Abstract
I normally do not write editorials. I prefer the articles to stand on their own and not fit them into narrow themes. However, I am making an exception here for two reasons: firstly, and importantly, because we are celebrating the thirtieth year of the publication of Transformation. I narrowly missed the deadline for this in the January issue but I suppose it is not too late! I have selected 30 articles from the volumes going all the way back to the early 1980s. The bibliographical details of these should appear on Transformation’s page at the Sage Journals website (trn.sagepub.com) soon. Secondly, this issue includes articles on the theme of ‘Islam and Christianity’ having followed a slightly different process for peer review. The articles were first presented at special public lectures organized at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) and were then revised in light of the discussions involving about 25 scholars and faculty members here.
Three of these articles were originally part of doctoral theses, or have emerged from the data originally part of successful UK-based doctoral researches. These range from the investigation of how scriptures have been used by Christians and Muslims in East Africa, the problem of relating with birth communities after conversion in Arab contexts, the issue of democracy and spirituality in Islam, and transnational Islamic movements to a serious consideration of a dialogical approach to Christian-Muslim relations. I have also included a review article in this issue, not only because it was longer in length than the usual book reviews but because this has been written by an OCMS graduate and involves a book published by our imprint, Regnum. The aim is to draw readers’ attention to this book which, in my view, presents an interesting insight on the debate on Huntington’s thesis.