Abstract
Gene Daniels and Warrick Farah put together a series of essays exploring the various forms of Islam that Christian missions are encountering. The book prioritizes the “diversity of [Muslims’] social, cultural, and historical contexts” over simplified views of Islam that are based on its “essential doctrines and practices” (219). They do so primarily through diverse case studies that demonstrate the diversity of Muslim expression.
The book is organized into three sections. The first two chapters outline the problems of both conceptualizing Islam and developing a missiological understanding of Islam. Evelyn A. Resiacher’s essay (chapter 1) outlines the difficulty of seeing Islam as “one Islam” in light of the diversity in practice and even in the diversity of ideals of Islam among Muslims themselves. She calls for resistance to the “trap of binary thinking”—holding in tension the “conversation between the past and the present, the universal and the local” (8).
The second section takes up the bulk of the book. Fourteen different authors, each with decades of experience throughout the Muslim world, both describe a unique Muslim context and define missiological issues related to Christian engagement with that context. The diversity of places addressed illustrates the great swath of possibilities within the Muslim world. Among other contexts, authors describe immigrant communities in France and England, Sufi Muslims in Pakistan, and Muslim youth engaged in a “glocal world.” Despite the diversity of locations, so-called animistic practices, or patterns of belief and practice that focus on “spiritual forces . . . controlled by special forces” (174), come to the forefront of a number of the case studies. The essays also explore more complex theological developments, like the ecumenical elements of Nurcu Gülen’s teachings and missionary activity in Turkey. Finally, multiple essays engage the influence of colonialism and non-Muslim majority cultures (including, for instance, Thai and Chinese contexts) on Muslim practice and identity formation. The book explores how identity interacts with, challenges, and conforms at times to multiple cultural and national realities, creating many hybrid forms of Islamic expressions in their unique contexts.
Part III reflects on the case studies and provides practical application. Farah’s “Adaptive Missiological Engagement” reckons with the challenge of postcolonial studies within missiology and argues for the place of anthropological study in missiology. He encourages “supra-religious” missiological engagement (201) that challenges idolatry in all forms and focuses on making disciples rather than attempting to define an ideal Islam.
This compendium is highly recommended for seminaries, courses on Islam, and those ministering among Muslims. The book provides a particularly insightful contribution to contextualization debates among Muslims by giving concrete examples of missiological questions among diverse Muslim expressions. The four theoretical chapters in parts I and part III are worth the price of the book as missiological reflection on issues surrounding engagement to Muslims and Islam in a postcolonial age. The authors have not only described the “margins of Islam” but also shown how thoughtful engagement with these so-called margins is central to faithful witness to Muslims communities.