Abstract
Religions
Jones’ Pillars provides an empathetic view of Islam from a Christian perspective. Jones frames the book as a memoir of her 18-year expatriate life among Somalis with her husband and three children in the Horn of Africa. Jones divides the book into five sections for each of the pillars of Islam: Shahada (confession of faith), Salat (Prayer), Zakat (alms-giving), Ramadan (Fasting), and Hajj (Pilgrimage). Each section begins with an honoring reflection on Hagar and her connection to Christian and Islamic tradition. Jones then interweaves her personal encounters both with the Muslim expression of those pillars as well as how they connect to historic and biblical Christian expression. She describes her book as “how . . . an American Christian questioned her religion and found faith” (p. 9), particularly a faith in a Jesus who dresses more like a Somalian goat herder than mid-western American evangelical.
Throughout her description of each pillar, Jones marvels at how engagement with Muslim devotion restored Christian tradition to her. In the chapters on fasting, for instance, Jones details her attempt of the Muslim fast of no food or drink between sunrise and sunset. Jones is both surprised at the difficulty of the fast and engaged by the communal aspects of the fast and nightly feasting. She comes away with a recognition that the hyper-individual fasting that has defined her American evangelical approach to fasting has led to less devotion and less community.
Jones never abandons her Christian convictions; rather she grows in her affection for and valuing of Jesus himself throughout the book. But she will likely make many readers uncomfortable with the appreciation she exhibits for Muslim tradition and doctrines and critique she offers of evangelicalism. The book does not address what it looks like for a person from a Muslim background to embrace faith in Jesus.
The book is recommended as interfaith engagement with Muslims as people, rather than doctrinal theory. Somali Muslims in the book pray, drink alcohol, banter, and long for God. They throw rocks, send death threats, and bless Jones’ children. They pray with her, argue with her, send her away, and kiss her cheeks. The popular-oriented book will serve most anyone working with Muslims, having Muslim neighbors, or interested in Islam. Though a memoir, the book can also serve in an academic setting as a description of cross-cultural engagement that provides significant explanation of Muslim beliefs and practices.