The Word and Words in the Abrahamic Faiths

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are “word-based” faiths. All three are derived from texts believed to be revealed by God Himself. Orthodox Judaism claims that God has said everything that needs to be said to humankind—all that remains is to interpret it generation by generation. Historic Christianity roots itself in “God-breathed scriptures” that are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Islam’s Qur’an is held to be a perfect reflection of the ‘Umm al-Kitab – the “mother of Books” that exists with Allah Himself. In addition, both Christianity and Islam share the concept of “The Word” – a concept that moves the idea of communication beyond mere linguistics. Both the Scriptures and the attendant writings of these faiths (i.e., the Talmud, creeds and traditions) are all word-based documents, in many cases taking centuries to forge. This essay explores the Abrahamic faiths’ characterization of “The Word” in textual form and the implications for this characterization in the culture of modern media. What is the prognosis for the future of such emphases in societies that are increasingly characterized by graphics-based media as opposed to text-based literacy? What, if anything, is lost in a media-based literacy? How are critical thinking and cognitive processes with respect to scriptural hermeneutics affected by a digital environment? How are credibility and authority maintained when the playing field is leveled for both novice and expert? Can the purveyors of the Abrahamic faiths maintain the richness of their past literary emphases and, if so, how might this be done

The Kahal, Zawiya, and Monastic Multiplexes: Informational Centripetalism as Medieval Mission

The missiological strategies developed in the Middle Ages by the adherents of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity were centripetal in approach, drawing persons inward to a central structure. Multiplex institutions—kahals, zawiyas and monasteries—were constructed as outposts for the spread and/or maintenance of these religions’ respective beliefs and practices. In addition to the standard religious structures were collections of religious documents – libraries, in other words – that served as repositories for both Scriptures and other spiritually-oriented information. Those who made use of such collections added to them and in their comprehensive form they served as resource material for the education of successive generations. In this essay the origins and histories of the Jewish kahals, the Muslim zawiyas and the Christian monasteries will be explored with particular attention paid to the role played by the document collections in each. The authors will show how these institutions operated on the basis of a combination of both centripetalism (i.e. “coming in to a center”) and centrifugalism (i.e. “going out from a center”). The Muslim zawiyas and the Christian monasteries were intentionally spread throughout their respective regions as “missionary outposts.” The Jewish kahals were spread less intentionally but served in certain cases as “advertisements” for Judaism. All three institutions played vital roles in shaping, maintaining and spreading their respective religious beliefs and practices, and their equivalents can still do so in the present day

Christian Reconstructionism and the Christian World Mission

Christian Reconstructionism is a movement which seeks to expand the kingdom of God in an external and institutional fashion. Advocates promote obedience to the Mosaic Law and seek to transform the political, economic, judicial, and social institutions of every nation into structures that would be modern equivalents of Old Testament Israel. For Reconstructionists, who are postmillennialists, this process fulfills the great commission. This essay shows that contrary to the missiological paradigm of Reconstructionism, the apostles of the New Testament operated in accordance with an internal and personal approach to salvation, allowing for culturally flexible philosophies of evangelism and discipleship which evangelicals should continue to appropriate for their outreach strategies

Re-Thinking ‘Career Missions’ in Light of Paul the ‘Short-Term Missionary

The missiological community is currently divided over the issue of short-term missions. In this essay I would like to deal with this subject from two complementary perspectives. First, I want to examine the missionary ministry of the apostle Paul, mainly as it is recorded in the book of Acts. Since Paul is considered by nearly all to be the quintessential missionary, I am particularly concerned with the length of time he spent in each of the locations where he labored, as well as the total amount of time he devoted to his missions-oriented tasks. Secondly, I would like to re-examine the seminal thinking of Roland Allen, the twentieth century missiologist who ministered with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in North China. In the words of Lesslie Newbigen, who wrote the Foreword to Eerdmans 1962 edition of Roland Allens Missionary Methods: St. Pauls or Ours?, Allen quietly but insistently ... challenged the accepted assumptions of churches and missions. Since the purpose of this essay is essentially to do the same, I thought that it would be appropriate to enlist Roland Allen as an ally

The Second Coming of ‘Isa: an Exploration of Islamic Premillennialism

There is a profound difference between a historian and an apocalypticist. The former operates in a context delimited by a single reference point—the past. While admittedly somewhat relative due to ongoing attempts at interpretation and re-interpretation, the past nonethe­less enjoys the advantage of being fixed; its events are by definition completed and thus essentially unchange­able. The disadvantage of this uni-directional orientation is, of course, that from the standpoint of the historian, the future remains completely open-ended, subject only to speculation

Cultural Chameleon

In Pisidian Antioch, Paul recounted the history of Israel up to the time of Jesus and highlighted His resurrection as a point of transition to a new phase in redemptive history.[i] “Through [Jesus],” he said, “everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). The apostle demonstrated to the Galatians how the Mosaic Law was in effect only until “the Seed” referred to in the Abrahamic covenant arrived (Gal. 3:6-9). The “old” covenant had been a glorious one, but “what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory” of the new covenant (3:10)

A Common Word?’ Reflections on Christian-Muslim Dialogue

On September 13, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI addressed an audience at the University of Regensburgon the topic of “Faith, Reason, and the University.” While his message focused on the necessity of maintaining a religious faith based upon and commensurate with Reason, a quotation early in the speech from the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus (1350-1425) produced a highly negative reaction from Muslims around the world. In a discussion with a Persian scholar on the subject of Christianity’s relationship to Islam, the emperor had challenged his Muslim colleague to “show … just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The citation was meant to be nothing more than a preface to a plea for rational discussion regarding religion, but many Muslims were incensed, considering the quotation to be further evidence of Christianity’s continuing “crusader mentality.

Evaluating “A Common Word”: The Problem of “Points of Contact”

Why “points of contact” between Christianity and Islam are mythical—and why Christians must stay true to the task of missions that lies before us. In September 2007, 138 Muslim scholars and clergymen issued a response to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2006 Regensburg address. The document was entitled “A Common Word Between Us and You” and was designed to promote “open intellectual exchange and mutual understanding” between the world’s Christian and Muslim communities. The authors claimed that the basis for peace between Christianity and Islam has always existed: the Muslim shahadah (“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger”), together with a historic tradition (“None of you has faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself”), are the Islamic equivalents of Christianity’s two greatest commandments (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” and “[love] your neighbor as yourself”). With such an understanding, a new day can dawn for Christian-Muslim relations. Responses to this invitation included a letter penned by scholars from Yale Divinity School. “Loving God and Neighbor Together” was published in the New York Times with the names of 135 signatories—including several evangelical scholars, pastors, and missionary statesmen. The Christian authors were clearly impressed “that so much common ground exists” and expressed “hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us cannot overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together.

Should the West Stop Sending Missionaries?

Since 1986, The Coming Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan has been generating discussion in the evangelical world. The Indian evangelist\u27s call for a restructuring of North Ameri­can missions policy in favor of supporting native missionaries is not new to those familiar with missiological issues, but this thinking has now reached the level of the masses in the form of a best-selling book

“Emperyalist” Misyonerlik? (Missionary Imperialism?)

Article in Turkis