Abstract
Are Christians justified in making positive apologetic use of the Qur’an in Arabic-speaking contexts? The basic contention of this book is that there is biblical, historical, and theological justification for the Christian who make positive use of the Qur’an when discussing the Bible and Christian doctrines in Arabic-speaking milieus.
Bridger rightly notes that our recognition of the truths in the Qur’an makes the Muslim much less defensive and more open to read our Scriptures. Since the Muslim has been taught that the Bible has been corrupted, it is an enormous step forward for him to read the Bible alongside the Qur’an.
Bridger suggests guidelines for the use of the Qur’an as a point of contact. First, when referencing the Qur’an, one should only do so in the context of defending or explaining the Christian faith. Second, non-Christian texts should only be used to provide a corroborative witness to a biblical message, rather than an independent testimony in isolation from biblical witness (pp. 61–62).
Bridger starts by noting the New Testament use of non-canonical sacred literature. This occurs in Jude, when Jude quotes the non-canonical book of 1 Enoch. Paul quotes from the Greek comedy Thais in 1 Corinthians 15:33 and quotes Epimendes in Titus 1:12. But he goes into more detail with his analysis of Paul’s positive use of a pagan object of worship and pagan literature in his defense of the gospel in Acts 17.
By affirming that God’s Word is eternal and identifying Christ as God’s Word (something the Qur’an supports in Q 3:45, 4:171a), Christians can affirm Christ’s divinity and accuse those who object to it of believing there was a time when God was without his Word. Another way of explaining the divinity of Christ is by explaining that God’s Word is said to be inseparable from his being, indicating that it is appropriate to attribute to God’s Word all that is attributable to God himself. These same verses in the Qur’an can be used to support the concept of the Trinity. Christ is identified as God’s Word and “a spirit from him.”
The author seems to misunderstand and misrepresent insider movements by saying that these are ecclesiological models that diminish the need for believers to meet in distinct groups, united by their common faith in Christ (30). But this is not true at all of insider movements.
This book is also a bit hard to follow in that many Arabic words are only defined once and then don’t appear in the index (e.g., mufassirum [151]). But those willing to read carefully will learn how to use portions of the Qur’an as points of contact in presenting and explaining certain biblical doctrines and I commend this book to the reader for these reasons.