"Let's talk about the C-word": John Martin (Photo: (c) CMS) The near hysterical reaction to one motion put before the Church of England synod in May was salutary.
When Paul Eddy called on the Church not to lose its nerve about sharing its faith with those of other faiths, including Muslims, there was uproar.
As with so many media reports we got “the summary of the summary”. Mr Eddy’s motion is without doubt controversial in its tone, but there’s a lot in it to which I want to give a wholehearted “Amen”.
For instance it asked the House of Bishops to
- “…confirm their understanding of the uniqueness of Christ in a multi-faith society”. Not the way I would have put it because it could be read to suggest the House of Bishops is wobbly on that point. Even so, what churchgoer couldn’t find fresh advice from the Bishops on this theme extremely helpful?
- “… publish details of best practice in evangelising people of other faiths”. Again a laudable request. Christians should not be frightened of making clear that there is no place for force, violence, threats or manipulation in discourse with people of other faiths. Nor should any of us be frightened of affirming that it won’t do to caricature the beliefs of others in presenting the case for what we believe.
Let me offer my credentials for entering this debate. The Church Mission Society has worked in Muslim areas for well over 150 years. In the process we have acquired a lot of corporate wisdom about the Christian-Muslim interface.
We have learnt, sometimes the hard way, that the Christians need to be ready to offer unconditional Christ-like love.
We have learnt that outright confrontation is rarely fruitful.
We have learnt that we need to understand Islam on its own terms but at the same time appreciate the necessity for robust discourse and debate.
We have learnt that quite independent of any endeavour on the part of Christians, there are constant reports of Jesus Christ making himself known to Muslims in dreams.
Five reasonsI want to offer five reasons why we should not frightened to use the C-word – conversion – even in the highly charged context of Christian–Muslim discourse.
- Christianity and Islam are both missionary religions. It follows that in communicating their faith both Christians and Muslims will seek to persuade people to join them. We should expect, then, in any civilised society, that there will be two-way traffic. Some Muslims come to follow Jesus and some Christians will be persuaded by the claims of Islam. What’s most important is that discourse between Christians and Muslims should be free from manipulation, threats or distortion of what the other actually teaches or holds true.
- The concept of conversion is at the heart of the Christian faith. From day one conversion was central to the Early Church’s mission. Robert Bickersteth, (Bishop of Ripon, 1857–84) once said: “No sermon worthy of its name should not contain the message of the gospel…”
- Every Muslim has a right to know about Jesus Christ. Exploring together what our respective Scriptures say about Jesus is a highly fruitful field for Christian–Muslim dialogue. It could be argued from history that Muhammad encountered a flawed and partial picture of Jesus Christ and rejected it. In every generation there needs to be opportunities to address that issue. In his famous book The Call of the Minaret, Kenneth Cragg commented: “The Christian mission is simply an active recognition of the dimensions of the love of God. Christ belongs to us only because he belongs to all. He is ours only by virtue of his universality.” (p168)
- Acceptance of evangelism as a tenet of both the Christian and Muslim faiths is essential to any consensus about how we are to live in a contemporary world on the basis of genuine pluralism.
- To say ‘no’ to owning the C-word makes it easier for there to be a ‘yes’ to liberal dogmatists who bulldoze over spiritual values and say they are of no account.
A final word from Kenneth Cragg. “As long as Christ is Christ, and the Church knows both itself and him, there will be a mission to Islam” (p168).
John Martin is CMS Head of Communication.