The Future of…..” Two Books on Islam and Christianity

The Future of Islam
by John L. Esposito (Oxford University Press, 2010), Pp. 234. 

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl              

Esposito is the head of Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is now titled the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.   The work is divided into these chapters:  The Many Faces of Islam and Muslims; God in Politics; Where Are the Muslim Reformers and America and the Muslim World:  Building a new Way Forward.

Esposito is a balanced, thoughtful scholar who brings not only insights but substantial statistical information to back his views.  His work is characterized by sorting out a variety of taken-for granted definitions and terms and analyzing them closely.  For example, in exploring the relationship between conservative religious views and violence, he says precisely:  “Exclusivist theologies may be intellectually repugnant and socially undesirable in our multireligious societies, but, as we see with many ultraconservative and fundamentalist form of Christianity and Judaism, they do not necessarily lead to advocacy of violence and terror” (167).

His overview of a variety of female and male Muslim contemporary evangelists was helpful and his reference to key globally-known documents in religious discussions surfaces some important corporate dialogue which may go unnoticed.  Two of these documents are the Amman Message (2004-1005) and “A Common Word Between Us and You,” (2007). The former addresses key concerns in the Islamic world and the latter is a dialogue between Muslims and the Vatican. Another initiative described comes from the United Nations, the Alliance of Civilizations (2005). (The title is a direct challenge to the Huntingdon’s term “clash of civilizations”).

The work deserves a place in any courses on religion today which take seriously the multi-faceted political, religious, economic and global interfaces of faith and life. Esposito is a scholar of the highest caliber:  fair, balanced, well-documented and clearly one who lives in the mainstream of the discussions he assesses.

A New Kind of Christianity:  Ten Questions That Are Transforming Faith
by Brian D. McLaren. (HarperOne, 2010).  Pp. 306.

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedah

McLaren is noted for his consistent prodding of the Christian faith to see in which directions it might be heading.  He takes up questions related to narrative, authority, God, Jesus, Gospel, church, sex, future and pluralism.
  
As a Lutheran reader of this text, I found some of the materials to be ‘old hat’ in terms of the fact that these issues have been addressed fairly well in decades past.   In some chapters he addresses issues which all Christians continue to contend with including the Marcionite interpretations some give to the differences between the portrayal of God in the Old and the New Testaments. In the chapter, “From a Violent Tribal God to a Christlike God,” he draws on his earlier argument for reading the Bible in a “narrative rather than a constitutional way” (111).  In other words, the reader must be open to the exploratory nature of biblical narrative itself, which would result hopefully in an “approach [which] helps us see the biblical library as the record of a series of trade-ups, people courageously letting go of their state-of-the-art understanding of God when an even better understanding begins to emerge.” (111).

This view of the Bible can be threatening and yet McLaren offers a solid argument for thinking through what to do with the inconsistencies and issues of reading the entire Bible.

His chapters on sex define well the issues people are addressing in this area of life and faith.  He opens with a diatribe, which readers may interpret initially as against homosexuality, but which McLaren finally describes acerbically as “fundasexuality.” (174)

This work would fit well into a 10-week adult study program and would provide lively and significant discussion about Christianity.