Review: Pillars

July 29, 2021July 28, 2021 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

Pillars, Rachel Pieh Jones, Foreword by Abdi Nor Iftin. Walden, NY: Plough Publishing, 2021.

Summary: An account about how the author’s attitudes both toward Islam and her Christian faith changed as she and her husband lived among Muslims in Somalia and Djibouti.

Rachel Pieh Jones grew up in a warm and thriving evangelical church in Minnesota. A lot of love–and some legalism. She didn’t know any Muslims but believed that they were “violent, backward, and just plain wrong.” Yet in Pillars, after a number of years in Somalia and Djibouti, she writes:

“I had a lot to learn about how to love my neighbors and practice my faith cross-culturally. I don’t identify with the label ‘missionary,’ with its attendant cultural, theological, and historical baggage, though I understand this is how many view me. I do love to talk about spirituality–and what fascinates me is that the more I discuss faith with Muslims, the more we both return to our roots and dig deeper. As we explore our own faith, in relationship with someone who thinks differently, each of us comes to experience God in richer, more intimate ways. In this manner, Muslims have helped me become a better Christian, though things didn’t start out that way” (p. 49).

How did she change? It began with some relationships with Somali refugees in their apartment complex in Minnesota while her husband completed doctoral studies. An opportunity opened up to teach in Somalia at Amoud University. This led to an immersion in Somali life, aided by their housekeeper and the guard assigned to them as foreign nationals–for ten months, when all their plans were interrupted when several foreign nationals were killed and they had to grab their evacuation bags and flee on a moment’s notice. The found refuge in neighboring Djibouti. Over the next years, Rachel and Tom grew close to a number of Muslims, entering into shared life, and observing their devotion to Islam

They didn’t become Muslims. They learned a lot about Islam. When urged to pray the shahada, she was able to say, “No, I love Jesus.” She answered a lot of questions about Jesus. She learned how to live among the people. She celebrated weddings and births and the breaking of fasts.

Jones organizes her account around the five pillars of Islam: creed, prayer, giving, fasting, and pilgrimage. Learning how her Muslim neighbors encountered God made her reflect more deeply on her own faith, and fall more deeply in love with Jesus. The shahada, a call to convert, to submit to God who is one is really a call to revert. It reminded her of Jesus and Nicodemus, the call to be born again. The prayers, which she sometimes was able to join some women in, led her to a renewal in her own prayer life–amid a pregnancy, ever present dangers, and the everyday challenges of life. The practices of almsgiving forced her to face how she also was conscious of reward in giving and recounts her experiences of helping a poor refugee establish an outdoor restaurant. She had rarely fasted but fasted along with others during Ramadan and joined in the joyous celebrations of Eid. Learning about the pilgrimage to Mecca brought her to a realization of her own lifelong pilgrimage.

I so appreciated this narrative. It was earthy and incarnational. Jones adopts an open and learning posture, both with her Muslim friends and toward what the Lord Jesus would teach her. She can recognize difference without “othering.” She’s as open about Jesus as she is to learning from her friends, like Amaal, her spirited maid. And over time she is able to distinguish what is American Christianity and what is the core of the gospel of Jesus.

This is not a book for those interested in polemics against Islam. Jones takes us into the lived experience of Muslims in the Horn of Africa and what a real engagement with them can be like with risk, affection, difference, and real learning. We also should remember her learning journey began with the Somali refugees in Minnesota. Many of us are near Muslim communities. We may have Muslim neighbors or work colleagues or health care providers. This is a valuable book both for its exploration of Islam, but also for its model of humble, open dialogue, willing to make mistakes and take risks, to welcome and be welcomed. And it points to what can happen as we engage those of another faith. We not only learn about their faith. We rediscover our own.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: The Qu’ran in Context

July 17, 2017July 16, 2017 / rtrube54 / 3 Comments

The Qu’ran in Context, Mark Robert Anderson. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2016.

Summary: A study by a Christian theologian of the Qu’ran in its seventh century AD context exploring its teachings in relation to Christian teaching, noting both similarities and points of divergence in the hope of encouraging open and honest dialogue between adherents of these two faiths.

There is a strand of public discourse, drawing both upon the ideas of Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations, and incidents of terror, that propose that there is a war or clash between Islam and the West, or at least between elements of Islamic cultures and the west. Then there are others who pursue perhaps a quieter conversation proposing that given the clashes that have occurred and a desire to maintain and protect a pluralist society recognizing freedom of conscience and belief, that some effort needs to be made between Christians and Muslims to find common ground. The most newsworthy was a statement by a group of Muslim clerics, “A Common Word,” with responses from other major religious bodies, calling for interfaith dialogue and action based on commonly shared teachings around the love of God and neighbor.

Some who would take the former view criticize, in my view justly, some of the efforts of dialogue that minimize or altogether mute differences or take at face value assertions about Islam without careful textual study. In The Qu’ran in Context Mark Robert Anderson offers a resource grounded in a Christian perspective that seeks to read the Qu’ran both sympathetically in its seventh century AD context, delineating its teachings, noting both similarities with Christian teaching and places where these diverge. He writes:

“My goal of encouraging dialogue should need little justification from a Christian
perspective. The psalmist says how pleased God is when brothers and sisters live together peaceably and the New Testament calls us to do all we can to be at peace with everyone (Ps 133:1-3, Rom 12:18, Heb 12:14). In our global village, that demands dialogue.

But true dialogue does not deny or minimize difference. Rather, it begins with an honest acknowledgement of difference no less than similarity. Without that, we cannot be truly heard and understood. Using the term neighbor in its broadest sense, Jesus commands us to treat our neighbor as we want her to treat us (Mt 7:12; cf. Lk 10:25-37). Paul also counsels us to do good to everyone, Christian or not (Gal 6:10). So we lovingly speak what we hold to be true and graciously listen as our Muslim brother or sister does likewise. And we remain ready, as Peter charges us, to offer a defense to anyone who seeks the reason for our hope, doing so with gentleness and reverence (1 Pet 3:15-16). So our truth telling is to be marked always by kindness and honor for our partner in dialogue—as a Thou, not an It, in Martin Buber’s terms.”

Anderson proceeds along the following lines to do this. Part One of his book looks at the origins of the Qu’ran and the history of Muhammad and his context. It is particularly fascinating to understand the tribal rivalries of the Arabian peninsula in this time and the mix of pagan religion and contexts with Jews and Christians through trade.

Part Two is the longest part and considers what Anderson calls the “Qu’ranic Worldview.” He explores the Qu’ran’s teaching about God, God’s immanence and transcendence, and justice and mercy. He explores Adam’s creation in an extra-terrestrial garden, and his fall, with Satan, and humanity’s reprieve from the judgment of God. He explores the concepts of sin and salvation, the ideas of prophethood, scripture, and revelation, and the devotional, social, and political dimensions of Qu’ranic spirituality. While noting points of similarity, he also contrasts the aloofness of God, the absence of grace, and the differing ways the two faiths engage the political realm, among a host of other differences.

Part Three focuses on Jesus in the Qu’ran: his origins and person, his words and works, his death, and the community he established. He shows how Jesus is both exalted and marginalized such that the supremacy of Muhammad as prophet is maintained. In particular, it highlights bizarre instances of miraculous works by the child Jesus, while showing him deferring to the disciples as an adult. He also explores the conflicting claims he finds in the Qu’ran about the death of Jesus.

Part Four then summarizes the discussion and explores the relation of Bible and Qu’ran, including the claim that the differences between the two may be accounted for by intentional distortions and falsifications by both Jews and Christians (even though these two were opposed to one another for most of the relevant history). He notes three critical biblical themes running through both testaments and contrasts these with the Qu’ran:

Friendship with God
The free grace of God
The humility of God

One place where I could see this work facing criticism is the approach, which Anderson, drawing on N. T. Wright, calls critical realism, approaching the text in its historic context and prevailing worldview. He does not ignore Muslim interpretive traditions, particularly where they differ from his reading of the text, but does significantly background these, while admitting evangelical and reformed presuppositions in reading the Christian scriptures. I suspect this may work fine where lay evangelicals are in dialogue with lay Muslims where the focus is comparative study of texts and discussion, but would be much more nuanced between scholars of both faiths, whose understandings are shaped by a millenia or more of interpretive tradition as well as study of the text in its context.

However, I would commend this as a helpful resource for interfaith discussions in universities and community contexts. It models both grace and forthrightness of approach without a combative spirit. While trying to meet the Qu’ran on its own terms, it doesn’t pretend to be less than what it is, “a Christian exploration.” Also, it demonstrates another truth often discovered through interfaith conversations: that participants may come to a deeper grasp of the contours of their own faith, as well as that of the other, through these encounters.

Might we avert the much touted clash of civilizations? That remains to be seen. Certainly, there will be violence in the name of religion. What Anderson’s book gives us is a picture of the real work and perhaps the harder struggle that must take place if adherents of Christianity and Islam are truly to understand each other’s sacred scriptures and beliefs, to find ways to co-exist, rather than to fight and seek to dominate each other.

Review: Answering Jihad

July 12, 2016August 25, 2025 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, Nabeel Qureshi. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.

Summary: Contends that there is a basis in the foundations of Islam for violent, and not merely defensive, jihad, which neither can be ignored, nor assumed of all Muslims, but calls for a proactive response, particularly of Christians, of love and friendship with the hope of breaking the cycle of violence.

In this book Nabeel Qureshi, a convert from Islam to Christianity, details his own realization, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11 that Islam at its foundations was not the “religion of peace” in which he was raised and that many Muslims as well as American political figures touted this idea to differentiate the perpetrators of terror from the mass of Muslims.

Qureshi contends in this book that it is true that many Muslims were raised as he was, and that the vast majority of Muslims indeed simply want what all want: to live peaceably, to be financially secure in fulfilling work, and to raise healthy families in their faith. However, what he found as he researched the foundational texts and early history of the Prophet Muhammad, was a trajectory toward increasing violence, both in the Qur’an, and in the acts of Muhammad, and that not all of this was merely defensive. He particularly points out that Surah 9, the last of the Surahs is the most violent and, he would contend, abrogates earlier peaceable Surahs.

What he faced, and he believes faces young Muslims who turn to these teachings, particularly as they are promoted online, is that there is a choice between apostasy through leaving Islam, apathy through ignoring Muhammad’s teaching or “radicalization” which seeks to obey all his teachings, including those concerning jihad as violent struggle, not merely “spiritual” struggle as it is sometimes portrayed. Thus he would propose that efforts to separate violent radicalism from religiously rooted motivations are misinformed and dangerous.

The book consists of a series of short chapters, each which attempts to answer a single question. The first part is concerned with the origins of jihad and explores whether Islam is a religion of peace, what is jihad, is it in the Qur’an and the life of Muhammad, and what is sharia. Many of the conclusions mentioned above come from this section.

The second turns to jihad today, asking what is radical Islam, does Islam need a reformation, who are Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram, and why Muslims are being radicalized. He would contend that the “reformation” of Islam is actually at the heart of violent radicalism, and that what is needed is re-imagining a peaceful Islam, but does not hold out much hope for this because it means ignoring or de-emphasizing some of the teachings of Muhammad.

The final section compares Islam and Christianity. He contends that what Christians and Muslims believe about God is sufficiently different that they do not worship the same God, contra theologians like Miroslav Volf. In fact, he criticizes Volf for stifling dialogue because of Volf’s categorical statements denying that there was any theological justification for the suspension of Larycia Hawkins from the Wheaton faculty for affirming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. At the same time, Qureshi acknowledges differences here and would like to see more dialogue, which he believes Volf’s statements precluded.

In this final section Qureshi also discusses the comparisons of jihad with holy war in the Old Testament and with the Crusades. He quotes a friend who said, “If you want to follow the biblical model of attacking a land, the first thing you have to do is wait 400 years.” He also contrasts the biblical and Islamic trajectories–the former begins with war but ends in the New Testament with a renunciation of violence that carried through the first 300 years of the church’s existence, where Christians were martyred but did not fight back; the latter becomes increasingly violent in the later Surahs and its earliest centuries are filled with violent conquest and often viewed as the Golden Age of Islam.

What Qureshi would contend is that we need to have eyes wide open to these things–and to proactively love even those who could turn out to be enemies. It is a call neither to close our eyes and minds to discerning the roots of violence that he contends is at the heart of Islam, nor to close our hearts to Muslim neighbors, including those who seek refuge. It raises the question of whether we can be both vigilant and compassionate. It is a call that recognizes the possibility that some may be “radicalized” and yet that many others may be won by friends, who like a Christian friend of his, suggested that radicalization was not the only option.

It strikes me that Qureshi exemplifies the “both-and” thinking that characterizes Christians who believe the gospel calls us to a “Third Way”. Vigilant compassion succumbs neither to naive sentimentality nor to fear and hatred. It reckons with the fallen, violent world in which we live, and holds to the redemptive possibilities in the way of the Christ. As Qureshi concludes, this is not the final answer, but rather a way forward.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Thinking Politically

February 23, 2016February 22, 2016 / rtrube54 / 3 Comments

In this season of presidential primaries where the news is saturated with politics (and you haven’t seen it until you’ve lived in a swing state like Ohio!) it is easy to go to one extreme or the other. Either we become rabid partisans or we disengage. As someone committed to what I call Third Way thinking, I actually think it is worth thinking about how our first principles shape how we look at the political order and how we engage with politics.

So I thought I would share some of the books that I’ve read in recent years that may be helpful. Most are written by those who I would describe as thoughtful Christians. There are some who read this who might consider that an oxymoron. I hope if you peruse a few of these books, or even my reviews, you might think otherwise. And if you are a Christian, I hope you will consider taking the opportunity of this political season to re-examine your thinking about these matters. Is your mind shaped by media or by Christ?

Christian Political Witness, George Kalantzis and Gregory W. Lee, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. A collection of essays from a theology conference looking at ways the church has related to the political order. My review.

Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, Andy Crouch. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013. This a broader question than politics, that of power and whether it is possible to use power redemptively. My review.

The Global Public Square, Os Guinness. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013. Guinness explores the commitments necessary to preserve freedom of conscience in a diverse public square. My review.

The Good of Politics, James W. Skillen. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014. He argues that our political life is rooted in creation rather than the fall and how this might shape our engagement in politics, with lots of examples from contemporary issues. My review.

To Change the World, James Davison Hunter. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Hunter argues that we often work from inadequate assumptions about the nature of change and place too great a stock in the political order as an agent of change. My review.

A Public Faith, Miroslav Volf. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011. Volf also uses “third way” language in laying our four propositions for how Christians might work in a diverse public square. My review.

Allah: A Christian Response, Miroslav Volf. New York: Harper Collins, 2010. Not so much about politics but one of the contentious issues of this election–how we relate to Islam. Volf contends Christians and Muslims worship the same God, albeit with different understandings. Whether you agree with this contention or not, a thought-provoking read. My review.

The Religion of Democracy, Amy Kittelstrom. New York: Penguin Press, 2015. This book traces the “American Reformation” of Christianity through the lives of seven key figures spanning the late eighteenth to early twentieth century, in which adherence to creed shifted to the dictates of personal judgment and the focus shifted from eternal salvation to ethical conduct reflecting a quest for moral perfection and social benefit. Good for understanding our American civil religion. My review.

Immigration: Tough Questions, Direct Answers, Dale Hanson Bourke. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. Third in “The Skeptics Guide Series” and like others in the series provides a concise overview of basic facts about immigration and discusses the challenges of immigration policy in the United States. My review.

The Politics of Jesus, John Howard Yoder. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, rev. ed. 1994. This is perhaps a classic Anabaptist statement that argues that the church, rather than becoming engaged with the political order, is one. A caveat comes with this book. Yoder, who died in 1997, was the object of numerous charges of sexual abuse of women both at Goshen Biblical Seminary, and later at Notre Dame. Yet, and probably before these allegations came to light, Christianity Today named it in the Top Ten Books of the Twentieth Century.

This is hardly an exhaustive list of good books out there. Nor does it reckon with classic works like Augustine’s City of God, Aristotle’s Politics, and Plato’s Republic just to name a few. What strikes me as I review this list, is that it emphasizes both the importance of and yet limited function of the political order. Politics matters, but it is not everything. That itself may be an important perspective in these upcoming months.

I’d love it if you would add your recommendations in the comments! I always love to hear of books I haven’t read, and I suspect other readers would enjoy that as well!

Review: Grand Central Question

February 15, 2016February 13, 2016 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

Grand Central Question, Abdu H. Murray. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Summary: Every worldview addresses the fundamental “why” questions of human existence and the author contends that the worldviews of secular humanism, pantheism, and Islam each have a “grand central question” and that the grand central questions posed by these worldviews find their deepest and most satisfying answers in the Christian gospel.

Abdu Murray grew up as a Muslim, trained as a lawyer, and spent years questioning the beliefs of those around him–atheist, Christian, pantheist–until he was confronted with some questions of his own that led to a his embracing the Christian faith.

In this book, Murray begins with the important and costly search for truth, acknowledging that this could lead to great loss–of respect, of family, even of life–and leaves us with the question of what the truth is worth for us. He then explores the idea that every worldview in some way addresses some basic questions including:

What explains existence? Or is there a God?
Is there an objective purpose and value to human existence?
What accounts for the human condition?
Is there a better life or salvation from our present state?

He contends that each of the belief systems–secular humanism, pantheism, and Islam–is particularly concerned with one Grand Central Question that receives the greater emphasis in that system. For secular humanism, it is the question of the basis of human dignity when there is no God. On what can the inherent value of humans be grounded? For pantheism, it is the question of how do we escape (and explain) suffering? Finally, for Islam, it is the question of the greatness of God, and how one might worship a great but unapproachable God.

In three sections, Murray expands upon the central question for each worldview, showing how the worldview attempts to address this, the shortcomings of those explanations and why he believes the Christian gospel provides the most cogent and satisfying explanation. For the secular humanist, simply asserting the intuition of our worth may not be enough if we come up against superior beings considering us expendable. Appealing to fine-tuning arguments of design, Murray proposes the grounding of our worth in God as his image bearers.

Likewise, pantheism argues for the elimination of desire as the basis for the escape from suffering. Yet this does not do away with the reality of suffering. Christian faith speaks of a God who enters into our suffering, and rather than trying to deny or transcend its existence offers meaning in suffering as well as an ultimate deliverance from it.

Finally, and perhaps especially valuable because of the author’s own prior beliefs, is his exploration of Islam. He particularly explores the idea of “God is greater” and proposes that the very things Islam denies are in fact what offer the greatest possible God, a God who is One not only as we are but uniquely one essential deity in three persons, a God whose love arises from the eternal relations of the three, and a God who may be approached in worship because he approached us in his Son. Furthermore, this Jesus did not have a substitute die on the cross, hardly a sign of greatness, but died as the substitute for humanity.

He concludes with the proposal that the Christian gospel does not address one Grand Central Question but provides answers that address the range of questions about human existence that intellectually satisfy and can spiritually transform.

I appreciated the idea of a “grand central question”, although I wonder if proponents of these worldviews would be comfortable with this rubric. His discussion showed evidence of many dialogues with people who hold the views he is addressing, but I wonder if the book would have felt more authentic if he had dialogue partners from these three “worldviews” responding to his proposals.

I think what set this book apart was the sensitive and insightful exploration of Islam, including his narrative of how careful study of the Qur’an actually led to his examination of the gospels. I hope he will write further on Muslim-Christian engagement, which seems so important and needed in our day.