I am often asked by ordinary Christians, “How can I begin to learn about Islam.” It is a good question. Muslims often ask the same question about Christian faith. Sadly, many other Christians and Muslims never ask because they are sure they already know all they need to know. This book is for all those, both Christians and Muslims, who are humble and curious enough to ask the question and who genuinely want to know more.
Here’s how I usually answer: Find a Muslim (or Christian) friend to talk to. Ask questions. What your friend actually believes will often be your best starting point. It is also what really matters for most of us. We want to know about real people, what motivates them, what they live for. Knowing what my friend actually believes about God, about herself, about the world and about the future, will often be of much greater use to me than an abstract textbook account of what that friend is, in theory, supposed to believe. It is also a lot more interesting, and often surprising. Many readers will do well to take the hint, drop this book, and a find a conversation partner instead.
Of course, that’s not quite enough. I know, and my Muslim friend knows, that Islam is something bigger than one person’s belief system and mindset. Islam is the vast and swift-flowing river by which each individual Muslim is carried along. It began long before my friend entered it, and will continue long after. Its currents influence him in ways he may not fully understand or be able to articulate. And these currents, rapids, and eddies also shape whole cultures, institutions and nations. My believing Muslim friend will most certainly act and talk as if Islam is something that transcends his own understanding or experience. He may feel quite inadequate to describe or represent it. The same is true for me as a Christian. Christian Faith is not merely what I believe about the world; it is the world as it truly is. It is not just my story, it is God’s story; I am a small, bit player in God’s vast, unfolding drama playing out on the stage of history. I experience and only a tiny part of that drama, and I will be doing well to learn my small role.
To get a sense of this bigger story, we must move beyond the experience of one individual. We need books. Of these there’s no shortage. Hundreds of books have been written to introduce Christians to Islam; hundreds more are designed to introduce Muslims to Christianity. Many are well intentioned, many others are not. Some are very good, others terrible; some are sympathetic and friendly, others angry or apologetic. If we look beyond the audience of Christian or Muslim believers, many hundreds of other books aim to introduce Islam (or Christianity) as religions (whatever that means) in a generic, textbook sort of way suitable for the imagined neutrality of the classroom. Some are erudite, informed by impressive stores of knowledge. But often these eschew explicit faith perspectives. They skip what matters most to real believers. I’ve written one such introduction to Islam myself.
When my Christian friends ask for book recommendations on Islam, I usually mention my own book, but not enthusiastically. I don’t think it’s quite what my friend needs. Too textbookish. Too much history. Not Christian enough, whatever that might mean. I sometimes recommend Colin Chapman’s Cross and Crescent. I like Colin’s book, but it isn’t quite right either. Too much of a handbook for evangelism? Too heavy on apologetics? Sometimes I pass on an idiosyncratic list of books, some academic, some specialized, some oriented to Christian ministry. None of these books are really what I want to recommend, or what my friends are asking for. Some are too technical or academic. Others too focussed on Muslims as an object of Christian evangelism. What I want is a book that will help ordinary Christians, but that Muslims can also benefit from reading. I want a book that is written from an explicit faith perspective, but that both Christians and Muslims might read together and find helpful. I want to be able to confidently give it to my Muslim friends, and, should they read it, I want them to feel that the portrait of Islam is at least a fair attempt, even if the artist is clumsy and paints with too large a brush. I want Muslim readers to come away having learned something about their Christian friends and about Christianity. I want Christian and Muslim readers together to come away seeing one another, and their faith traditions, as more than just territory to be conquered or an obstacle to be overcome. There may be such a book out there. If so, I haven’t yet found it. Carol tells me I will have to write it myself. That, of course, is all the permission I need.
1. Coming up with a title is a bit of a struggle, and it may be too early to worry about that, but if you have any brilliant ideas, let me know.
2. Rather more importantly, does the kind of book described here actually interest you? Or should I go back to eating chocolate and watching netflix?
I am eager for feedback or questions or requests for clarification, so please comment. I will not post all comments here, but I will read them all.
I think that a book on Islam that is written with respect, with no agenda other than to help Christians understand Islam, would be very welcome. I know that I would have benefited hugely from it before the MRel (would benefit from it now) and many people that I have spoken with would like to read it too. You are right to say that there are many books but so many of them are either written from an evangelistic point or view or polemic.
So do I think that you should you write this or eat chocolate and watch Netflix? Definitely write the book!
Jim Collins refers to the genius of the AND. It seems to apply here. Write the book AND eat chocolate (can’t comment about Netflix).
Quite brave of you to ask your readers to drop your book before they begin! A book that offers a frame of reference focused on worldview would be extremely valuable in fostering these desired conversations.
I am currently working on a book (which actually means that I once thought about writing a book about Worldviews) titled “Worldviews for Dummies.” I noticed that most books about worldviews miss a very human aspect of our lives. It does seem that you are seeking to address a need that is lacking in literature, and therefore, shall be very useful. Of course your book will come out long before my book, making mine unnecessary. Therefore, while you write, I will eat chocolate and watch Netflix. Thank you!
I wonder if it might be beneficial even here in the introduction to try to convey one of the key things that I have learned in our conversations: this is not a new discussion, and our ‘new’ arguments (both directions) are typically only newly discovered, being many centuries old. Many readers will have no understanding that these discussions, as a discussion is nearly as old as Islam itself. At least for me, this has helped me with the urge to be polemic at times.
As far as a title, this book is an attempt at an ‘Introduction’ in a way that your other book was not. Maybe more accurately, it sounds like an attempt at Introducing, but not to a subject matter, rather introducing 2 diverse groups of people who live in proximity. There may be a title in that idea somewhere.
Thanks, Matt. Communicating a sense of how old (and worn!) these discussions are is an excellent idea.
I’m thrilled about this project!
The image of our respective religions as a stream that we feel carrying us is excellent. Part of the difficulty of analyzing “worldviews” is that in the midst of analyzing its elements you can easily suck the life out of it. But worldviews are like a stream, or air and the atmosphere: they surround and immerse you.
It would be interesting to compare the ways Muslims and Christians converse among themselves, telling pious stories, miracle tales, conversions, how they deal with suffering, what they pray for, how they pray. How they deal with questions of science and modernity, e.g. faith, reason, medicine.
We can never entirely separate the historical narratives from worldview either. It’s common for Muslim and Christian neighbors to pose questions to each other, either earnestly or in jest. For instance, it isn’t uncommon for Muslims to be puzzled by Christian faith in the Incarnation of God in the flesh. Perhaps Christians should be more puzzled by it, too. Maybe Christians should dig deeper into the actual mystery of what it means to believe in the Incarnation, which like the Cross has always been a “stumbling-block to the Jews and folly to the Greeks” (that’s also probably why Muslims never believed that their prophet Jesus was crucified!)
One question that comes to mind – how do we deal with the fact that so many different sects and denominations exist in each religion? With fundamentalism? Sometimes worldviews can differ more radically within the same religion, than in comparison with another religion. Which worldviews should be represented? From the Muslim side: Sunni and Shia? But Sufism has such great appeal for religious revival, throughout history (perhaps with roots in Greek/Christian spirituality), and is appealing to many Western people interested in spirituality. From the Christian side: Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox? Evangelicals will have a better intuitive grasp of the centrality of the Qur’an in Islam (sola scriptura), while Orthodox and Catholics will be able to recognize traditions like prayers for the dead, Sufi mysticism, how the veneration of Muhammad parallels veneration of Mary, etc.
The last thing I have to say is: literature is always a nice way to learn about worldviews, be they Christian or Muslim. It would be enlightening for Muslims to read how Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Dostoevsky express Christian beliefs through the universal language of literature. (They somehow represent the three major Christian churches too…) Even though he’s not a religious author, I’ve personally learned to appreciate many things about Islam from Naguib Mahfouz, e.g. the way that the Qur’an, for instance, becomes a recitation that enters one’s heart, something that permeates one’s life. Or one could compare the appeal Rumi has to Western people and the reception of Rumi in Iran, or his native Anatolia, modern-day Turkey.
I think this project just expanded to 3 volumes and a timeline of about a decade! So many good ideas here, Jonathan. Thanks for taking the time.