Allah: A Christian Response to Miroslav Volf

Overview  

Miroslav Volf—a Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale University—sets out in Allah: A Christian Response to establish what he admits is a controversial claim: Muslims and Christians worship the same God (p.11).¹Volf compares this with Vatican II’s statement,, “They [Muslims] adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men” (quoted on p.95; see also Catechism of the Catholic Church #841). Volf’s hope is that the two faiths will come to understand that they worship a common God and can work toward a common good in this life.²“…my primary concern is the ability of Muslims and Christians to live a peaceful, well-ordered life in this world” (p.184). Volf’s goal of peaceful coexistance stems from his experience of growing up in former Yugoslavia.

A common problem with all religious studies and dialogue— whether it is polemical, evangelistic, academic, or irenic—is representing Christianity and Islam truthfully. The problem is not only representing the other side fairly. The challenge is just as much representing your side fairly. No one studying or writing about these issues is immune from this challenge. As the following review will show, Volf has his moments. Some are positive. Some are not.

Allah: A Christian Response is directed at Christians—Miroslav Volf mentions John Piper by name—who believe the Bible teaches that the Muslim God is very much unlike Jesus (p.34). The implication seems to be that Christians who disagree with Volf are part of the world’s problems and not part of the solution:

…I am interested in the consequences of the claim that Christians and Muslims worship a different deity. What are they? Since both Christians and Muslims are monotheists, if they worship different gods, they will rightly accuse each other of worshipping a false god, which is the worst of sins in both of these traditions. The love that Muslims and Christians have for the God they worship will pull them apart rather than bring them together (p.35; cf. pp.190-191).³The consequence for Christians should be proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 10). This should be done with profound humility (1 Timothy 1:12-15).

Key to his claim that Muslims and Christians worship the same God are what Volf argues to be points of intersections and overlap between Christianity and Islam:

• Similarities between what Christians and Muslims say about God and His commands.
• 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.

Things I appreciated about Allah: A Christian Response:

• Miroslav Volf is an engaging person both in his writing and in his interaction with Muslims. I appreciate Miroslav Volf’s zeal to pursue peace by writing Allah: A Christian Response.
• The historical discussion of Nicolas of Cusa and Martin Luther was informative (Chapters 2-3).⁴Volf supplies many helpful explanations and quotes from church history defending Trinitarianism from the charge of Tritheism. A popular Muslim criticism of the Trinity is that “One plus one plus one can never be one.” Miroslav answers this with Nicholas of Cusa’s explanation that “God is not just beyond concepts, but also beyond numbers. “One” and “three” do not apply to God the way they apply to human beings or to any other thing in the world.” Volf then illustrates this with an illustration from Denys Turner,
  Suppose, in the conduct of some quite lunatic thought experiment you were to imagine counting the total number of things that there are, have ever been, and will be, and you get to the number n. Then I say: “Fine, that’s the universe enumerated, but you have left out just one being, the being who made all that vast number of things that is the universe, namely, God,”…Do you now add God to the list? Is that what I am asking you to do? Does the total number of things that there are now amount to n+1? (141).
• Miroslav Volf’s discussion of the Trinity in chapter 7 is helpful for dialogue with some Muslims.
• I appreciated Miroslav Volf’s emphasis on the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) as it applies to mission (Chapter 11).

Summary of my disagreement with Allah: A Christian Response:

The Good News of the Gospel is that God has accepted Jesus Christ as evidenced by His resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 1:1-4). Regrettably this Good News is not emphasized in Allah: A Christian Response (Acts 2:22-36). It must be because what God has accepted, Muslims reject.

Christians who take issue with Miroslav Volf’s main argument do not have to come to the conclusion that Islam is morally and socially incompatible with Christian moral and political visions. In fact, Christians who come to such conclusions may have misunderstood Islam, and more importantly they have misunderstood Christianity (see Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity). Christianity does not have a monopoly on morality or political justice. The Christian doctrines of man made in the image of God and common grace gives ample theological room for Christians to work with non-Christians, including polytheists and atheists, for the common good of society.⁵John Murray wrote that common grace,
“endows men with gifts, talents, and aptitudes; He stimulates them with interest and purpose to the practice of virtues, the pursuance of worthy tasks, and the cultivation of arts and sciences that occupt the time, activity and enerty of men and that make for the benefit and civilisation of the human race. He ordains institutions for the protection and promotion of right, the preservation of liberty, the advance of knowledge and the improvement of physical and moral conditions” (“Common Grace”; Westminster Theological Journal 5:1 [November 1942], 11).

And now for some greater detail.

Miroslav Volf’s argument for similarities between Christian and Muslim descriptions of God and His commands.

Miroslav Volf argues for a common God by reminding his readers that mankind has a sense of God (sensus divinitatis, p.65).⁶Richard Muller defines sensus divinitatisas “a basic, intuitive perception of the divine existence; it is generated in all men through their encounter with the providential ordering of the world. The sensus divinitatisis, therefore, the basis both of pagan religion and of natural theology. Because of the fall, the religion that arises out of this sense of the divine or seed of religion (semen religionis) is idolatrous and incapable of saving or of producing true obedience before God. Man’s sensus divinitatis, thus, is capable only of leaving him without excuse in his rejection of God’s truth” (Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology, 279). Even if Miroslav Volf disagreed with this defintion he needs to discuss whether the good works and worship of Muslims is acceptable to God when they reject Jesus Christ’s work. He then compares the content of what Christians and Muslims say about God to determine “whether the descriptions of God are sufficiently similar for us to claim that they speak of the same object when they refer to God” (p.89).

Volf comes up with six similar claims to show that the object of Muslim and Christian worship is the same:

1. There is only one God, the one and only divine being (Mark 12:29; Quran 47:19).
2. God created everything that is not God (Genesis 1:1; Quran 42:11).
3. God is different from everything that is not God (1 Timothy 6:16; Quran 6:103).
4. God is good (1 John 4:16; Quran 85:14).
5. God commands that we love God with our whole being (Deuteronomy 6:5; Quran 39:45)
6. God commands that we love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 7:12; Sahih Muslim, Hadith no.45) (pp.97-110).⁷Volf later notes that the Muslim view of love “is not quite as definitive as the Christian command to ‘love the enemy'” (p.181).

Volf’s sufficent similarities are not sufficiently Christian

Are these six similarities sufficient to conclude that Muslims and Christians worship the same God? The answer is, “No” because the content Volf offers is not sufficiently Christian. Christian doctrine is rooted in God’s work which culminates in Jesus Christ.⁸J. Gresham Machen wrote:
“The primitive Church was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”–that is history. “He loved me and gave Himself for me”–that is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive Church” (Christianity and Liberalism, 29).

It is true that Christians and Muslims believe in only one God (#1), but that is not all Christians believe. Christians believe the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Muslims do not.

Volf says Christians and Muslims affirm #2. However, there is more to the story than Miroslav Volf’s proof text of Genesis 1:1. Christians believe Jesus is God and that through Him all things were made (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-20; 2:9-15; Hebrews 1:2). We also believe in the new creation that has been inaugurated in the New Covenant (Luke 22:14-20; 2 Corinthians 5:17; cf. John 2-3; John 20:22).

#3 is not a similarity because Muslims believe the Incarnation violates the Creator/creature distinction (John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-11).

Christians and Muslims affirm that God is good (#4). Here again, Christians look to Christ’s work which Muslims reject. Volf does not emphasize here the centrality of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for sin and how it shapes our understanding of God’s goodness (John 3:16). Ironically, the larger context of Volf’s proot text (1 John 4:16) highlights this major difference (1 John 4:9-11).

God commands that we love God (#5). According to Gordon Nickel, the Quran does not contain a commandment to love Allah.⁹“The Quran contains no commandment to love either Allah or other humans”, Gordon Nickel, The Quran with Christian Commentary, 560.

Furthermore, Who other than Jesus can claim perfection in this area (John 4:34; 8:29; Psalm 40:6-10 with Hebrews 10:5-7; Romans 1:16-3:31; cf. Muhammad’s repentance)?¹⁰Christian theologian R.C. Sproul wrote, “Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him. He is the One who takes the initiative to restore our souls. Without Him we can do nothing of righteousness. Without Him we would be doomed to everlasting alienation from His holiness. We can only love Him because He first loved us. To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls” (The Holiness of God, 183.) See 1 John 4:19. Additionally, Christians believe this command to love God requires us to love the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Most Muslims believe such love is the unpardonable sin of shirk.

Even #6 is interpreted differently by Christians in light of Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial love (John 13:34; 15:1-11; Romans 5:8-10).¹¹Miroslav Volf defines worship broadly to include the two Great Commandments (pp.102-104) and argues that Muslims worship God as evidenced by their love. But there are two problems with this. The first is that while all men have a sensus divinitatis, it does not follow that their obedience is acceptable to God (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23). The second problem is that Muslims are not “in Christ” (cf. John 15:5). They are not what the Bible calls a “priesthood” because they do not accept Jesus as the One Greater than the temple (Matthew 12:6; Revelation 1:5-6).

Volf believes these points are a “tight and persuasive” argument that Christians and Muslims worship the same God (p.102). He argues that this method of focusing on commonalities is loving (p.94; cf. 1 Corinthians 13), and criticizes those—he mentions Mark Durie by name—who emphasize differences (p.91).

Volf’s approach is misguided—would the Apostle Paul use stronger language?—because commonalities should be an occasion for Christians to emphasize the need¹²From Genesis 3 onward the work of Christ has been a universal human need that God promised to meet. This has been believed by God’s people from ancient times. Abel’s sacrifice was offered in this spirit along with Abraham’s. This universal need has been fulfilled by the One whose blood speaks better than Abel (Hebrews 12:24; cf. Genesis 3:21; 22). I am grateful to my friend Pastor Scott Wilkinson for this insight. for the person and work of Jesus (cf. John 4:1-45; Acts 17:24-31; Romans 1-3).¹³“The locus classicus for the sensus divinitatis is Rom 1:18–2:17. In that passage, according to Calvin, “Paul shows that the whole world is deserving of eternal death. It hence follows, that life is to be recovered in some other way, since we are all lost in ourselves.” Paul’s point, in other words, is initially to show that we are all under the grip of sin, and that the way out of that condition requires something outside of us (extra nos)” (Scott Oliphant, “Review Essay: Epistemology and Christian Belief”; Westminster Theological Journal Volume, 63:1 [Spring 2001], 162). That something “outside of us” is God’s work in Jesus as Paul goes on to write in Romans 3:21-31.). However, this is not the direction Volf goes. Instead of arguing the preeminence of Jesus, Volf concludes that Muslims and Christians worship the same God.¹⁴The way Miroslav Volf frames his argument for “worship” and “same God” is confusing and unhelpful. The issue is not fundamentally the sense of divinity (sensus divinitatis). The deeper issue is the basis by which God accepts us and our worship. In effect, Volf lays aside the stumbling block of the cross (Psalm 118:22; Acts 4:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:23-24; 1 Peter 2:4-10).¹⁵“If the cross is anything to the mind, it is surely everything – the most profound reality and the sublimest mystery. One comes to realize that literally all the wealth and glory of the gospel centres here. The Cross is the pivot as well as the centre of New Testament thought. It is the exclusive mark of the Christian faith, the symbol of Christianity and its cynosure. The more unbelievers deny its crucial character, the more do believers find in it the key to the mysteries of sin and suffering. We rediscover the apostolic emphasis on the Cross when we read the gospel with Moslems. We find that although the offence of the Cross remains, its magnetic power is irresistible” (Samuel Zwemer, The Glory of the Cross, [London: Marshall, Organ & Scott, 1928], 5).

Miroslav Volf says his message and method is biblical because it is loving.¹⁶I heartily agree with Volf on the importance of love and he has a helpful discussion about love in Chapter 9, “Eternal and Unconditional Love.” However, “The most significant revelation of God’s grace and God’s love ever given to mankind is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Donald Bloesch, “The Paradoxical Love of the Cross”; Reformation and Revival, 6:4 [Fall 1997], 133). The message of the cross is lacking in Volf’s message about love.
Furthermore, Volf’s view of love is predicated on the disputable idea, “God’s love precedes and encompasses God’s justice” and that this widely held belief – “the priority of God’s love over justice” – is a commonality between Christianity and Islam (p.157).
Volf needs reconsider God’s love (1 John 4:8,16 [Volf leans upon this “classic Christian text” {p.105}]) in light of God’s covenant and holiness (Volf neglects the larger context of this “classic Christian text” about God sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins: 1 John 4:9-10 with Leviticus 25:9; cf. 1 John 2:2; 4:10),
God is love, say the Apostles, and therefore he provides a propitiation. . . Its whole virtue, its consistency with God’s character, its aptness to man’s need, its real dimensions as a revelation of love, depend ultimately on this, that mercy comes to us in it through judgment (James Denney, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Expositor’s Bible, Hodder, 1894, p. 221f.). But it is not loving to deemphasize the person and work of Christ.¹⁷Volf’s failure to emphasize Christ’s person and work helps explain why he takes issue with John Piper who wrote of Christ’s person and work:
The person and work of Jesus are the primary means by which God has glorified himself in the world. No revelation of God’s glory is greater. Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Therefore, his person is the manifestation of the glory of God. To see him as he really is means seeing the infinitely valuable beauty of God. Jesus also said, as he was praying, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4). Therefore, his work is a manifestation of the glory of God. When we see what he achieved and how he did it, we see the majesty and greatness of God (John Piper, What Jesus Demands from the World, 19).

What the Quran 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.

Dr. Volf rightly understands that the doctrine of the Trinity is a major hurdle between Christianity and Islam, and he goes to great lengths to explain anti-Trinitarian statements in the Quran:

O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not “Trinity”: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. (Quran 4:171)

They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. (Qur’an 5:73)

The challenge for Miroslav Volf is how Christians and Muslims can worship the same God given such statements?

Miroslav Volf’s answer is that these and other Quranic passages do not deny Trinitarian orthodoxy but Trinitarian heterodoxy, “the rejections of the ‘Trinity’ in the Qur’an do not refer to normative Christian understanding of God’s threeness, and that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity does not call into question God’s oneness as expressed in Muslims’ most basic beliefs that there is ‘no god but God'” (p.143, see also pages 53-54, 130-136).

Volf’s exegesis of the Quran is questionable because Muslims have traditionally interpreted these Quranic passages as an uncompromising insistence upon the unity of God against other claims, including orthodox and heterodox Trinitarianism:

Some have suggested that the Qurʾān refutes heretical Christian beliefs (e.g. tritheism, adoptionism, the physical generation of the Son) rather than the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, etc. In practice, however, the vast majority of Muslim commentators have assumed that the Qurʾān does refute the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Christian doctrine of divine sonship, especially as these are understood to contradict the central Islamic tenet of the oneness of God” (Kate Zebiri, “Polemic and Polemical Language”; Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe . Brill [Leiden and Boston], 2005. CD-ROM version).¹⁸Another article from the same Encyclopaedia says that while the question of whether the Quran rejects Trinitarianism “has been contested, though from a very early date there has been little doubt of this among Muslims” (David Thomas, “Trinity”). Volf seems to acknowledge this on p.79

Volf says Muslims worship God “inadequately” because they do not believe in His trinitarian nature (p.145). I would argue that Muslim worship is not only inadequate, but that it is not regarded by God because Muslims do not remember the New Covenant in Christ’s blood which is of central importance for acceptable worship (Genesis 4:5; Hebrews 12:24; 13:20-21). Remembering Who God is and what He has done is at the heart of true worship.¹⁹“The Qur’an, indeed, is a book about memory and remembrance, with the often repeated claim to be first and foremost dhikr, or tadhkira, a reminder” (see Quran 74:54; 81:27) (Angelika Neuwirth, “Qur’an, Crisis and Memory” in Neuwirth, A./Pflitsch, A. (eds): Crisis and Memory, [Beiruter Texte und Studien, 2001], 115).
For all the emphasis Islam places on memory and recitation, Muslims have “forgotten” and do not “recite” what is of first importance (1 Corinthians 11:23-25; 15:1-4),
“It can be argued that, by definition, worship is proper human response to divine initiative. More specifically, it is recognition of who God is and what he has done and the ways and means by which that should be celebrated. This is where remembering enters the process, for it is precisely the person and works of God that must be brought to mind as objects of adoration and wonder, and these are recovered only as the worshiper has the capacity to recall them” (Eugene H. Merrill, “Remembering: A Central Theme in Biblical Worship”; Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:1 [March 2000], 30.

The monotheism of the Quran and Islam is not only a Christological debate (pp.145-147). It stems from a rejection of God’s covenant and work in history (cf. Genesis 15; 22; Exodus 3:10-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-9; Matthew 26:26-28; Hebrews 8-10).²⁰“God in his Triunity decisively reveals himself through the redemptive work of Christ in the NT. The full revelation of the character of God, the being of God, and the logical self-consistency of God comes in the form of a climax of redemption in the person and work of Christ.
“Before the coming of NT redemption, human beings knew God less fully. This deficiency is not an incidental fact arising merely from some mental or moral deficiency in the individual or the society. It is an inevitable consequence of the very structure of history and the structure of redemption. Human knowledge of God can grow only in step with the redemptive operations that work out God’s plan. Consequently, God’s Trinitarian character is only dimly revealed and dimly understood in the OT. Trinitarian theology in its full form rests on NT revelation” (Vern Sheridan Poythress, “Reforming Ontology and Logic in the Light of the Trinity: An Application of Van Til’s Idea of Analogy”; Westminster Theological Journal Volume 57:214).
Islam’s rejection of the person and work of Christ is a moral deficiency of the greatest magnitude (John 8:24). Muslims reject the blood by which God is approached in worship and are therefore unclean in terms of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple imagery (cf. Isaiah 6; 64:6; Hebrews 9-10; 12:24).Progressive revelation is important for interacting with Volf’s mention of Judaism (pp.92-93, 144). Unlike Muslims, Christians and Jews have a common Hebrew Scripture (Romans 9:1-8). They even had a common temple for the generation after Jesus (Jesus worshipped at the temple, the New Covenant church also worshipped in Jerusalem, etc.). Volf needs to look again at Jesus’ teaching about: believing in Moses; the seed of Abraham; the Temple; and the teaching of the book of Hebrews about Christ’s work as it pertains to the New Covenant and priestly mediation.

To put it plainly: if the historical events of Jesus’ trials, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead did not occur, then Christians would not be  be Trinitarian monotheists.

The relationship between the doctrine of monotheism and God’s work in history (from creation, to the cross, and to the consummation) is also emphasized in the Nicene Creed,²¹Volf writes:
“The most representative and widely used creed among Christians in the past and today is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). It is fully and normatively trinitarian – the result of centuries-long debates precisely on how to hold together the undivided unity of divine essence while affirming the trinitarian nature of God. The Trinity is not an add-on; it is the full reality of the one God who, Christians affirm, can be worshipped, but only inadequately without reference to God’s trinitarian nature” (p.145).

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty [doctrine], Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible [history].

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,²²Quran 112:1-4 denies this statement of the Nicene Creed, ““Say, he is God, one (aḥad), God, the impenetrable. He has not begotten nor has he been begotten (lam yalid wa-lam yūlad), and no one is equal to him.” (Gerhard Böwering, “God and his Attributes” in Encyclopaedia of the Quran, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Brille [Leiden and Boston], 2005. CD ROM version) being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation [doctrine], came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end [history].

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified [doctrine], who spake by the prophets [history]. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins [doctrine]; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come [history]. Amen.

There are further problems: the Quran does not affirm Trinitarian orthodoxy; and Islam fails to confess the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Jesus (Matthew 16:15-17; 26:63-64; John 3:36; 1 John 2:22-23; 2 John 9; cf. Matthew 8:29; James 2:19) while saying such things as:

And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! (Quran 9:30)

They say: Allah has taken a son (to Himself)! Glory be to Him: He is the Self-sufficient: His is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth; you have no authority for this; do you say against Allah what you do not know? (Quran 10:68)

And they say: The Beneficent Allah has taken (to Himself) a son.
Certainly you have made an abominable assertion
The heavens may almost be rent thereat, and the earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall down in pieces,
That they ascribe a son to the Beneficent Allah.
And it is not worthy of the Beneficent Allah that He should take (to Himself) a son.
There is no one in the heavens and the earth but will come to the Beneficent Allah as a servant. (Quran 19:88-93)

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

Believing he has demonstrated sufficient similarities between the Muslim and Christian view of God and has overcome the hurdle of quranic statements about the Trinity, Miroslav Volf proceeds to argue that a person can be a practicing Muslim and 100% Christian,

When it comes to blending elements of Islam with Christianity, the central questions for Christians are the following:

1. Were you baptized in the name of the triune God?
2. Do you confess that Jesus Christ, in whom God dwelled in human flesh, is the Lord?
3. Have you received the divine gift of new life given freely through Christ?

If your answers are yes, then you are a 100 percent Christian…

Now imagine that you also fasted on Ramadan, prayed five times a day by prostrating and saying Al Fatihah (the first surah of the Qur’an, the seven lines of which sum up the human relation to God in contemplation and prayer), and believe that Muhammad was a prophet (not “the Seal of the Prophets,” but a prophet in the way in which we might designate Martin Luther King Jr. “a prophet”). If your answers are still yes to the three questions above, you would still be 100 percent Christian.

In holding many Muslim convictions and engaging in many Muslim practices, you can still be 100 percent Christian. Can you be 100 percent Muslim if you have answered the three above questions with yes? That is not for Christians to answer. Muslims must answer it (pp.199,200).²³Does Miroslav Volf have doubts about how Muslims have answered and are answering this question? Is Miroslav Volf implying that persecuted Christians in Muslim countries are to blame for not accommodating? Does Miroslav Volf think that his accommodations are going to get him into Mecca?

When I read this I wondered whether Dr. Volf is willing to practice what he preaches. Will he confess the Shahada (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God), start praying toward Mecca, and go on pilgrimage to Mecca?²⁴Regretably, Volf’s belief is increasingly shared in Christian Missions in what is popularly called the Insider Movement. While a discussion of the Insider Movement goes beyond the purpose of this book review, certain forms of this movement contextualize the Gospel to the extent that Muslims who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are encouraged to remain Muslim. The Christian life can and should be contextualized (1 Corinthians 8-10); however, certain Christian beliefs and practices cannot be contexutalized in a way that will allow practicing Christians to remain practicing Muslims (cf. Matthew 12:46-50) (For an extended discussion of the Insider Movement see St. Francis Magazine, August 2009).

Practicing Christians do not confess Muhammad to be a true prophet (cf. the Shahada). Practicing Muslims do not confess Muhammad to be a prophet in the way some might designate Martin Luther King Jr. “a prophet” (p.199).

Muslims affirm that Jesus was a messenger of Allah, but they do not believe He is God (Quran 4:171); in fact, Muslims hold Muhammad in greater esteem than Jesus.²⁵Take for example the following hadith from Bukhari,
Narrated Anas:
The Prophet said, “On the Day of Resurrection the Believers will assemble and say, ‘Let us ask somebody to intercede for us with our Lord.’ So they will go to Adam and say, ‘You are the father of all the people, and Allah created you with His Own Hands, and ordered the angels to prostrate to you, and taught you the names of all things; so please intercede for us with your Lord, so that He may relieve us from this place of ours.’ Adam will say, ‘I am not fit for this (i.e. intercession for you).’ Then Adam will remember his sin and feel ashamed thereof. He will say, ‘Go to Noah, for he was the first Apostle, Allah sent to the inhabitants of the earth.’ They will go to him and Noah will say,
‘I am not fit for this undertaking.’ He will remember his appeal to his Lord to do what he had no knowledge of, then he will feel ashamed thereof and will say, ‘Go to the Khalil–r-Rahman (i.e. Abraham).’ They will go to him and he will say, ‘I am not fit for this undertaking. Go to Moses, the slave to whom Allah spoke (directly) and gave him the Torah .’ So they will go to him and he will say, ‘I am not fit for this undertaking.’ and he will mention (his) killing a person who was not a killer, and so he will feel ashamed thereof before his Lord, and he will say, ‘Go to Jesus, Allah’s Slave, His Apostle and Allah’s Word and a Spirit coming from Him. Jesus will say, ‘I am not fit for this undertaking, go to Muhammad the Slave of Allah whose past and future sins were forgiven by Allah.’ So they will come to me and I will proceed till I will ask my Lord’s Permission and I will be given permission. When I see my Lord, I will fall down in Prostration and He will let me remain in that state as long as He wishes and then I will be addressed.’ (Muhammad!) Raise your head. Ask, and your request will be granted; say, and your saying will be listened to; intercede, and your intercession will be accepted.’ I will raise my head and praise Allah with a saying (i.e. invocation) He will teach me, and then I will intercede. He will fix a limit for me (to intercede for) whom I will admit into Paradise. Then I will come back again to Allah, and when I see my Lord, the same thing will happen to me. And then I will intercede and Allah will fix a limit for me to intercede whom I will let into Paradise, then I will come back for the third time; and then I will come back for the fourth time, and will say, ‘None remains in Hell but those whom the Quran has imprisoned (in Hell) and who have been destined to an eternal stay in Hell.’ ” (The compiler) Abu ‘Abdullah said: ‘But those whom the Qur’an has imprisoned in Hell,’ refers to the Statement of Allah:
“They will dwell therein forever.” (16.29) (Bukhari Volume 6, Book 60, Number 3
Samuel Zwemer, “The Apostle to Islam”, wrote:
There is no stronger argument or plea for missions to Moslems than their conception of our Christ, and the fact that Mohammed has usurped the place of our Saviour in so many hearts. We may well voice our petitions for missions to Moslems in the words of Christ Himself, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” A passion for the glory of God, which is among the highest missionary motives, will inspire us to preach the Christ in all His fulness to those who are now following Mohammed (“The Moslem Christ” [Oliphants Ld, London, England, 1912], 177).

Practicing Muslims believe the Quran is the Word of God and therefore do not affirm Jesus’ death on the cross for sin (Quran 4:157–158). Practicing Muslims do not confess Jesus as Lord or that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9; Philippians 2:5-11). Worshipping Muslims reject Jesus as the Mediator of the New Covenant (Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:15; 12:22-24; cf. John 4:20-26).

Unaware

In a book about Christian and Muslim relations, it is strange that Miroslav Volf did not mention one of the earliest chapters in the history of Muslim-Christian relations when a delegation of Christians from Najrān visited Muhammad to discuss differences about Jesus. After three days of dialogue, Muhammad and the Christians were unable to come to a mutal agreement about Christology. Muhammad—allegedly speaking for Allah—proposed to settle differences with a curse (mubahala). The Christians would not agree to invoking a curse, and Muhammad therefore subjected them to pay a yearly tribute.²⁶Muslim exegetes have understood Qur’an 3:61 as referring to Muhammad’s proposal of mubahala with the Christians from Najrān,
Quran 3:61
⁶¹Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you – say, “Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us].” (Sahih International).

In addition, I don’t remember reading anything in Volf’s book about Qur’an 7:172 and Islamic understanding of the Primordial Covenant–the day all mankind allegedly testified to the Muslim understanding of monotheism. Volf should have informed his readers that he and all humanity–according to Islamic theology–were born Muslim Unitarians (Quran 30:30).

Beware (cf. Acts 20:28-30; Galatians 1:6-9)

The strength of Allah: A Christian Response is Volf’s argument that Christian Trinitarianism is monotheistic. Overall, the book does not emphasize the Gospel of Peace as Jesus and the Apostolic Church emphasized it (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Miroslav Volf acknowledges that Islam’s rejection of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a major difference, but he sidelines these central truths of history when they should be main players.²⁷Miroslav Volf emphasizes his belief in the importance of Jesus as the revelation of God and worshipping God through Christ (mention of this can be found on pp.67-71, 122, 178, 194, 198-199, 204, 207, 210, 237). The problem is that Volf does not put these beliefs at the forefront of his message; he can’t because the cross is a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (Romans 9:33). The cross reveals the insufficiency of Dr. Volf’s “common God” proclamation.

Dr. Volf professes normative Christian faith, and he affirms his beliefs at different points throughout the book. While I do not question his personal orthodoxy, the thrust of the book proclaims something less than the Gospel.²⁸Deemphasizing the work of Christ seems to lead Volf to deemphasize the Kingdom work Christians have been called to in the Great Commission. Miroslav Volf wrote that “mission and the Christian faith are inseparable” (207). But he goes on to say,
“When Christians and Muslims turn from each other and look around, they quickly realize that the problems they face together are bigger than the problem they present together – abject poverty of millions, scarcity of freshwater, irreparable degradation of the environment, widespread disease, and more. Instead of merely facing each other to quarrel or reconcile, can we stand shoulder to shoulder to tackle together these grave ills of humanity?
To have a common God, creator and lover of the world, translates into commitment to care for the common world and all human beings. Christians and Muslims are both called to care for one another and for the world; there is no reason why they should not join forces and care together.” (213)
Miroslav Volf sounds like a moralist, and moralism is not the Christian answer to the humanity’s “grave ills” of sin and God’s wrath. Bryan Chapell, president of Covenant Theological Seminary, gives an important warning to the church that I find applicable to Volf’s work:
“Our churches gain nothing of eternal value if they make of secondary priority or lesser emphasis the message that Jesus died for sin and that sinners are lost eternally without faith in Him. Consider this: If we were to achieve social and political goals that promote morality without an awareness of the need for atonement, we could actually create a society farther from the cross than we are at present. Self-righteousness is no nearer to revival than immorality—and may actually be far more resistant to the Gospel. If our society were more moral without any more dependence on the cross, then it would be no nearer to revival than were the Pharisees!” (“Prelude To Revival: A Christian Response to Culture Wars”; Reformation and Revival Volume 3, p.44); see also John Piper’s excellent discussion of William Wilberforce in The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce (especially pp.156-160).

Muslims worship in the direction of the earthly city of Mecca with their faces decidedly turned away from Christ’s person and work. Muhammad is now dead and buried. Jesus is alive. Christians worship at the place where Jesus now sits as the Great High Priest (Hebrews 1:1-6; 7:23-10:25; 12:18-24; cf. Revelation 5).

The pursuit of Gospel peace, if done faithfully, will often lead to persecution even by monotheists. This was certainly the case with Jesus, His Apostles, and promised to His followers (John 15:18-21; 16:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:10-12; 1 John 3:13).

Nevertheless, Christians should be able to pursue peaceful coexistence with Muslims because of common grace (Matthew 5:38-48; cf. p.177f.), and because atonement for sin has been made at the cross by the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7; Romans 5:1-11; 12:18). The cross obligates Christians to love Muslims, and all men, as God has loved us in Christ (John 3:15-16). It is the love of God that compels Christians to share God’s work in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2) even if this means we will be hated like the Lord Jesus was hated.

For Further Study

James E. Biechier, “Christian Humanism Confronts Islam: Sifting the Qur̓an with Nicholas of Cusa,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 12 (1976), pp.1-14.

Chrislam Religion, YouTube.

D.A. Carson, “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God“.

Mark Galli, “Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?” Christianity Today interview with Miroslav Volf.

Sidney Griffith, Christian/Muslim Relations in Historical Perspective: “Debate only in the best way”.

___________, The Qur’an in Christian Thought: Reflections from an Historical Perspective.

Michael Horton, Christless Christianity.

Kent Hughes, “Obeying and Worshipping a Holy, Loving God: Hebrews 12:25-29”; Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, (Winter 1998), pp.33-38.

John Piper, A Common Word Between Us? – It puzzles me that Miroslav Volf mentions John Piper by name (pp.34-35), but doesn’t interact with what Piper says about love, 1 John, and propitiation (listen to Piper’s comments at 2:30-3:45). John Piper makes an excellent point about not quoting Scripture selectively so that it sounds like the Quran (7:32-7:48).

___________, Tolerance, Truth-Telling, Violence, and Law.

Scott McKnight, The Same God 1 – McKnight has more than posts about Allah: A Christian Response.

Gordon Nickel, “‘A Common Word’ in Context”

Carl Trueman, 14 lectures on the person and work of Christ.

Miroslav Volf, Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

___________, Allah: A Christian Response.

___________, A Voice across the Great Chasm: An Interview with Miroslav Volf.

Al Mohler, This Priest Faces Mecca? A Parable of Confusion.

Jacob Neusner, “Three Religions, One God“.

Reza Shah-Kazemi, “God ‘The Loving’”; in Miroslav Volf, Ghazi bin Muhammad, Melissa Yarrington (eds.), A Common Word—Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor (Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge UK: William B. Eerdmans, 2010), pp.88-109.

Ned B. Stonehouse, Paul Before the Areopagus: and Other New Testament Studies.

Benjamin Warfield, The Historical Christ.

___________, The Essence of Christianity and the Cross of Christ. 

Tom Wells, “The Person Of Christ As The Work Of Christ”; Reformation & Revival (Fall 1999), 91-105.

You might also be interested in:

Jesus’ Death on the cross and the Qur’an

What every Muslim should know about the Bible andʾInjīl