I recently read several books for a seminary class on Islam.   I will post these reviews here. 

subject: Notes on reading for CIU course ICS/MIS 6073, “Islam in the 21^st century”

with Dr. Nabeel Jabbour

date:      Tuesday, August 20, 2013

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Burge, Gary. Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to Holy Land

Theology. Baker Academic, 2010. ISBN 879-0-8010-3898-3 

BOOK Abstract 

Mr. Burge, a professor at Wheaton College, seeks to present a biblical study on the meaning of the Holy Land and to challenge some teachings that retain a territorial facet which then support ongoing problems in practical relations in the volatile Mideast.  Chronologically working through the Bible he discusses the understandings concerning the land by the prophets, the Jews of the Diaspora, Jesus himself, and careful studies of key passages in the rest of the NT, especially Paul’s teachings.  He teaches that all the Old Testament symbols have undergone a profound shift away from a literal item, including the land and the temple, and need to be reinterpreted by Jesus’ work and death on the cross. 

BOOK Comment 

1. Evaluate the book. How do you agree and disagree with the author? 

“Early Christians … would have been astonished if they came upon men and woman who promoted a Christian version of Jewish territorialism” (Burge, 71).  The author is amazed, too, that such thinking continues to this day, and I’m glad he has made the effort to study and teach on this key concept of the Bible.  He began with a quote from W Brueggemann “that the land might be the central theme of biblical faith.” (Burge, 1)  I wouldn't go that far; is not the revelation of God and the work of Jesus’ atonement for mankind really the central theme?  He also claimed on the first page that Ezekiel saw Israel “as the center of the earth” (Burge, 1).  None of the versions, however, that I consulted in several languages translate the Hebrew word thus.  At first I was hesitant to listen, but he grew on me, and I much appreciate the main arguments and especially the concept that Jesus fulfilled or reinterpreted many of the symbols of the NT in himself and in his own work of the cross, including especially the land/Jerusalem/temple set of powerful images..

2. How did this book challenge your prejudices and your assumptions? 

I don’t think I’d realized until now how pervasive is the “holy land” theology of the Zionist, both Jew and Christian, and how much it has seriously influenced politics concerning the Mideast.  In pioneering evangelism to Muslims in West Africa we have often put teaching on the return of Christ on a back burner as it is so complicated and so seemingly unnecessary for the new believer.  This book and its related CIU course have helped me understand the implications of mistakes in this crucial area, and have also helped me see the value again of these studies.  

3. What lessons can be learned from this book? 

Quite a few times in the book the concept, variously called fulfillment, reinterpretation, redefinition, reconfiguration, relocating, overturning, etc., has been advanced.  This doctrine is much beyond simply saying the prophets wonderfully spoke of Christ’s coming and death over and over.  I met this concept recently in another book by Wells and Zaspel concerning the issues of the law being reinterpreted in Christ in the NT.[1]  I think it would be good for the many Christian tourists in the Mideast to learn, for  example, that, “Hebrews writes the heavenly Jerusalem is the destination of people of faith.  …  This holy geography was accessible from any province or city.  Therefore by  relocating the true Jerusalem, Hebrews undercuts any need for literal pilgrimage to Judea.  …  In other words, in order to join the heavenly Jerusalem, something must be left  behind—the old  Jerusalem must be exited—in order to join Jesus who himself had no part in the city itself in  his death” (Burge, 98-99).  AMEN. 

4. How did this book impact your thinking, your convictions, and your life? 

Fallacies in interpretation of the Bible can easily lead to wrong thinking about many issues.  Burge would be better to say that misunderstanding land is a central fallacy of many Christians, and that this mistake contributes to serious social and political errors concerning Israel by all parties!  I would like to help Christians avoid this fallacy and the resulting errors and rather help them see the complete freeing beauty of what Jesus Christ has done for mankind in the gospel. 

END

The teacher requested these two statements, if true:
I have read the whole book from cover to cover. I did not read any of the book reviews on the internet.  My response and book review is based only on my reading of the book.

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[1] Wells, Tom & Fred Zaspel.  New Covenant Theology: Description, Definition, Defense (Frederick, MD: New Covenant Media, 2002).

Recommended book Review: Foster

       Foster, Richard, & JB Smith, ed, Devotional Classics, Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups, A Renovare Resource for Spiritual Renewal, NYC: HarperOne, 1990-2005, pb, ~500 pp, I# 978-0-06-07750-0, LC#  BV4801.D39 1993; 242--dc20. 

       Foster has 52 selections from historical and modern spirituality authors in 6 areas:  Contemplative (the Prayer-filled Life), Holiness Tradition (the Virtuous Life), Charismatic (the Spirit Empowered Life), Social Justice (the Compassionate Life),Evangelical (the Word-Centered Life), & Incarnational (the Sacramental Life). He gives a short bio of each to past them in their setting and value, some questions for reflection, and lists of resources for further reading.  See Renovare.org  on the web.  

      I found this @ G&B Bjorkman’s, July ’12, but Jenn says we have it, too, in MALI!  They graciously gave us a copy that they had used in a small group of their Elmbrook Ch. J  In the past year I've read a number of  the selections, and I have appreciated the passion and seeking after God represented in them, so far.   Foster's questions for reflection are useful.

    L I realized later that many of his selections were Roman Catholics from before & even after the Reformation [Bernard & Francis as well as Ignatius of Loyola, Fenelon, F DeSales, Thr. Avila, John of the Cross, Bro Lawrence, J-P Caussade, GK Chesterton, etc.(some outright against the evangelicals of their time!)] as well as Quakers (his denomination) [G Fox, T Kelly, I Pennington, Jn Woolman, etc.],  and some seeming liberals [Wm Temple, Eliz O’Conner, ES Jones, A Dillard, S Kierkegaard, Dag Hammarskjold, K Norris, etc.].  I’m uncomfortable studying and relying on these to help show me the path to trod in this dark world.  I’ll read them, but it would require more study and reflection than expected if I knew they were all evangelical oriented.  

It is a good resource for finding authors and digging deeper, but I see some yellow flags as well! L  I appreciate their struggles and attempts to seek & serve God; all of us face tough spiritual times, both before and after conversion, but not all solutions are the same.


Cf his Spiritual Classics, Foster and E Griffin, eds. (might be better!).

Recommended book review: Dr. N. Jabbour

another book from my seminary summer reading list:

subject: Notes on reading for CIU course ICS/MIS 6073, “Islam in the 21^st century”

with Dr. Nabeel Jabbour

submitted:     Aug 7th, 2013

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Jabbour, Nabeel. The Rumbling Volcano. Islamic Fundamentalism in Egypt.

Pasadena CA: Mandate Press, 1993, ISBN 0-87808-241-7, LC #BP64.E3J33. Available from William Carey Library.

BOOK Abstract

 Dr. Jabbour seeks to explain and evaluate the rise of fundamental Islam in Egypt over the past century and show how it affects not only politics in Egypt but throughout the Muslim world.  Being able to analyze the sources missed by most scholars in the West he attempts to understand the leaders of the movements from their point of view and then carefully draws conclusions of their social and religious power and weaknesses.  Written before current changes in the Middle East it gives helpful background and even somewhat predicts much of what has occurred since 2010.

BOOK Comment

1. Evaluate the book.  How do you agree and disagree with the author.

 I imagine Dr. Jabbour’s audience as businessmen, journalists, generals, diplomats, and students of the Mideast who need to understand the Al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist, Jihadi, Boko Haram, and similar Islamist movements that so trouble today’s political scene.  This book should be on the reference shelf of all such leaders, and they should be hoping for an update as events of this decade turn.  The focus is on Egypt, the biggest and most influential political and religious player in the Arab world, and it clearly shows how the country lurched through the decades of 20^th century political, economic, and religious evolution, Israeli conflict, bad governments, and passionate leaders, and prepped it for the calamities of the so-called Arab spring.

He called the assassination of President Anwar Sadat one of the most stunning in the century (Jabbour, 177). Well, perhaps it was for Egypt, but there have been many others sadly, also so stunning for their contexts.  Predicting a volcano erupting in Egypt soon, I would have liked him also to have shown how he expected the fundamentalist revolution to spread worldwide and become the moral and social impetus for much of the terrorism of today.

2. How did this book challenge your prejudices and your assumptions?

I much appreciated Dr. Jabbour’s plan of study that one must understand the fundamentalist from their point of view and try to know what drives and motivates them to do dastardly acts.  He seeks to interpret them by their own thinking and actions, and not merely by an outsider’s point of view.  Many leaders in the Muslim world are very intolerant of them, and Jabbour seeks to see why a Muslim government would not tolerate such thinking and action by fellow Muslims, something the Westerner is also much confused about.  This is an approach to learn and emulate.

3.  What lessons can be learned from this book?

The Western world, especially, can benefit from learning about the key players in the evolution of Islamic fundamental thought and action such as Ibn Taimiyya, Al-Banna, Qutb, Sariyya, Shukri, Faraj, Rahman, etc., all read by fundamentalists today, decades later.  He shows that a puritan emphasis of return to basics has existed since just after Muhammad the prophet in the teachings and actions of the Kharijites which inspire the fundamentalists today.  Such divisions are not just denominationalism, but deep divisions of approaches to the Qur'an and their concepts of action, the caliphate, and the domain of Islam.  The Shi'a branch is even affected, and the Iranian revolution has much inspired the fundamentalists later, also.

A committed Christian leader who knows Egypt, Dr. Jabbour also showed the effect of the movement on a church in the midst of a Muslim society.  God’s church can endure, and many groups have done well through the centuries in a minority context.  Sometimes, however, Christians can be targets in the socio-religious and political movements of the day, and the author shows that the true gospel of reconciliation in Christ can allow a faithful witness instead of a hunkering down and withdrawal from testifying of a gracious God.

4. How did this book impact your thinking, your convictions, and your life?

Normally Christian work in West Africa is not affected by such events thousands of miles away.  But in recent years globalization has brought not just cell phones but also fundamentalist thought to trouble even poor, small, Muslim MALI.  The recent civil war in 2011-2013 was much driven by the Al-Qaida movement, and much opposed by both the civilian and military government and the people.  Yet, many Malians were taken up by it, some joined the rebels, and some started to espouse these teachings (to their regret in some cases).  This book and the related class at CIU have helped me understand the roots of these groups and will help me in teaching once returning to Africa. 

The teacher requested these two statements, if true:
I have read the whole book from cover to cover. I did not read any of the book reviews on the internet.  My response and book review is based only on my reading of the book.

Recommended BOOK Review: Bock

Bock, PH.D., Darrell L., The Missing Gospels, Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities, Thomas Nelson Pub, 2006, pb, 229, pp, I# 9778-0-7852-8906-7, 14 chapters, foreword by Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi. 

                Bock seeks to carefully show the weakness of the popular ideas that other Christian faiths developed parallel to orthodoxy but simply orthodoxy won out!  He counters ideas of the ‘new school’ of Walter Bauer, and modern popular writings of Bart Ehrman and Dan Brown, etc. He proceeds by examining a large sampling of the new materials, especially those like the Gospel of Thomas found at Nag Hammadi and a sampling of the Bible early church fathers like Ireneaus, Justin Martyr and Clement, etc.  I enjoyed finding many of these traditional texts also on the CCEL site in the Anti-Nicene Fathers of Philip Schaff, and reading the contexts.  The so called new materials took further seeking out. Bock seeks to show the origin and nature of the gnostic materials and how the Bible philosophy is not at all like that, but better.   

This work is parallel to that of Dr. R Price’s Searching for the Original Bible, too that I’m also currently reading.  McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict also has much from the early fathers but it was written before current claims about alternative Christianities.

Gift from P Siebert, 2011, read May 2012 in Senegal.J 

Recommended Book Review: McConnell

         McConnell, D R, A Different Gospel, A Historical & Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub, 1998, pb 195 pp, I# 0913573-78-7, 10 chapters in 2 sections of Historical Analysis and then Biblical Analysis and a good bibliog.  

             McConnell, an insider Pentecostal writer (ORU, YWAM, BPC), seeks to show the fallacies of the popular teachings of the charismatic faith healers, revelation knowledge, identification, & the popular prosperity gospel, & he strongly critiques the modern Faith Movement of E W Kenyon (d 1948), and Kenneth Hagin (1917- ), & Kenneth Copeland, John Osteen (father of Joel), Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart, & even Oral Roberts, & Pat Robertson, etc.  Classifying the movements as a new Gnosticism, dualistic, & cultic, he also exposes the corruption, plagiarism, and nepotism that such teaching inevitably leads.  Well documented.

Found at UWM-Phare, once Jose Oliveira’s, May ’12.  It was worth reading to get a better distinction of charismatics and faith healing movements and to see the weaknesses of such prevalent ‘Christianity,’ especially the Prosperity Gospel.