Book Review: Building Bridges

Islam can be a frightening topic for someone to read about or talk about, but the more I read about how to minister to Muslims, the more struck I am by the simplicity of the approach and the intriguing secret behind the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam.
Building Bridges by the late Fouad Elias Accad emphasizes some excellent ways to foster relationships between you and the Muslims around you, but there is one specific emphasis that this book has when it comes to ministry toward readers of the Qur'an: The Qur'an itself.

It turns out that the Qur'an is extremely favorable towards Jesus, the Bible, and Christians. Indeed, the Qur'an is an incredibly pro-Christian book, says Pastor Accad. The Qur'an is peppered with passages that affirm and highly esteem Jesus and those who are His disciples (Christians), such as the latter part of Surah 5:82 (A Surah is a chapter of the Qur'an; keep in mind that believer here is referring to a Muslim): "you are sure to find that the closest in affection towards the believers are those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ for there are among them people devoted to learning and ascetics. These people are not given to arrogance," (M. A. S. Abdel Haleem translation). That's quite a complement from Muslims to Christians! However, if one peruses Google for passages on Christians from the Qur'an, they'll come across both favorable and unfavorable attitudes towards Christians in the Muslim world of religious thought. This is where I'm in over my head at this point, because Pastor Accad takes it back to how the Qur'an was translated from its original Arabic.

Due to this book's focus on how pro-Bible, pro-Jesus, and pro-Christian the Qur'an is, it does quote texts from the Qur'an at length, which makes the reading a little dry at times, so I recommend it for those of you who are intrigued by the deep study of written language. A thin book with fascinating insights and illustrative stories, it is an excellent curriculum for learning how to build bridges between your Muslim neighbors and Jesus the Messiah.

God's Epistemological Kindness

E·pis·te·mol·o·gy (adj: epistemological) is the theory of knowledge, especially in regards to its methods, validity, and scope. How is it that we know what we know, and how do we know that what we know is justified belief from mere opinion? Are we bound to simply believe what our culture, upbringing, and past tells us to believe, or do we have the freedom to truly see and learn and know the real? Do we have the ability to pull back the curtain and see things as they are, like in the Wizard of Oz, or are we blinded from the truth and enslaved to subjectivity?

As believers in the Bible, what is our response to these questions? Do we have the ability to know reality or not? When I was in Bible college, this subject of epistemology was something the Lord continuously brought up, though I didn't know how to define it at the time. It started with me reading Proverbs 2:6, which says, "for the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding" (NIV). It occurred to me then that the Lord is pleased with sharing the truth with us and giving us knowledge of the real, not giving us impressions of what we think is real when it actually isn't. The next thing I knew, I saw this theme emerge everywhere in the scriptures (I've compiled a list of clickable references below), and was blown away at the Lord's willingness to bring clarity, knowledge, understanding, intelligence, and insight to those who ask Him for it. That's the question we need to ask the skeptic before we even open the Bible to them: Does God love humanity enough to show us what He is actually like, or does he prefer to remain distant and to keep us guessing in the dark? Scripture not only shows us that God is willing to give us wisdom, but also that wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are attainable to us in the first place, and most importantly that God is knowable! This is great news!

That's what the Epistemological Kindness of God is all about: God is ready, willing, and able to share the truth with those who come to Him. He loves to impart wisdom to those who love the truth, and He isn't afraid of our deep questions. We have the ability to know things as they truly are. God loves us, delights in our education, and wants to be close to us. Knowledge and closeness go hand-in-hand.

Supplemental Reading:
Worshiping God with the Mind
What is Epistemology? (gotquestions.org)

Scripture References:
Exodus 31:3, 36:1
Job 28:23, 38:36
Psalm 19:7, 51:6, 119:32
Proverbs 2:6
Jeremiah 33:3
Daniel 2:28, 9:22
Luke 24:45
John 17:26
1 Corinthians 2:10-16
Ephesians 1:8, 1:17
2 Timothy 2:7
James 1:5
1 John 5:20

Book Review: Introducing Cultural Anthropology by Howell & Paris

Find it on Amazon.com

This being the first anthropology book I’ve ever read, I came into it without any expectations except to be stretched. Now, an anthropology book isn’t my first pick, but it being a part of the curriculum for online schooling compelled me to read it. In the end, I’m glad I did pick this up; the insight (and not just the grade) is vital for one who will be working cross-culturally. Some of the key lessons that I’ve learned from this book include the following:

First off, it appears that culture is not so static as much as it is an ever-evolving conversation. As a missionary, one of the things that I’ve noticed is the common perception that Native America would have remained the same had the pilgrims not landed, or Africa would have remained the same hadn’t missionaries “ruined” the African culture (more on that in a later blog).  This has apparently never been true. Whether a people-group is isolated or rubbing shoulders with another people-group, their culture is ever changing. We must not be ethnocentric in thinking that we Westerners make or break the world. The peoples of the world are involved in the fluid conversation of culture, and that culture can change apart from American or European influence.

Secondly, the West is not the sole influencer in globalization, nor is globalization a modern Western creation. Rather, America is being globalized as well, not simply globalizing. Case in point: We look at McDonald’s getting a footing in China and the word Westernization comes to mind. But what do we call Californian Suburbanites doing Saturday morning Yoga? Indianization? America is not solely influencing other cultures, but being influenced as well, and it turns out that globalization is far more complicated than just some cruel capitalist wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk, seeking the next culture to stamp out.

Due to this book, I’ve also noticed the… egotistical attitude of America in general. I was on a ranch in a particularly large southern state when I met a cowboy (literally, he had spurs, a hat, and a lasso) who told me how superior America is to other or “second-rate” countries. Had I read the book before I met him, I could have pointed out his ethnocentric attitude. Being ethnocentric means that you glorify your culture over that of other nations. It’s the view that if everyone just did things my way, the world would be a better place. One’s own culture becomes the standard. This is what was perhaps the most interesting lesson I’ve learned from this book: the potential to be ethnocentric. It was evident in the thinking of early anthropologists, and it’s evident in American culture now. While the rest of the world is swimming in speedos, American men are wearing swim-trunks. The ethnocentric American looks at the rest of the world swimming and says, “They’ll eventually come around,” while the anthropologically savvy person realizes that we’re just the weird kid in the corner of the pool swimming in little pants.

The end goal is not to come to hate American culture, but to put it in its appropriate place. I love being an American, but I do not hold America up to a glorified light. I love the fact that I grew up in Philadelphia visiting Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, watching baseball, and eating Philly cheese-steaks. I love America and its passion for freedom, but I understand that American culture is not the answer to the world. Jesus is the answer.

There is so much more I could say about this book, but I’ll wrap it up and recommend it for this reason: to stave off any ethnocentricity in yourself.

Worshiping God with the Mind

I love to read and to write, and I love schoolwork, but this wasn’t always the case. I scarcely picked
up a book in high school, which I passed with minimal enthusiasm and effort. Yet over the years, God had been working in my heart, not with furious bolts of lightning and forceful rain, but with a gentle, consistent drizzle. People commend me for enjoying reading and writing, but I am certainly not a self-made man. The Lord changed my heart into something new starting in 2006 and subtly transformed me into a studier.

Bertrand Russell once said “There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” Those are two reasons one can read a book, but I feel that Russell’s analysis is incomplete and (being atheistic) doesn’t take into account the Lord’s ability to touch the human heart and fill it with purpose outside of self. Do people read books because they enjoy them? Yes. Do people read books so that they can boast about it? Yes. Yet a person can also open up the driest books on the planet out of a desire to worship Him with the mind rather than to worship the mind. From Old Testament genealogies to grammar to the history of Canada, nothing is too boring (no offense, eh?) because the believer reads a great breadth of information while passionately saying, “Lord, I understand that I don’t know as much as I ought to know. Give me knowledge and understanding that I may worship You.” This is the Christ-centered motivation for study. It’s the heart that wishes to fulfill 1 Peter 3:15 by being able to give a reasonable defense and not settling with a shrug or a pat answer.

I pray that the Church would flourish academically out of the scriptural knowledge of God’s epistemological kindness. Shalom on you as you read!

Passages to Consider:
Prov. 2:6
Jer. 33:3
2 Tim. 2:15