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The Qur'an in Context: A Christian Exploration, by Mark Robert Anderson
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Review
"Mark Anderson has produced an excellent, incisive, well-researched book highlighting similarities and distinctives between the Qur'an and the Bible. His research is impeccable and his conclusions will stand the test of scholarly investigation. Anderson avoids the pitfalls of inflammatory us-them polemics. He enters into the realities of the Muslim worldview by exploring the seventh-century context of the Qur'an, on which Muslim belief and behavior is built. Without reservation, I commend Anderson's work to all who desire to move beyond 'breaking news' and sensationalism and come to grips with the inside story of who Muslims really are." (Phil Parshall, SIM USA)"Demonstrating a familiarity with contemporary scholarship and respect for Muslim sensitivities, Mark Anderson describes the context in which the Qur'an arose and how it both reflected and challenged that world. While comparing and contrasting Qur'anic and biblical theology and the character of Jesus in the Qur'an and the Bible, he shows how close and how far apart they are. This study provides an excellent foundation for an informed and sensitive discussion with Muslims." (J. Dudley Woodberry, dean emeritus and senior professor of Islamic studies, Fuller Theological Seminary)"As well as providing a well-informed and nuanced introduction to the current scholarly debate over Islamic origins, The Qur'an in Context offers a substantial, theologically serious and at points provocative discussion on the Qur'an in its interface with the Bible and the core themes of the Christian faith. This lucid and thought-provoking study makes a significant contribution from an Evangelical and Reformed perspective to the wider field of Christian engagement with the scripture at the heart of Islam." (David Marshall, Duke Divinity School)"This is a theological and academic evaluation of the Qur'an and its teachings. It's a scholarly but worthwhile read. Recommend to missionaries, evangelism and apologetics professors, and laypeople serving Muslim peoples." (David Mundt, Christian Market, December 2016)
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About the Author
Mark Robert Anderson is the author of Faithsongs: Ancient Psalms for Today and lives in Vancouver, Canada. For over ten years, he lived and worked in the Middle East, teaching in a university and seminary. Anderson has been a member of Jacob's Well, a faith-based organization seeking mutually transformative relationships with marginalized residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and for two years he was part of a team helping homeless people find sustainable housing and employment. He has an MA in Islamic studies from McGill University and an MA in Christian religion from Westminster Theological Seminary.
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Product details
Paperback: 341 pages
Publisher: IVP Academic (October 12, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0830851429
ISBN-13: 978-0830851423
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
9 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#542,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Thanks to author Mark Robert Anderson for doing what needs to be done: reading the Qur’an from the point of view of a Christian who holds both to a high view of the Bible and a respectful attitude toward Muslims. He doesn’t allow his commitment to the Christian faith lead him into a diatribe against Islam, but rather works within his freedom and confidence in the historical and theological integrity of the Bible to calmly explore the Qur’an in context.After thoughtfully reading The Qur’an in Context: A Christian Exploration—and it took some real time and effort due to Mark’s scholarly writing style—I found myself pondering questions about the nature of God that pose challenges for both the Christian and Muslim. This stems from the three chief themes he identifies running throughout the Old and New Testaments (Tawrat, Zabur, and Injil). These are 1. Friendship with God, 2. Free grace of God and, 3. The humility of God. He writes, “Since all three motifs are evident from Genesis to Revelation, it is only right that we assess to what extent the Qur’an further develops them†(p 290). These three themes crystalize the differences between the message of the Bible and the Qur’an. This is a very helpful way of drawing the distinction in general terms rather than getting overly bogged down in the finer details, particularly details that arise when tediously working through the many parallel stories found in the two books. There certainly is a time and place to work through the details, and Mark does a fine job of patiently examining the details, but he skillfully helps the reader always keep sight of the whole forest while walking among the individual trees.Perhaps the single biggest question that has lingered in my mind since completing The Qur’an in Context is the one that Muslims regularly bring in one form or another to try to refute the Christian doctrine of the incarnation. “If Jesus was God, who was in heaven governing everything when he died on the cross?†Most often this question comes with a smile that indicates the questioner feels that a knock-out punch has been easily delivered. But the question focuses on an apparent ontological problem experienced in one precise and fleeting moment of time. The question of God’s presence relative to the cosmos is far more complex than just facing the apparent contradiction of God in Jesus dead on a cross at the same moment he is alive and well on his throne in heaven. Where is God now? Mr. Anderson points out repeatedly that Islamic theology presents a distant and transcendent God. The Qur’anic view of Allah is one almost completely lacking in any kind of immanence. He writes that the Qur’an “in true jahili fashion makes him so transcendent that he is not truly approachable. By comparison to biblical theology, God’s immanence seems overpowered by his transcendence in the Qur’an. For that reason, the Qur’an implicitly rejects the biblical metaphors pointing to our being able to know God intimately†(p 53).But the Qur’an also speaks of God being closer than our jugular vein and has him seeing and knowing the affairs of humans on the earth. So like the Bible, the Qur’an must find a way to solve the question of how God appears to be present, “virtually†if not actually, while keeping his distance and ontological distinctiveness apart from his creation. But unlike the Christian faith which ultimately answers this dilemma by positing a transcendent God wholly unlike and independent of his creation who incarnates as a human man to live and walk among people as one of them, the Qur’an leaves the Muslim with only an unsolved mystery of how the transcendent God is somehow unlike and independent of creation, existing in some other “place†(not even the Muslim Paradise Jannat, because the faithful have no real hope of ever seeing Allah) and yet is so close he knows a person’s innermost thoughts.The Qur’anic divine distance underlies the three main themes. Unwilling in his character to condescend to lowly human beings, God in the Qur’an does not offer himself in friendship to anyone. There is a brief comment about God’s friendship with Abraham, but this lacks context and might mean no more than a friendly gesture without the kind of exchange of self that occurs in a true friendship between two parties meetings in humility. The high and noble God of the Qur’an seems a reflection of the 6th century tribal noble, a person who acts without reference to any external law or consistent character. If this is so as Mark argues, then we are faced with the very uncomfortable fact that such a God whose character and behavior is modeled after a human will be ultimately flawed with the same character problems. Can such a person’s behavior be counted upon to always be fair and just? Do they operate with internally consistent moral structures? One is left with a model far less than the ideal. Perhaps this explains the capriciousness of the Qur’anic God, who can do good or evil. Mr. Anderson writes, “the jahili Arab saw Allah as not remotely answerable to anyone and, taking the same view, the Qur’an treats the problem of theodicy like the nonissue it was to Muhammad’s jahili hearers. The Qur’an never so much as raises the question of the book of Job†(p 60).Two big historical issues always arise in conversation with Muslims. Didn’t Jesus ascend to heaven before they managed to crucify him and didn’t the Jews and Christians corrupt their scriptures? Mark considers these questions and provides historically and logically satisfying answers. First, he argues convincingly that the first hearers of the Qur’an and the author of the Qur’an had not the most remotely wild thought that the story about Jesus dying on the cross was anything but true. He provides ample evidence, including Surah 3:55 and 4:157 (he is an Arabic scholar) that the Qur’an took for granted that a) Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead and b) the written and oral Gospel accounts circulating in the Arab peninsula were considered reliable without question. The theory that God rescued Jesus from death and that the Bible was corrupted came much later when Islam grew and leaders realized that they couldn’t reconcile the Qur’an endorsing the Bible as God’s reliable Word while it in turn contradicted the Qur’anic claim that the earlier books predicted Muhammad’s coming as a new and final prophet. It raises the question, why was the Qur’anic author so confident in asserting that that the Bible predicted his coming? Did he hope he could get established in his power and control before people could dig into the Bible deeply enough to discover that it did not support his claims? Did he really think he was fulfillment of Biblical prophecy? If so, which ones? The Qur’an never specifies.Though the Qur’an does affirm the Bible and the story of Jesus, it empties out so much content and meaning that whatever is left gives the reader just enough to conclude that the Islamic prophet is the best one, whatever else may have transpired beforehand. Mark says the Bible and Qur’an are “So close, yet so far†(p 305).I closed the book with nagging questions. How could such a situation arise? Today with almost 2 billion Muslims centered on the Qur’an, this is far more than a scholarly question. Biblical Christians love everyone and hope, pray and work for their salvation in Jesus the Messiah. Missing so much spiritual “nutritional†value, the Qur’an may vaguely point to the Door, but it’s all so shadowy and blurry, how will anyone ever make their way through it? I would have appreciated Mr. Anderson offering a little more encouragement and perhaps hopeful instruction, how Christians should proceed in sharing the Good News with their Muslim friends. While we may become thoroughly familiar with the Qur’an in context, where do we go from here to introduce Muslims to the sketchy al-Masih who they will all say they believe and love, but about whom they know almost nothing? I also appreciate the effort to avoid polemics, but I struggle between the tension of saying too much and too little. At various times in the Bible we see the powers in confrontation. Moses and the magicians. Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Jesus and the Pharisees. Paul and the Ephesians. One senses Mr. Anderson also wrestling with the tension of knowing how to speak the truth in love. He has done a wise and powerful job that deserves attention. I think there is still much, much more to do.
Before reading Mark Anderson's book I had a broad but shallow understanding of Islam and the Qur'an. He filled in many of the details that I was missing and corrected some of my misconceptions. I appreciated his careful comparison of the Biblical and Qur'anic texts, and I learned more about my Bible as well as the Qur'an. It was interesting to see where the Bible and the Qur'an have some points of similarity, but it was more important for me to get a clear grasp on where they are radically different. The Qur'an in Context gave me that understanding. It is a scholarly book, but I found it approachable for a non-scholar like me.
A timely, scholarly, and very important book, especially in our time of increasing anti-Muslim sentiment. Anderson says "...we must read it [the Qur'an] in a manner that is faithful to its historical context..." while keeping in mind how meaningful and central it is to Muslims everywhere, including those we work with and walk alongside almost daily. In a time of so much anti-Muslim rhetoric, this book is a "must read" for any person serious about their Christian faith. The author shows great respect for the scripture of a people that he clearly cares about. He makes no call to evangelize Muslims while noting that "a fervent desire to see Muslims evangelized can skew a Christian's reading of the Qur'an."
This excellent book is not a polemic. It is an even-handed, factual exploration of the Qur'an.
The Qur'an for many Christians is a very foreign book. Some people have tried to read it and yet have not made it past the second sura. The style of writing is different to most Christians and does not seem like an engaging work, but the reality is that Christians need to understand this work. Whatever you think of Islam, the Qur'an is the holy book of this faith and it has shaped the world greatly.Anderson has written a book to help us in its text. Anderson urges us rightly to try to drop our preconceptions and approach the book seriously and seek to understand the way it was written, the why, and the historical context. Even if you don't think it's holy Scripture, the Qur'an still should be understood on its own terms. That requires work, just like understanding the Bible does. I have been a long opposition to people not bothering to study the historical context of the Bible and yet speaking on it. I say the same for the Qur'an.Anderson goes through piece by piece and then compares what he finds to the Bible. There is no doubt on my part he wants to be as fair as he can to the Qur'an. He also addresses the question of if we worship the same God or not. I think we could say that we have that as our intention and I think that Anderson does argue that, but there can be no doubt the descriptions of Allah and YHWH are vastly different.Anderson also wants us to study the world of 7th century Arabia. What was going on? What were Christians and Jews and pagans all saying? How did Muhammad approach this world?Next comes a long look at the worldview of the Qur'an. What does it say about evil? What does it say about Adam? What must one do to be saved? All of these have marked differences and Anderson has many questions about whether the system in the Qur'an is really coherent or not.Jesus is a big topic. The problem for the view of Jesus in the Qur'an is that it's really downplaying. Very little is said about the ministry and teaching of Jesus. Much comes from non-canonical sources and its depiction of the Trinity is highly lacking. The Qur'an says Jesus is the Messiah, but divests this of any real meaning at all.Amazingly, you can have many in-depth looks at the lives of other people in the Bible, but with Jesus, you get nothing like that. You don't understand what His ministry was and why He came. It simply looks like Jesus is only there to point to Muhammad.Ah yes, but what about the crucifixion? The Qur'an is clear on that and that's that Jesus did not die on the cross. Anderson disputes that and I have to say he makes a highly highly compelling case. I have long thought that Islam denies that Jesus was crucified, and many Muslims do, but Anderson made a case that made me rethink if that's what the original Qur'anic author intended and I dare say I will not be as strident until I find a better response to that claim. Anderson bases his claim on what he considers a better reading of that text in light of other texts he thinks are clearer. He contends that others are reading the clear texts in light of this one and changing those in ways that don't fit.Finally, he wraps things up by asking if we could say the Qur'an is the sequel to the Bible. The answer is decidedly, no. There are too many differences across the board. Still, we should strive to understand the Qur'an in its historical context to have better discussions with the Muslims we encounter.Anderson's book gives a lot of food for thought. He is kind and fair in his treatment and there is nothing here I can think of that would be seen as "Anti-Muslim" or dare I say it, Islamophobic. I look forward to even seeing what some Muslims think about the material in here.In Christ,Nick PetersDeeper Waters Apologetics
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