Allah: A Christian Response, by Miroslav Volf, professor of theology
at Yale Divinity School and formerly of Fuller Theological Seminary
[2] — Josh Olds begins the March 18 blog of his review: “At the
beginning of Allah: A Christian Response, I was inclined to answer
this provocative question [i.e., God = Allah?] with a firm ‘No.’ …

“My previous perception was primarily soteriological – I was
confusing worshipping the correct God with worshipping God
correctly. … Volf’s perception is not that Muslims are saved or
that Christianity and Islam are soteriologically equal, but rather
that Muslims acknowledge the true God but know him incompletely.”

Volf “begins by giving the topic some historical background,
taking a chapter to focus on the recent past and two chapters to
discuss the distant past when it comes to this debate. In the first
chapter, he brings up some rather inflammatory comments from
Christian figures from Pat Robertson to Pope Benedict XVI to John
Piper and carefully rebuts their divisive rhetoric. … These
chapters are very interesting as both Nicolas and Luther affirm that
Christians and Muslims worship the same God, even if Luther seems to
do so only begrudgingly. These chapters serve to show that Volf’s
perspective is not a part of the ecumenical ‘spirit of the age’ but
rather a serious theological issue that has been discussed
throughout the history of these two religions.

“Part two of the book dives into specific discussions, questions,
and issues. Volf makes the argument that for it to be accurate to
say Christians and Muslims worship the same God, their perception of
God must be sufficiently similar in relevant ways. …

“Volf also puts forth that both Muslims and Christians believe in
adherence to what Jesus called the two greatest commandments…. He
points out the similar moral framework possessed by normative
Christianity and normative Islam, pointing out that both religions
that believe correctly or name the faith but do not follow it. If we
as Christians can point to the Crusaders and say ‘they are not true
Christians’ then why do we often balk when normative Islams say the
same about radical Islam.

“Allah: A Christian Response is truly boundary breaking, for it
is able to separate both the Christian and the Muslim from the ‘us
vs. them’ mentality that is so pervasive in this post-9/11 culture
and call both sides to work on affirming their commonalities for the
political good while peaceably debating on spiritual matters for the
religious good. …

“By focusing on our commonalities without underplaying or denying
our differences, Volf makes an argument for political religious
pluralism without giving in to soteriological religious pluralism.
In the end, for me, it was paradigm changing….”

Christianity Today recently interviewed Volf (Apr ’11, pp28-30).
He had this to say about his book. “If our understandings of God
clash, it will be hard for us to live in peace – not impossible, but
hard. So exploring to what extent Christians and Muslims have
similar conceptions of God is foundational to exploring whether we
inhabit a common moral universe, within which there are some
profound differences that can be negotiated, discussed, and
adjudicated. …

“I don’t think we need to agree with anyone in order to love the
person. … But will we be able to forge common bonds of social life
in some ways? Will we be able to inhabit common space? That is a
question distinct from whether I’m able to love somebody. …

“My argument is that having common values will make it possible
to negotiate differences. …

“First, all Christians don’t worship the same God, and all
Muslims don’t worship the same God. …

“We need to build on what is similar rather than simply bemoan
what’s different. …

“‘Do Christians and Jews worship different gods?’ … I would
hope the response would be, ‘No. Jews and Christians worship the
same God. They just understand God in a different way – Christians in
a Trinitarian way, and Jews not.’

“Some Jews and Muslims accuse Christians of being idolatrous for
believing in the Trinity. My response to both groups is that they
fundamentally misunderstand the Christian understanding of the
Trinity. …

“I would also argue that the denials of the doctrine of the
Trinity in the Qur’an are denials of an inappropriately understood
version of the Trinity. …

“What binds Muslims and Christians, and what is central to my
argument, is that God is one, that God is distinct from the world,
and that the one God has created everything that is not God. There
is a radical divide between creature and creator. …

“Muslims and Christians will increasingly share common spaces. If
it is a Christian duty to live in peace with all people, then I take
it that includes Muslims. … Christians are obliged to love all
human beings, which includes Muslims, and therefore live in peace
with them. …

“Just like evangelicals at one point discovered that Catholics
can be their allies, I think in a much more attenuated sense
(because we are dealing with two religions), Muslims can be our
allies in struggles for a proper way to live in the world today.”

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