Sources – Christian-Muslim Relations

Abu Nimer, Mohammed. Peace-Building by, between, and beyond Muslims and Evangelical Christians. Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2009.

This timely work addresses sensitive issues and relations between Muslims and Christians around the world. The book uniquely captures the opportunity for Christians and Muslims to come together and discuss pertinent issues such as pluralism, governance, preaching, Christian missionary efforts, and general misperceptions of Muslim and Christian communities. Joint authorship and discussion within the book is used to offer dialogue and responses between different contributors. This dialogue reveals that Christians and Muslims hold many things in common while having meaningful differences. It also shows the value of honestly sharing convictions while respecting and hearing the beliefs of another.

An-Na’im, Abdullahi Ahmed, ed. Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999.

This probing collection of essays brings together a stellar group of Muslim and Christian, African and Western scholars. Together they explore the question, “Where does one community’s right to commend itself to others leave off, and another community’s right to be left alone begin?”

Apostolov, Mario. The Christian Muslim Frontier: A Zone of Contact, Conflict, or Cooperation. New York: Routledge Curzon, 2004.

The Christian-Muslim Frontier describes the historical formation of this zone, and its contemporary dimensions: geopolitical, psychological, economic and security. Special attention is given to the concept of state-frontiers, to the effects of the uneven development of nation states and the contemporary interspersing of communities, which creates new functional frontiers. Further, the frontier is described as a mental construction, imagined by people in their search for social order, individual and collective security. Apostolov demonstrates that it is the political and economic situation of the local people that determines whether these frontiers result in conflict or cooperation. Rather than imposing unilateral principles of good governance, and to ensure cooperation prevails in Christian-Muslim relations, he argues that world society needs to undertake multilateral efforts to build participatory political institutions that accommodate groups with different identities.

Bryant, M. Darrol and S.A. Ali, eds. Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Promise and Problems. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1998.

Can there be dialogue between Muslims and Christians? Can we overcome the long history of antagonism between the two largest religious communities in the world, who occupy nearly sixty percent of believing humanity? In The Muslim-Christian Dialogue, 20 essays address these vital questions as they explore the promise and problems of dialogue between the two great traditions. Here Muslims and Christians speak of their faith with passion and insight as they seek to move beyond mutual antagonism and caricatures (the Muslim as terrorist, the Christian as crusader) toward mutual understanding. The essays cover a range of issues from the encounter of Islam and Christianity with modernity to Islam inAfrica, from the role of women to the understanding of Jesus in Islam and Christianity, and the role of the Prophet Muhammad in Muslim piety. Rather than seeking to convert the other, these internationally known scholars and religious leaders contribute to mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims.

Chandler, Paul Gordon. Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road: Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths. Lanham, MD: Cowley Publications, 2007.

Paul-Gordon Chandler presents fresh thinking in the area of Christian-Muslim relations, showing how Christ whom Islam reveres as a Prophet and Christianity worships as the divine Messiah can close the gap between the two religions. He illustrates his perspective with examples from the life of Syrian novelist Mazhar Mallouhi, who seeks to bridge the chasm of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians through his novels.

Conteh, Prince Sorie. Traditionalists, Muslims, and Christians in Africa: Interreligious Encounters and Dialogue. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2009.

As is the case for most of sub-Saharan Africa, African Traditional Religion (ATR) is the indigenous religion ofSierra Leone. When the early forebears and later progenitors of Islam and Christianity arrived, they metSierra Leoneindigenes with a remarkable knowledge of God and a structured religious system. Successive Muslim clerics, traders, and missionaries were respectful of and sensitive to the culture and religion of the indigenes who accommodated them and offered them hospitality. This approach resulted in a syncretistic brand of Islam. In contrast, most Christian missionaries adopted an exclusive and insensitive approach to African culture and religiosity. Christianity, especially Protestantism, demanded a complete abandonment of African culture and religion, and a total dedication to Christianity. This attitude is continued by some indigenous clerics and religious leaders to such an extent that Sierra Leone Indigenous Religion (SLIR) and its practitioners continue to be marginalised inSierra Leone’s interreligious dialogue and cooperation. Although the indigenes of Sierra Leone were and continue to be hospitable to Islam and Christianity, and in spite of the fact that SLIR shares affinity with Islam and Christianity in many theological and practical issues, and even though there are many Muslims and Christians who still hold on to traditional spirituality and culture, Muslim and Christian leaders of these immigrant religions are reluctant to include Traditionalists in interfaith issues in the country. The formation and constitution of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), which has local and international recognition, did not include ATR. These considerations, then, beg the following questions: • Why have Muslim and Christian leaders long marginalized ATR, its practices, and practitioners from interfaith dialogue and cooperation inSierra Leone? • What is lacking in ATR that continues to prevent practitioners of Christianity and Islam from officially involving Traditionalists in the socioreligious development of the country? This book investigates the reasons for the exclusion of ATR from interreligious dialogue/cooperation and ATR’s relevance and place in the socioreligious landscape ofSierra Leoneand the rest of the world. It also discusses possible ways for ATR’s inclusion in the ongoing interfaith dialogue and cooperation in the country; this is important because people living side by side meet and interact personally and communally on a regular basis. As such, they share common resources; communal benefits; and the joys, crises, and sorrows of life. The social and cultural interaction and cooperation involved in this dialogue of life are what compel people to fully understand the worldviews of their neighbours and to seek out better relationships with them. Most of the extant books and courses about interreligious encounters and dialogue deal primarily with the interaction between two or more of the major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. This book fills a gap in the study of interreligious dialogue in Africa by taking into consideration the place and relevance of ATR in interreligious dialogue and cooperation inSierra Leone. It provides the reader with basic knowledge of ATR, Islam, and Christianity in their Sierra Leonean contexts, and of interfaith encounters and dialogue among the three major faith traditions inAfrica. As such, it provides for the first time a historical, chronological, and comparative study of interreligious encounters and dialogue among Traditionalists, Muslims, and Christians inSierra Leone. Traditionalists, Muslims, and Christians in Africa is an important reference for scholars, researchers, religious leaders, missionaries, and all who are interested in interfaith cooperation and dialogue, especially among all three of Africa’s major living religions-ATR, Islam, and Christianity.

Cooper, Barbara MacGowan. Evangelical Christians in the Muslim Sahel. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006.

Barbara M. Cooper looks closely at the Sudan Interior Mission, an evangelical Christian mission that has taken a tenuous hold in a predominantly Hausa Muslim area on the southern fringe ofNiger. Based on sustained fieldwork, personal interviews, and archival research, this vibrant, sensitive, compelling, and candid book gives a unique glimpse into an important dimension of religious life inAfrica. Cooper’s involvement in a violent religious riot provides a useful backdrop for introducing other themes and concerns such as Bible translation, medical outreach, public preaching, tensions between English-speaking and French-speaking missionaries, and the Christian mission’s changing views of Islam.

Cutsinger, James, ed. Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East. Lanham: World Wisdom, 2010.

This book is a collection of essays concerning the mystical and contemplative dimensions of Eastern Christianity and Islam presented at the October 2001 conference on Hesychasm and Sufism at theUniversityofSouth Carolina. Contributions from internationally recognized spiritual leaders and scholars include Kallistos Ware; Seyyed Hossien Nasr; John Chryssavgis; Reza Shah-Kazemi; Huston Smith; Williams Chittick and more.

Despite the long and well-known history of conflict between Christians and Muslims, their mystical traditions especially in the Christian East and in Sufism, have shared for centuries many of the same spiritual methods and goals. One thinks, for example, of the profound similarities between the practices of the Jesus Prayer among the Hesychast masters of the Philokalia and the Sufi practices of dhikr or invocation.

These commonalities suggest the possibility for a deeper kind of religious dialogue than is customary in our day, a dialogue which seeks to foster what Frithjof Schuon has called inward or “esoteric” ecumenism, and which, while respecting the integrity of traditional dogmas and rites, “calls into play the wisdom which can discern the one sole Truth under the veil of different forms.”

The purpose of this book, the first major publication of its kind, is to promote precisely this more inward kind of ecumenical perspective. These essays point to a spiritual heart in which the deeper meaning of Christian and Muslim beliefs and practices come alive, and where spiritual pilgrims may discover, beyond the level of seemingly contradictory forms, an inner commonality with those who follow other paths.

Dirks, Jerald F. The Cross & the Crescent: An Interfaith Dialogue between Christianity and Islam. International Islamic Publishing House, 2008.

In The Cross and The Crescent, Dr. Dirks, a former ordained minister (deacon) in theUnitedMethodistChurch, a graduate ofHarvardDivinitySchooland with a doctorate in clinical psychology, reaches out to the Christians and the Muslims for an interfaith dialogue. Drawing on his seminary education and thirty years of interaction with Muslims inAmericaand overseas, the author digs deep into the roots of Christianity to bring out obscure information that highlights what was once common between Christianity and Islam. He envisioned that, “In writing this book, I would like to touch the lives of those Christians who have not been given the knowledge that I have gained both about Islam, from my direct contact with Muslims, and about Christianity from my seminary education. I want to share with those Christians, who are willing to listen, what is so often known by their clergy and church leaders, but seldom finds its way into their knowledge of their own religion. Likewise, I would like to reach out to the Muslims, in order to help them understand the religious commonality that they share with Christians”.

Dwyer, Daniel and Hugh Hines, eds. Islam and Franciscanism: A Dialogue. St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute, 2000.

In recent years the need for understanding between Christians and Muslims has reached a state of urgency. Dialogue between believers in the world’s two largest faith traditions can no longer be relegated to antiquarians or to specialists in far-off, and hitherto exotic, places.

From the time of the meeting of St. Francis with Sultan Melek-el-Kamil, a tradition of dialogue between the Muslim and Christian traditions, as epitomized in the Franciscan movement, has endured. This volume offers a set of essays that deal with the relationship between Islam and Franciscanism as experienced in the past and as it is presently being addressed.

Goddard, Hugh. A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Chicago: New Amsterdam Books, 2000.

Hugh Goddard investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries.

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Wadi Zaidan Haddad. Christian-Muslim Encounters. Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 1995.

The authors of these essays examine the ways in which Muslims and Christians worldwide have encountered one another over 1,400 years and the ways in which they are engages today, enlightening current interpolitical, intersocial, and intereconomic relationships.

Haleem, Harfiyah Abdel, ed. The Crescent and the Cross: Muslim and Christian Approaches to War and Peace. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

This book explores the shared history of Muslims and Christians and the ways each religion developed laws to regulate wars, based on scriptural authorities. Similarities and differences are noted, as well as how most of these laws still operate in the context of modern international law, while some have yet to be incorporated. Case studies explore the application of these religious precepts to two recent conflict situations: UN humanitarian intervention inBosnia, and the Iraq-Kuwait war, together with the Allied action.

Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Since its initial publication nearly fifteen years ago The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order has become a classic work of international relations and one of the most influential books ever written about foreign affairs. An insightful and powerful analysis of the forces driving global politics, it is as indispensable to our understanding of American foreign policy today as the day it was published. As former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski says in his new foreword to the book, it “has earned a place on the shelf of only about a dozen or so truly enduring works that provide the quintessential insights necessary for a broad understanding of world affairs in our time.”

Samuel Huntington explains how clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace but also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war. Events since the publication of the book have proved the wisdom of that analysis. The 9/11 attacks and wars inIraqandAfghanistanhave demonstrated the threat of civilizations but have also shown how vital international cross-civilization cooperation is to restoring peace. As ideological distinctions among nations have been replaced by cultural differences, world politics has been reconfigured. Across the globe, new conflicts—and new cooperation—have replaced the old order of the Cold War era.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order explains how the population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise ofEast Asia are changing global politics. These developments challenge Western dominance, promote opposition to supposedly “universal” Western ideals, and intensify intercivilization conflict over such issues as nuclear proliferation, immigration, human rights, and democracy. The Muslim population surge has led to many small wars throughout Eurasia, and the rise ofChina could lead to a global war of civilizations.Huntington offers a strategy for the West to preserve its unique culture and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to coexist in a complex, multipolar, muliticivilizational world.

Ipgrave, Michael, ed. Scriptures in Dialogue: Christians and Muslims Studying the Bible and the Qur’an Together. London: Church House Publishing, 2004.

In April 2003. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury convened a group of twenty-five leading Christian and Muslim scholars for three days of theological dialogue. The focus of this gathering was the intensive study of passages from the Qur’an and the Bible. Combining scholarship with commitment to the practice of their faiths, the participants addressed questions such as discernment of the Word of God, the place of women in their believing communities, and making space for the religious “Other.”

Ipgrave, Michael, ed. The Road Ahead: A Muslim-Christian Dialogue. London: Church House Publishing, 2002.

How can Christians and Muslims overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of mutual understanding and trust? This was the highly topical question addressed by forty scholars of the two faiths who gathered for a two-day international seminar atLambethPalacein January 2002. This interfaith dialogue was hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and supported by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Drawing on the insights and expertise of Christians and Muslims form a wide variety of nations and cultures, this book offers a message of hope to all.

Jukko, Risto. Trinity in Unity in Christian-Muslim Relations: The Work of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Boston: Brill, 2007.

Christian-Muslim relations are one of the major issues in contemporary theology of religions. This book deals with the theological foundations that have been laid for these relations in the recent official documents (1966-2005) of the Secretariat for Non-Christians/the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. There is a continuous interrelationship in recent Roman Catholic thinking between philosophy (existentialism and personalism) and theology (“nouvelle theologie” and “kerygmatic theology”). This study shows that the doctrine of the Trinitarian nature of God is the cornerstone on which this documentation rests, and that the Trinitarian dimension of Roman Catholic theology of religions will challenge the Christology of 21st century theology.

Kung, Hans and Jurgen Moltmann. Islam: A Challenge for Christianity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994.

In this issue of Concilium, the worldwide journal of theology, exciting voices from every part of the world describe experiences of Islam. Issues such as perceived threats between Christianity and Islam, Islamic views of women and human rights, and the unity of politics and religion are explored in a true reflection of the world church.

Makari, Peter E. Conflict & Cooperation: Christian-Muslim Relations in Contemporary Egypt.            Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007.

Egyptis considered the intellectual birthplace of the modern Islamic movements and is a center of contemporary Islamic thought and culture. It is also home to one of the oldest Christian populations in the world.

In this book, Peter Makari considers the role of governmental and nongovernmental actors in conflict resolution and the promotion of positive Christian-Muslim relations inEgypt. He maintains that, prevailing opinions notwithstanding, the last quarter-century has witnessed a high level of interreligious cooperation and tolerance. Relying heavily on Arabic sources, Makari examines the rhetoric and actions of official governmental and religious institutions, as well as civil society actors. Combining empirical research with an informed theoretical perspective, this work offers a perspective seldom available to the English reader on questions of tolerance, citizenship, and civil society in this part of the Arab world.

Markham, Ian S. Engaging with Bediuzzaman Said Nursi: A Model of Interfaith Dialogue. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009.

Too often interfaith dialogue is generic and unfocused. Often it involves ‘liberals’ from each tradition coming together to criticize the ‘conservatives’ in their own traditions. This book provides a model for interfaith dialogue that challenges very directly the ‘dialogue industry’. This book involves a Christian theologian in deep conversation with a Muslim theologian. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) was born at the end of theOttoman Empireand lived through the emergence of an aggressive secular state. He had to think through, in remarkably creative ways, the challenge of faith within a secular environment, the relationship of faith and politics, and the implications and challenge of diversity and difference. His entire project is captured in his magnum opus “The Risale-i Nur”. In the first eight chapters of this book, we engage closely with the thought of Nursi and tease out insights that Christians can learn from and accommodate. Having established the method, the second section of the book examines the precise implications for the interfaith movement. The problem with the interfaith movement is that it is an act of western cultural imperialism – they are taking the individualist assumptions of modernAmericaand imposing them on the conversation. The problems with John Hick’s and Leonard Swidler’s approach are exposed. Moving out from Islam, the book then demonstrates how the model of Interfaith changes when Christians are in conversation with Hinduism inIndia. A new set of Dialogue Ten Commandments are suggested. The book concludes with an appeal for a commitment to include and reach the ‘conservatives’ in the major religious traditions.

Michel, Thomas F. and Irfan A. Omar, eds. A Christian View of Islam. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010.

A Christian View of Islam brings together fifteen key essays by Tom Michel, the noted Jesuit scholar of Islam. This compendium is organized into three major categories:
1. Interreligious Dialogue: Encountering the “Other”
2. Christian-Muslim Studies: Comparative Perspectives
3. A Christian View of Islam.

Topics range from studies of various approaches to interreligious dialogue in Part 1 to five comparative studies in Part 2, to Part 3, in which Fr. Michel addresses a number of issues, including Islam as the “Other,” Islamic nonviolence, holiness and ethics in Islam, and a Qur’anic approach to ecology.

Mohammed, Ovey N. Muslim-Christian Relations: Past, Present and Future. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999.

Muslim-Christian Relations introduces Christians to Islam, looks at the political, cultural and economic obstacles to these relations, examines the theological issues and suggests a way forward in interfaith dialogue that is faithful to the Bible and the Qur’an. Mohammed begins by examining Muhammad the man and his message, investigating whether Sunnis and Shi’ites have their parallel in Catholics and Protestants, and comparing Muslim and Christian spiritual practices.

O’Mahony, Anthony, and Emma Loosley, ed., Christian Responses to Islam: Muslim-Christian Relations in the Modern World

In the aftermath of 9/11 there has been much talk of a need to engage on a meaningful level with Islam, but where do we begin and what is the right approach? This book looks at case studies from around the world in order to explore how Christian groups, sometimes as minorities and sometimes as the majority, engage with their Muslim neighbors in the search for a peaceful society. Some of the initiatives are politically motivated, others run by Church authorities and a number are community based, but all offer different approaches to a variety of situations that are encountered in Christian–Islamic dialogue.

This is the first time that global strategies for dialogue have been published in one book by a series of leading academics. While previous publications have concentrated on a particular geographical area, usually the Middle East or Europe, this book casts a wider net and considers issues such as the rise of radical Islam in post–Soviet states, Indonesian immigration inAustraliaand the spread of Islam amongst the Black South Africans after the fall of apartheid.

Anthony O’Mahony is Director of the Centre for Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue atHeythropCollege,UniversityofLondon. Emma Loosley is Lecturer in Oriental Christian and Islamic Art at theUniversityofManchester.

Omar, Irfan A., ed. A Muslim View Of Christianity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007.  

This major collection of essays begins with a brief biography of well-known Islam scholar Mahmoud Ayoub and a substantial introduction by Ayoub to his study of Christianity and Muslim-Christian dialogue. A bibliography of Ayoub’s significant publications is included. The essays are grouped into four sections:

1. The Need for Dialogue
2. Critical Theological and Juridical Issues
3. Christological Issues
4. Muslim-Christian Dialogue in the Modern Period

Pacini, Andrea, ed. Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Beginning with an examination of the role played by Eastern Christians in the history of Arab society, this important study offers a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the many challenges currently facing these communities. Focal points include juridical status; social, political, and economic dynamics; and relationships with the Muslim majority culture.

Praitt, Douglas. The Challenge of Islam: Encounters in Interfaith Dialogue. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.

In this text, the author provides an introduction to Islam, explores the prospects for dialogue between Islam and Christianity, and discusses a number of pertinent issues ranging from matters of media-driven perceptions of Islam to thorny theological topics.

Ridgeon, Lloyd, ed. Islamic Interpretations of Christianity. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

Many books about Islam and Christianity are comparative however this book examines Christianity from an Islamic perspective. Each chapter focuses upon theological, philosophical and mystical issues, which are as relevant today as they always have been in the Muslim-Christian dialogue. The book is divided into two sections: the classical and modern periods, thus the reader will benefit from a broad overview of the myriad Islamic interpretations of Christianity.

Shedinger, Robert F. Was Jesus a Muslim?: Questioning Categories in the Study of Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.

An intriguing question-Do Muslims understand Jesus in some ways more historically appropriate than Christians do?-leads Robert F. Shedinger into a series of provocative challenges to the disciplines of religious studies and comparative religions. Questioning the convenient distinction between “politics” and “religion” and the isolation of “religion” from wider social and cultural questions, Shedinger offers a proposal for a more accurate and respectful understanding of faith that he argues will improve possibilities for mutual understanding among Christians, Muslims-and others.

Shenk, David W. and Badru D. Kataregga. A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1997.

Millions of Muslims and Christians are neighbors and worship the same God. Yet they seldom witness to each other, and the issues they deal with are profound. Rather than an antagonistic interaction, Badru D. Kateregga and David W. Shenk pioneer another way–that of authentic dialogue between friends.

Shenk, David W. Journeys of the Muslim Nation and the Christian Church: Exploring the Mission of Two Communities. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2003.

This invaluable resource from David W. Shenk, an export in comparative religious studies, examines Islam and Christianity at their deepest spiritual, cultural, and communal levels. Shenk explores the similarities and differences found in Isaac and Ishmael, Jesus and Muhammad, the Bible and the Qur’an,JerusalemandMedina, the Eucharist and the Hajj, and the Church and Ummah.

Singh, David Emmanuel. Jesus and the Cross: Reflections on Christians from Islamic Contexts. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008.

The papers in this volume are organised in three parts: scriptural, contextual and theological. The central question being addressed is: how do Christians living in contexts where Islam is a majority or minority religion, experience, express or think of the cross? This is therefore an exercise in listening. As the contexts from where these engagements arise are varied, the papers in drawing scriptural, contextual and theological reflections offer a cross-section of Christian thinking about Jesus and the cross.

Smith, Jane I. Muslims, Christians, and the Challenge of Interfaith Dialogue. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 instantly heightened the American public’s sensitivity toward matters of religious difference. Many Americans realized not only that non-Muslims need to learn more about Islam, but also that Muslims must better understand and articulate their own faith to themselves and others. In this volume, Jane Idleman Smith examines the current American Christian-Muslim dialogue, contextualized both through the history of Islam and of the contemporary West. As we approach the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Smith dares to ask what progress has been made through this dialogue, what happens when that dialogue fails, and what direction it will take in the years to come.

Smith examines the recent theological writings of both Catholics and Protestants about dialogue and pluralism, and shows that since 9/11 a few Muslim scholars in the West have also begun to write about these issues. Now, she argues, many Christians and Muslims are expressing their desire to move beyond theological discussion into what is often called the “dialogue of engagement.” As evidence, she points to initiatives among young people, women, and African Americans as they attempt to find ways to work together in local projects of justice and community service. Throughout the book, one hears the personal voices of these Muslim and Christian participants in the American interfaith dialogue.

While many of the encounters between Islam and Christianity over the past 14 centuries have been peaceful, Americans know little about the history of religious interaction beyond the Crusades or the fearEurope felt in the face of the invasions of the Turks. This volume is intended to educate Americans about the great diversity of Muslims in this country while illustrating how Christians and Muslims are coming together, not only to talk to each other, but to work together for the common good.

Thompson, Livingstone A. A Formula for Conversation: Christians and Muslims in Dialogue. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007.

Accounts of conversations about pressing topics between Christians and Muslims.

Troll, Christian W. Dialogue and Difference: Clarity in Christian-Muslim Relations. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009.

According to Father Troll, “If Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ is to be avoided, there is no alternative to an honest, open–and at the same time critical–dialogue of religions and cultures between Christians and Muslims, who together constitute more than half the world’s population.”

A participant in Muslim-Christian conversations for decades, Troll knows intimately the practical problems and shortcomings of both traditions. Learning to distinguish carefully in order to clarify what is at stake, Troll says, is necessary, “if the witness of faith is to meet open hearts and minds, with both sides honestly trying to solve the many problems both traditions have,” utilizing the many resources each brings to a suffering world.

Valkenberg, Pim. Sharing Lights on the Way to God: Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Theology in the Context of Abrahamic Partnership. New York: Rodolphi, 2006.

“This book seeks to give form to a theology that hyphenates two traditions that have not only been in constant conflict during most of their historical encounters but are also presented as opposite blocks in the threatening ‘clash of civilizations’ at the beginning of the third millennium: Islam and Christianity. Based on experiences of dialogue between the three Abrahamic faiths, this book analyzes historical and contemporary processes of interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims in order to arrive at a concept of dialogue as ‘mutual emulation’. It shows how, in their theologies of religious others, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have based their images of others on their self-images. This characteristic makes traditional theologies of religion quite unsuitable for interreligious dialogue. Consequently, the author of this book develops a model in which comparative theology and interreligious dialogue are connected by studying – as a Christian theologian – the theological and spiritual sources of his Muslim partners. These exercises in comparative Muslim-Christian theology comprise both the medieval (Aquinas, al-Ghazali, Rumi) and the modern periods (Said Nursi, Fethullah Gulen, Tariq Ramadan). An interlude on Teresa of Avila’s poem ‘Nada te turbe’ shows how Christians may recover important insights from their own tradition by reading these Muslim theological and spiritual sources.”

Van Gorder, A. Christian. No God but God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Dialogue on God’s Nature. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003.

Helps clear the way to a fruitful dialogue between Christians and Muslims by addressing several questions that are usually grounds for misunderstandings between the two.

Volf, Miroslav. Allah: A Christian Response. New York: Harper One, 2011.

Three and a half billion people—the majority of the world’s population—profess Christianity or Islam. Renowned scholar Miroslav Volf’s controversial proposal is that Muslims and Christians do worship the same God—the only God. As Volf reveals, warriors in the “clash of civilizations” have used “religions”—each with its own god and worn as a badge of identity—to divide and oppose, failing to recognize the one God whom Muslims and Christians understand in partly different ways.

Writing from a Christian perspective, and in dialogue with leading Muslim scholars and leaders from around the world, Volf reveals surprising points of intersection and overlap between these two faith traditions:

• What the Qur’an denies about God as the Holy Trinity has been denied by every great teacher of the church in the past and ought to be denied by Christians today.

• A person can be both a practicing Muslim and 100 percent Christian without denying core convictions of belief and practice.

• How two faiths, worshipping the same God, can work toward the common good under a single government.

Volf explains the hidden agendas behind today’s news stories as he thoughtfully considers the words of religious leaders and parses the crucial passages from the Bible and the Qur’an that continue to ignite passion. Allah offers a constructive way forward by reversing the “our God vs. their God” premise that destroys bridges between neighbors and nations, magnifies fears, and creates strife.