Abstract
Recipient of the American Society 2016 Excellence in Missiology Award
Who better than Evelyne Reisacher to write a book on joyful witness among Muslims? In this readable, relevant, and significant volume, Dr. Reisacher – with long years of ministry in her native France and among North Africans before joining the faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary – chooses to avoid “hot-button issues” and attitudes of fear to discuss six contexts in which she has observed joyful witness to Muslims: social media; art; caring for the earth; caring for the needy; urban life; and theologizing together.
Her opening chapter shows joy to be at the heart of God’s mission in the world, a powerful stimulus to missionary work as well as part of our future hope experienced now even in the reality of persecution and suffering. After exploring attachment theory in missiological perspective, Reisacher devotes a chapter to each of the settings noted above, illustrating both Christian and Muslim attitudes and expressions of joy, opportunities and challenges to witness within this theme, and the potential for joyful expressions shared between Muslims and Christians.
Social media and cyberspace, for example, open creative spaces for joyful communication. Yet, she asks, “Without face-to-face connections or social references, how can we know the real identities of those with whom we interact online?” (p. 54). While Missiology readers may be familiar with many aspects of urban society covered in the chapter “Meeting Muslim Urbanites,” few of us are likely to know that urban Muslim diversity includes Hijabistas who explore creative fashion expressions or Mipsterz (Muslim hipsters) who rethink Muslim creative expression without rejecting basic Islamic tenets.
Each chapter caught both my head and my heart as Reisacher combines discussion of long-standing themes of ministry among Muslims (theological discussion, hospitality, and the needy) with missiological issues absent from consideration until recent years (creation care, the arts, and social media). I appreciate that, throughout the book, “joyful” is an adjective – a very important adjective – describing witness, but is never an end in itself nor merely a tool or methodology.
Reisacher sets a high bar for her colleagues in this new series from Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies. Beyond its use in college and master’s level courses and seminars, I will recommend it to colleagues with decades serving among Muslims; they will resonate with her emphasis on joyful witness, something characterizing the most fruitful of them. Reisacher, no doubt, will consider that no coincidence.