emergency. Evangelicals marshal media and financial resources in support of the Israeli state while Palestinians watch their UN-designated homeland being increasingly swallowed up by new Israeli settlements. The angelic declaration of “peace on earth, good will to humanity” rings hollow to the Muslim world in view of this crisis.
The Palestinian plea for recognition and justice is the fulcrum on which much of the evangelical association with partisan American politics is weighed. Evangelicals are tarred with the brush of US partisanship in this most provocative of current Middle Eastern conflicts. In simple terms, Muslims increasingly view evangelicals, especially those from the United States, as their political and cultural enemy.
Middle Eastern Christian displacement
A final reality that rarely receives attention in missiological discussions is the progressive displacement of the historic Christian population from the Middle East. Statistics show that Iraq has lost approximately 65% of its historic Christian population since the US invasion in 2003—down from 1.5 million to 0.5 million. A Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church confided to a visiting delegation of American clergy that the actual number of Christians in Iraq is 120,000. If true, it represents the defection of 90% of Christians from this ancient heartland of Syriac and Chaldean Christianity over a mere 15 years.
Statistics for Palestine and Syria are equally disturbing. 15 Lebanon and Egypt are slightly less shocking. Nevertheless, the reality is that Christians are in flight from their ancient Middle Eastern homelands. Two considerations may escape Western attention: First, the complicity of Western Christians in conflicts such as the Iraq war and Israel–Palestine has contributed to the exodus of Middle Eastern Christians. 16 Second, these historic communities have long been engaged in aspects of holistic mission through hospitals, schools, and a host of other social services that mitigate radicalization of their societies and serve the common good. The loss of these missional expressions will not be offset by Western mission efforts alone.
Summarizing the challenge
These historical and political factors have implicated US evangelicals in the current political and social angst of the Middle East. As evangelical mission agencies strategize to serve in the Middle East, the Egyptian proverb, cited in the introduction to this article, comes to mind. Plans are made, strategies employed, funds raised, workers mobilized with little attention to the attending circumstances. Perhaps it is time to examine the matter through Middle Eastern and Muslim eyes. What baggage do Western missionaries carry before they set foot on Middle Eastern soil?
Do these realities warrant a retreat of American Protestants and evangelicals from mission in the Middle East? Withdrawal is not the antidote to naiveté and ignorance. Western missionaries should work collaboratively with the global church with deep awareness of justice issues in which they are implicated by association.
The promise of mission in the Muslim world
The formidable obstacles to a missional engagement of evangelicals in the Muslim world should be understood in the context of tectonic shifts of a social and religious nature that currently prevail in the Muslim world. Indeed, an unprecedented positive response to Christ’s gospel in the Muslim world is gaining momentum as we enter the 21st century. 17 Some mission research is suggesting that Protestant conversionary mission may play a larger role in the development of democracy than has been understood. 18 Articulate voices from the developing world are rising in defense of Protestant mission as a source of cultural renewal. 19 Indeed, if evangelicals are willing to recalibrate, approaching their missional objectives holistically and collaboratively, there may yet be a positive future for missional engagement in the Muslim World. The following elements highlight a few areas of seismic social and religious activity in the Muslim world which should be engaged with awareness and prayer.
Media and Muslim youth
The world is increasingly young and restless with half of the world’s population under 25. Indeed, half of some Middle Eastern populations is under 14. 20 Muslim youth are connected to the worldwide web in ways unimaginable only 20 years ago. Pew statistics show 76% of Jordanian youth and 80% of Lebanese youth own smart phones. An additional 23% and 15%, respectively, own cell phones (not smart phones). The trends are similar in Egypt and across North Africa. The Arab Spring, though its outcomes remain disappointing for many Arab and Muslim youth, was a product of youth mobilization via social media through the phenomenon of the cell phone. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are staples in the Middle East as are independent films, chatrooms, and online dating services.
These trends are known and recognized by mission practitioners in the Muslim world as an open door for gospel communication. While Muslim youth’s fascination with social media should not be construed as an abandonment of religious values, it suggests that alternatives are being sought while Islamic social strictures are questioned by the masses.
Globalization of the church
The shift of the locus of the church to the global South and East is a fact. 21 In 1900, 83% of global Christians were found in North America and Europe. In 2050, 72% will be found in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. 22 Paul Borthwick prognosticates that by 2025, the African continent may have the greatest percentage of Christians. Borthwick calls this new global reality “the great transition.” 23
This global shift is reverberating in the area of mission. South Korea has become one of the world’s largest exporters of its evangelical faith. 24 A recent unpublished study found there were 1400 short-term missionaries and 390 long-term missionaries sent out from Egypt. The “Back to Jerusalem Movement” is a multifaceted movement of Chinese Christians to retrace the steps of gospel mission long the Silk Road taking the message of the gospel back to the Middle East from where it originated. Brazilians, Nigerians, Filipinos, and many other nations are playing vital roles in the global spread of Christ’s gospel.
What does this mean for mission in the Muslim world? Three implications commend themselves. First, the repeated charge that Christianity is a “Western” religion is debunked. The association is ironic given that the Middle East was the birthplace of the faith. Christianity was increasingly viewed as the white European religion and Muslims such as Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Muḥammad Abduh, and Rashīd Riḍa arose to defend the legitimacy of Islam as the religion of an enlightened East. As the 21st century progresses, the reality demonstrated by a disbursed and diverse mission force is that the faith of Christ has spread to virtually all nations and ethnicities.
Second, and related to the first, is the charge that Christian mission continues to operate in a colonial framework, that Christian interests are wed to Western economic interests. For Said and Makdisi mentioned above, “orientalizing” the East (i.e. viewing the East through a stereotypical lens) was necessary in order to uphold the civilizing narrative of Western mission. Missionaries set out to correct a misguided Eastern social order that was misogynic, jeopardized the family and promoted religious violence. That colonizing attitude is detected today by Muslims who reject evangelicalism’s Zionist proclivities, deeply entrenched in certain strains of evangelical eschatology. 25
Nevertheless, as Christian mission globalizes, the association of evangelicalism with Zionism and other exploitative elements of the neocolonial era may lose some of its force. Indeed, new global perspectives on eschatology and particularly a theology of the land, might offer hope for evangelicals to forego Zionist inclinations. 26
Third, missional witness has moved well beyond the historic institutions of the colonial era (schools, hospitals, and churches). Today, global Christians are employed at every level of society in the Muslim world from cleaners to corporate executives, from mechanics to midwives, from educators to entrepreneurs. The result is a grass-roots missional movement that impacts Muslim societies at multiple levels. 27
Displacement
The existential pain of displacement of millions of Middle Easterners and other Muslim peoples is a pivotal phenomenon of our time. Families have disintegrated through child labor, child brides, lack of education, and an array of other social disasters as a result of abrupt displacement. 28 Massive displacements such as that observed in Syria beginning in 2011 and continuing until today are opening Muslim minds to new ways of perceiving the world and new relationships with Christians.
From 2012 to 2019 an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Syrian refugees poured over the Lebanese border. Lebanese churches became outposts of relief and communal support to a displaced Sunni population. Soon Syrians were hosting Discovery Bible Studies and some moved into ministry leadership roles in the context of local Lebanese churches. 29
While it is far too early to predict the outcomes of the displacement for the future of Christian mission in the area, there can be no doubt that a population once resistant to the gospel and Christian witness became responsive through a mass exodus and a generous Christian response. Much work remains to be done to assist these new followers of Christ as they either journey on to new homes in the West or return to their homelands.
Diaspora
The migrations mentioned above are a small part of a global phenomenon. Todd Johnson, coauthor of the Atlas of World Christianity, states that two hundred million people are on the move today. Some 720 million have resettled far from their land of birth. 30 The “unreached peoples” who were formerly beyond the reach of gospel ministry behind impregnable political borders now live in neighborhoods where the church is visible and available: Moroccans in Boston, Somalis in Seattle, Iranians in Vancouver, Turks in Hamburg, and the list could go on.
Unlike the victims of abrupt displacement, diaspora Muslims are often tightly associated with a community of compatriots, often sharing their religious life through an interconnected religious community (e.g. a local mosque or Islamic center). Diaspora Muslims are often resistant to alternative religious expressions and may be pressured by their own community to remain faithful to its disciplines and practices.
These communities can be open to dialogical meetings with other religious communities. As Christian leaders establish a relationship with local mosque leaders, they may accept dialogue around issues of concern to the community such as race relations, gender equality, or other ethical issues. Theological topics are fair game in religious dialogue: revelation, prophets, Christ, spiritual transformation, and so on.
When Muslim communities show little to no response to Christian overtures, Christians may judge the effort to be in vain. In such dialogue settings, the issue under discussion may be less important than the attending hospitality and interaction between participants and attendees. Integral witness seeks opportunities for Christians to get to know Muslims in their community and vice versa. Ideally, these relationships would move from public venues to homes. As Muslims live among Christians in the West, it is vital that Christian homes are open and that barriers of misunderstanding are broken down as Muslims and Christians literally break bread together. Such a long-term interaction necessitates the revival of the virtue of hospitality. The Writer of the Hebrews urges his readers to practice brotherly love (philadelphia—literally “love of brother”) while not neglecting hospitality (philoxenia—literally, “love of the other”). The author urges the same philos (love) to be shown to the brother or sister in faith and to the other—the one who does not belong to the family of faith. 31
As Muslims increasingly become neighbors of Christians, they may find that they have much more in common with their Muslim neighbors than they had previously considered. In more intimate and relational settings, faith-sharing is reciprocal and free of coercive elements.
Dialogue
The appearance of “A Common Word between Us and You” 32 (hereafter ACW) whose signatories include a global array of Muslim clerical and community leaders may signal a new era in Muslim–Christian relations (see www.acommonword.org). In the aftermath of 9/11, the Royal Al al-Bayt Institute of Jordan implemented the Qur’ān’s exhortation in 3:64: “O people of the Scripture, come to an agreement (or ‘a common word’) between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him.” ACW invites Christians to a dialogue of action premised on the two great commandments of Christ to love God with all one’s being and to love neighbor as self. 33 This opportunity for peacemaking between the world’s two largest and possibly the two most antagonistic faiths arose from the ruins of ISIS.
Though some evangelicals are suspicious that embracing the document undercuts evangelical distinctives and subverts missional outreach among Muslims, the potential of the document should not be overlooked, given the following considerations.
First, it is striking that these Muslim clerics chose, as the basis for their interaction with Christians, the two commands highlighted by Christ as summarizing the entire Old Testament law. Here is an implicit recognition of Christ’s authority, and why not? Muslims believe Jesus to be one of the most exalted prophets. His name is cited in the Qur’ān more than any other prophet and though the Christian understanding of Christ’s divinity is rejected, his prophetic ministry, as depicted in the Qur’ān, is fully embraced. Add this to the Qur’ānic concept that the former revelations are confirmed and preserved by the Qur’ān, and the dialogue practitioner has an excellent foundation for engaging Muslims in all things related to Christ—his teaching, his work, and even those elements about which Muslims and Christians differ (e.g. the veracity of the Christian Scriptures, the atoning death of Christ and his divine and human natures).
Given the furtive or underground nature of Christian mission in the Muslim world in recent years, ACW represents an invitation to move the conversation above ground. 34 It invites a public response of thoughtful theologians and ethicists around the commands of Jesus. While numerous theologians have responded to ACW, there remains a lacuna of mid-level responses (e.g. local churches and neighboring mosques).
Second, ACW opens a door for advocacy to the marginalized church in countries where Islam predominates. The recognition of Muslim clerics that Muslims (as well as Christians) are to love their neighbor as themselves begs the question of the self-justifying lawyer in Luke 10:29, “and who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ vision of “neighbor” embraces the hated cultural and religious other of his own era—the Samaritans. What implications does this have for the historic animosity between Christian and Muslim communities? 35
Third, this recognition on the part of Muslim clerics and intellectuals clearly distances them and their communities from the atrocities of Islamic militant extremism of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and affiliates. ACW consolidates a multitude of Islamic consultations and conferences all of which have declared the Islamic Caliphate of ISIS to be illegitimate. 36
Though this is not the place to review the history of the Islamic caliphate, suffice to say that the caliphate was the expression of Islamic political and religious unity for thirteen centuries. 37 The first concerted attempt to resurrect the Islamic caliphate in the 21st century (100 years after its demise through Ataturk) failed by common consent of Muslim ulema’ (scholars). The 21st century may prove to be a watershed era in the history of Islam as Muslim scholars recognize that it will be impossible to regroup all Islamic factions under one universal head. This development points to an ongoing diversification and globalization of Islam whose localized expressions answer to no universal authority but are liable to local authorities and context specific interpretations.
What this means for Christian witness is not yet apparent. Muslim nations will likely come increasingly under the pressure of universal human rights, including the right to religious freedom. It is instructive to watch the decades-long struggle of new Christian communities in Muslim lands (e.g. Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). Though the struggle of these communities is still in its infancy, it is apparent that government authority can neither deny nor conceal an emerging Christian church. 38
Fourth and finally, the recognition of Jesus’ two supreme commands presents an opportunity to move beyond ethics and religious behavior to the core of belief. As the sun sets on ISIS and the ideal of a politically empowered global Islam, it may be rising on a willingness to consider the broader prophetic tradition that Islam purports to uphold. Are Christians prepared to enter this dialogue of faith with well-meaning Muslims? The “gospel presentations” which became the stock and trade of evangelicalism in the late 20th century are unlikely to yield long-term fruit. What is needed is a historically grounded, theologically nuanced response that is conversant with Islam but refuses to be squeezed into its mold. Islam and Christianity proffer different answers to serious worldview-shaping questions: What is the nature of God, of humanity? What is the besetting problem of humanity? How is that problem resolved? Will the mission force of the 21st century include a trained cadre of Christian theologians who can enter that dialogue with a full awareness of Islam?
Positive mission in a neocolonial era
What is needed in this postcolonial era of mission to the Muslim world? Is it a reinvigorated revivalism modeled on the Great Awakening of the Wesley’s and Whitfield or a renewed sending fervor in the vein of William Carey and Hudson Taylor?
The great contributions of our forebears notwithstanding, the currents of mission to the Muslim world in the postcolonial era require a different tack. Islam’s points of resistance to the gospel and the current geo-political climate bid us rethink our approach to Christian witness in the Muslim world. Important elements of past missional efforts will be carried forward, but new considerations invite new reflection and new practices.
First, in this neocolonial period, the body of Christ must renounce political affiliations which are deemed by Muslims to carry forward colonial-era exploitation. The political commitments of the USA and other Western nations discussed above have reached a boiling point. 39 Mission engagement in the Muslim world must disengage from political aspirations which are, by nature of the fact, self-preserving and exploitative. The current association of evangelicalism with American exceptionalism means that mission practitioners must reexamine and amend political assumptions.
Second, in this neocolonial period, the church enjoys a great wealth of global expressions of faith. This shift of global Christianity to the South comes at the right time in history. Westerners should intentionally seek to hand over leadership to nationals (a recognized “best practice”) and follow the lead of other internationals. 40 In the Muslim world, Westerners must act as one member in the global body of Christ. Their voice should not dominate but harmonize with the global mission force.
The question of Western, American dominance in the area of finance cannot be overemphasized. Money equals power and control. Mechanisms of accountability, though necessary, contribute to the sense that the funding partner (often in the USA) is holding the reins of a ministry entity. The challenge is to interact with funds as a stewardship in partnership with the emerging church in the East and increasingly release control of those resources to local oversight and objectives after ensuring appropriate accountability.
Third, a theological-missiological renewal is required. The recent missiological fascination with contextualization has both positive and negative implications. Anthropological and sociological concerns predominate while theology is considered culturally conditioned. This era calls for an astute theological leadership in the application of missiology in the Muslim world. The questions that arise in the Muslim–Christian interface are intensely theological: the nature of the trinitarian persons in reference to Islamic absolute unity (tawḥīd), 41 the union of the divine and human in the one person of Christ, the concepts of prophecy and revelation, the nature of the ekklesia vis-à-vis the Islamic umma, hermeneutics and the role of text and its interpretation in the believer’s life, and so on. 42 Even complex cultural issues such as gender relations, family issues, and spiritism must be theologically derived.
Fully a quarter of the world’s population will soon be Muslim. A broad understanding of Islam should be considered part and parcel of theological formation in the West. The apostle Paul’s theology was forged by his call to make Christ known among the Gentiles (the nations). Great theologians of the Eastern and Western traditions (e.g. John of Damascus, Aquinas) 43 interacted with Islam. Theologians who are both Islamicists and cultural anthropologists are needed in the new era. 44
Fourth, in the age of the Arab Spring, Protestant and evangelical mission must be holistic or integral, holding forth the biblical call for justice and the dignity of all peoples as it proclaims the gospel as the means of humanity’s reconciliation to God and eternal salvation. These two aspects of mission need not be competitors. Rather, God’s grace in Christ’s atoning death remains the focal point of integral mission with a derivative concern for justice and mercy. 45 In the current climate of upheaval, wars, refugees, and denigration of human dignity, mission practitioners must demonstrate the biblical ideals of the imago Dei and justice in all their interactions. 46
Fifth and finally, the Muslim world is alternately confused and vindicated by a wide array of Christian denominations and sects. 47 While Islam has its own factions, the faith of Christ is compelled to unity by Jesus’ high priestly prayer. Consider how this proliferation of denominations and confessions impacts a Muslim who sincerely desires to understand the teaching of Christ. The issue is too vast to be discussed here in a satisfying way. Suffice to say that, the church will be better served in its witness to Muslims by identifying the core of its common faith rather than fragmenting along the lines of its secondary and divergent beliefs.
Conclusion
From its inception, Islam has presented a unique set of problems to its Christian counterparts while simultaneously claiming a common origin and prophetic heritage. The history of Muslim–Christian relations reveals an evolving complexity as the issues that originally separated the two faiths (Muhammad’s prophethood, Christology, and the Trinity) hardened into concrete pillars of demarcation. Contemporary missional initiatives through contextualization attempt to mitigate those dividing lines only to find that they resurface in discipleship of new believers. The force of those points of demarcation must not be underestimated but faced squarely as they are the scaffolding of the gospel of a self-giving God. There is hope that the contemporary Muslim can reconsider a holistic gospel that reconciles humanity to God and human beings to one another.
Footnotes
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
