EMQ » April–June 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 3
Edited by Gene Daniels and Warrick Farah
William Carey Publishing, 2018 Pasadena, CA
220 pages
USD $13.50
Reviewed by Amit A. Bhatia, PhD/Intercultural Studies; Adjunct Professor, Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL, and Billy Graham Center for Evangelism Fellow.
There are over 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, living in over three-thousand cultures worldwide and speaking many different languages. Given this diversity, how does one effectively prepare for and engage in ministry to Muslims? The authors of this book argue that Christians have done so, up to now, by learning from classic books authored by leading scholars such as Samuel Zwemer and Phil Parshall. The books authored by these scholars, along with most other missiological books on Islam, while providing excellent information, share a common weakness: They present the view that Muslims all over the world are a monolithic bloc because they all practice the same religion. The result of this approach is that we focus on learning about Muslim commonalities, about the Qur’an, the five pillars, and other elements of orthodox Islam. But given the lived reality of practicing Muslims, and the resultant diversity within Islam, this book argues that such an approach is unhelpful in preparing Christians to minister to Muslims in many contexts. Margins of Islam offers a corrective by providing us with a better lens to view and minister within this “lived experience” of Muslims.
Through the scholarly and practical case studies presented by missiologists and mission practitioners who have served in church planting and mission work in the UK, Pakistan, Thailand, North Africa, Middle East, China, and Turkey, to name just a few, this book offers valuable lessons for mission students and missionaries. First, it reminds the reader that even in our globalized world, context is important. In order to be effective in ministering to Muslims we need to look past “surface commonalities” and navigate within their unique social, cultural, and historical contexts. Second, it clearly demonstrates through the pictures painted by the authors that Muslims in different contexts, while connected to a common core of Islam, do indeed have divergent practices and live differently. Third, the book helps the reader apply the lessons to his or her own ministry context.
The most effective way to learn from the lessons presented by these scholar-practitioners is by viewing each chapter as a missiological case study describing key concerns for each ministry context. Missionaries must recognize that “popular” Islam and Orthodox Islam are not mutually exclusive, and that it is quite common in the Muslim world, both tribal as well as Westernized, to blend the two. Furthermore, Muslims in our globalized world often live in more than one cultural world, and Christians working in their particular field of ministry must be prepared to adequately address the multicultural contexts where Muslims live and practice their faith. This book, rich in social sciences and missiology, will help the gospel worker to become a “reflective practitioner.”
For Further Reading:
Bhatia, Amit A. Engaging Muslims and Islam: Lessons for 21st-Century American Evangelicals. Portland, OR: Urban Loft, 2017.
Oksnevad, Roy, and Dotsey Welliver, editors. The Gospel for Islam: Reaching Muslims in North America. Wheaton, IL: Evangelism and Missions Information Service.
