Download Allah: A Christian Response fb2

Miroslav Volf does an excellent job of establishing a position and attempting to defend it, but unfortunately falls short at robustly responding to the various implications of his arguments. For example, while Volf's scholarship on the doctrine of the Trinity as a traditional Christian belief is excellent and his understandings are both helpful and applied well enough to make his argument work, questions like the divinity of Christ, something that also raises tensions between Christians and Muslims, goes relatively unaddressed even as there are references to it; Volf seems to accept that "the Trinity is one God and not three gods" should be enough to assuage concerns about polytheism but does not respond to the Islamic belief that Jesus is not God. Since the divinity of Christ is an intrinsic Christian doctrine, and one which is problematic for Islam regardless of trinitarian concerns, Volf's answer is largely unconvincing even to myself, a fellow Christian. While Volf's conclusions are helpful and his understanding of proper relationships between Christians and Muslims is progress towards more harmonious (and properly Christian/Muslim) interactions, his supporting theology does not do justice to these points.

We live in a world beset by demons of fear, hate, and prejudice between Christians and Muslims. But it is also a world in which faithful disciples, of Jesus and Mohammad, seek to overcome them, if not exorcise them, by walking the path of faith. Miroslav Wolf is one of those. He asks central questions—most importantly, do we worship the same God?—and examines the implications when the answer is, “Yes.” Living in a town that has experienced the work of these demons first-hand (Murfreesboro, Tennessee), I know how healing it is when right-hearted worshipers from both sides meet, talk, and share life with each other. And how blessed are those encounters. The importance of this book is not the answers Wolf provides but the effort to examine the questions. As Episcopalians, he and I share a love of and appreciation for convocation: come, let us reason (and perhaps to pray?) together. This book is a great vehicle for that conversation.

It’ a good and pleasant experience for me to buy this book from you!

Mirsolav Volf grew up in Yugoslavia, a country that was destroyed by tensions turned into wars among some of its ethnic groups. Two of these wars were between Muslims and Christians. He wrote movingly and perceptively about the cruel drama played out in his homeland in his earlier book, Exclusion and Embrace, Abingdon, 1996. In that book he suggested that the Christian church fulfils its Godly calling in a broken world as it learns to live from a theology of embrace rather than one of exclusion.

Miroslav is the son of a Pentecostal Christian pastor who would never abide anything negative being said about any other person -- including Muslims. He writes from an experienced history to seek a better way that is true to the God whom Christians worship.

In the introduction to Allah: A Christian Response, Volf, who now teaches at Yale University, declares, "A deep chasm of misunderstanding, dislike, and even hatred separates many Christians and Muslims." His interest, he says, "is the proper Christian stance toward the God of the Qur'an and what that stance means for Christians' and Muslims' ability to live together well in a single and endangered world." And that sets the goal of this book: "to explore how Christian and Muslim convictions about God bear on their ability to live together well in a single world." He also says, "This entire book is about what Christians should think about the issue, not what Muslims should think." On the other hand he hopes that Muslims who read this book will find it treats their religion fairly and that they will be helped in their understanding about Christians. As he says, "I am offering a Christian suggestion to Muslims about how Muslims and Christians might think about the one God we understand and worship in partly different ways and about how to live in the one world and share in light of our convictions about God."

His central thesis is that "Christians and Muslims worship one and the same God, the only God. They understand God's character partly differently, but the object of their worship is the same." He rejects "the idea that Muslims worship a different God than do Jews and Christians."

The first three parts of the book -- chapters one through nine -- present a tightly but clearly argued review of history, scripture and theology -- both Catholic and Protestant.

By Chapter 10 in Part IV Volf concludes, "Muslims and Christians have a common God and partly overlapping understandings of God and God's commandments -- above all that God is one and that God is benevolent and commands us to love God with our whole being and our neighbours as ourselves."

The remainder of the book then seeks to explore how it might be possible for Muslims and Christians to live at peace in a threatened world.

One of Volf's important conclusions is that, "the claim that Christians and Muslims, notwithstanding their important and ineradicable differences, have a common and similarly understood God (1) delegitimizes religious motivation to violence between them and (2) supplies motivation for care for others to engage in a vigorous and sustained debate about what constitutes the common good in the one world we share."

The book does not shy away from tough questions such as the threat that Muslims perceive in Christian mission activity, nor the problems that Christians read in the Muslim refusal under their apostasy laws to allow for Muslims to convert to another religion.

This is an optimistic, but also realistic exploration of the problems, pitfalls and challenges that await those Christians who want to reach out to "normative" Islam. It is also a deep challenge to those Christians who want to emphasise the divide between religions. The question always and ever remains whether we embrace or exclude the neighbour who is different.

Allah: A Christian Response is, in my view, an invaluable resource that, I hope, will gain a very wide readership.

Don't agree with all Volf had to say, but very thoughtful, well informed, challenging presentation. He held my attention to the end.