The Resurgence of the Gospel and the Flowering of the Global Christian Message

Part Three: The Challenge of the Muslim Curtain Introduction

Through upheaval and suppression, being despised by civil governments and facing outright persecution, Christians survived on the other side of the Muslim Curtain. This is part of their story.

“The Turkic-Moslem Curtain” is the more appropriate explanation for what “shut-off” for an untold breadth of time any social intercourse between the East and West. It also deals more realistically with the relationship between the Arabic speaking Moslems and the increasingly Christian West. As terrible as the militancy of the Arab Conquests were, they never cut-off contact between Europe and Asia. Under the Arabic umbrella, Christians were consider dhimmi [under-class] by the Arabic-speaking Moslem rulers. At the same time, the Christians were admired for their talents, skills, and abilities and utilized according to their particular talents. Even the Jews were so treated. Some were physicians to the caliphs. It was also dependent upon the origin of the Arabic speaking Moslems.

This article is part of The Gospel in History series by Woodrow Walton.
Image: The Books of Kells by way of Wikimedia Commons.

Islam is not a monolithic religion. Historically, there are two distinct political practices. The Shi’a combine religion and political into a single system with their religious leaders doing the governing. The Shi’a also believe they are the legitimate descendants of Mohammed. The Sunni and Alawite Moslems separate Mosque from the body politic. Islam is sectarian. The Sufi are the Moslem mystics and are off in another direction and sometimes fade in and out.

Before Mohammed and his hegira (flight) to Medina, Christians from Antioch and from Egypt came into upper Arabia and down the western coast along the Red Sea. Most of the Arab Christians in southwestern Arabia were the product of Coptic missionaries out of Egypt and shared the Coptic understanding of the Trinity. Those who lived just east of the mountains east of the Dead Sea and northward toward Damascus came out of Antioch and shared the Nestorian understanding which stressed the humanity of Jesus. Mary was not a thetokos, but the mother of Jesus the man in whom dwelt the fullness of God.

The best reading on the Arab Christians are the books of Kenneth Cragg, an Anglican missionary and scholar from Great Britain who wrote such works as The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East (Louisville, KY: Westminster/Joh Knox, 1991) and The Call of the Minaret (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956). In 2008, Sidney H. Griffith published a study entitled The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque (Princeton and Oxford, Princeton University Press).

Even then, there was no let-up of interchange between Asia and Europe until 1452 when Ottoman Turks invaded Anatolia, known variously as Asia Minor (geographically) or Turkey (geopolitically). While there was no direct west-to-east route going through either Antioch or Caesarea on the Mediterranean eastern seaboard travel, travel was possible from points north and northeast of Antioch.

One could also travel east from Alexandria to the Red Sea and travel it to where it empties into the Arabian Sea and thence to the Malabar Coast of India. Another point of departure was by way of the southern coastline of the Euxine Sea (Black Sea). One could board ship from Chalcedon, Amastris, and Sinope, all port cities in the Roman provinces of Bithynia and Pontus and to the Ukraine, one of the sources of grain for first Rome and then Constantinople. One could sail east along the coastline to Armenia and Georgia.

The kind of book Evangelical Christians need to be reading on navigating Christian-Muslim relations today is the kind of book Matthew Kaemingk has written in Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. So then, I am beginning this review with a positive recommendation right up front. Please let me explain why.

Matthew Kaemingk is assistant professor of Christian ethics and associate dean at Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He presently lives in Houston with his wife Heather and their three sons Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon.

Matthew Kaemingk

Kaemingk’s research and teaching focus is on Islam and political ethics, faith and the workplace, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology. Thus Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear comes rather directly out of his primary expertise. And it shows. The Foreword by Jamie Smith, quite the heavy hitter himself and a Charismatic Calvinist on top of that, not only testifies to the credibility of Kaemingk’s work and frames it for readers but helps connect it with Evangelical Reformed readers as well as Pentecostal/Charismatic readers.

Matthew Kaemingk faces several pressing questions head-on. How can diverse people live together? How should Western Christians respond to their new Muslim neighbors? Can Islam and Christianity peacefully coexist? Are there limits to religious freedom and tolerance? How much religious diversity can a single nation withstand? He believes the far left’s unqualified concessions and the far right’s reflex aggressions are both mistaken. Yet he does not simply draw a line down the middle between the two. He proposes another option: “Christian hospitality” or, as he (cover aside) more often puts it, “Christian pluralism”. Yet before prematurely dismissing him at this point readers should note that he does not mean by “pluralism” what may be the first thought which comes to many minds (i.e. he is certainly no John Hick). Kaemingk is firmly committed to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior and Lord. He is also firmly committed to loving neighbors—even enemies, if so they be—of other faiths.

Tony Richie: Consultation on American Evangelicals and Islam

Antipas Harris: How Can Christians and Muslims Relate?

I am grateful that my friend who participated in the Consultation, pastor-scholar Tony Richie, invited me to attend the public forum on Friday, August 25. This forum was appropriately titled, “Learning to Engage our Muslim Neighbors.” The diverse panel was made up of Rick Love, Marion Larson, Richard Mouw, John Azumah, Michal Muelenberg, and facilitated by Cory Willson.

Recently, the leadership at my church has been thinking about how hope, humility, and hospitality can be a profound way of expressing how we follow Jesus. Therefore, when Marion Larson used similar language to speak about stances to take as we approach conflict and welcome strangers, I was all ears. Three ideas she mentioned were Receptive Humility, Reflective Commitment, and Imaginative Empathy.

Part of Receptive Humility is being willing to receive gifts and hospitality. In my experience, this ability to graciously receive is something our Muslim neighbors understand much better than I do. We value being a good host, do we value being a good guest?

Having a Reflective Commitment is making a decision to be teachable, to intentionally reflect that I don’t have it all figured out and that I have much to learn. All of us need to be humble enough to recognize we are wrong about some things. I always want to be willing to let God surprise me.