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 Review - Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross Oct 05, 2009
The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross, written by Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour, an Arab Christian, and published by Navpress, seeks to explain the Arab and Muslim worldviews to Christians and, in the process, compare it to the Christian worldview, and discuss ways in which Christians can dialogue with Muslims. Rather than a scholarly work, the book is an honest effort by an educated Christian to reconcile the seemingly contradictory worldviews of the people among whom he had lived.
While Jabbour does use concrete, real world examples to illustrate the Muslim's worldview, in most incidents he uses "composite[s] of many Muslims I know." The author also extensively uses imaginary scenarios. While these methods are helpful, the characters and scenarios lack depth and substance. The views are no doubt legitimate, but a composite or imaginary scenario does not give enough credence to the ideas expressed. Particularly in the views of "Ahmad's sister."
Jabbour is fond of the expression "unpack and address the issues" and uses it quite liberally, almost to the point of annoyance. Especially considering that the issues are not really "packed" in the first place. The issues are addressed all along. There are, though, enough concrete examples of actual people to get the brunt of the situation across to the reader and "address the issues."
Despite any inherent problems in the flow of the material, the issues discussed are relevant and vital to the relationship between Christians and Muslims. The author correctly illustrates that only by understanding each others worldview can Christians and Muslims dialogue effectively. While Jabbour's assumption is that conversion is a result of this mutual understanding, I am not so sure that conversion is imminent, or indeed, necessary.
In the end, however, The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross should be read by every Christian seeking to understand the Islamic faith and dialogue with Muslims. Since, in many cases, the two faiths exist and live within close proximity to each other, understanding and dialogue is a necessary goal. There are more similarities between the two religions than some Christians know or understand. At the very least, we should work to live together peacefully, rather than to fear each other through a lack of understanding.
Conforming to the image of Christ or Me? Jul 16, 2009
What is the relationship between the Islamic world and the Christian world? Or maybe a better question is what is the relationship between the East and the West? Or maybe the best question is what is the expectation of the evangelist to the evangelized?
Having no background in the Muslim religion and in Arab culture this is a very helpful and insightful book. The key question the Dr. Jabbour answers for me is really not how do we evangelize the Muslim, but rather how do we help people become effective witnesses for Christ in the world that He has put them in. In essence this is a book as much about discipleship as evangelism. Certainly we must share the confrontational message of salvation through Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone. Further we need to emphasize the absolute authority and sufficiency of the Bible, as the source of transformation for our lives.
The "but" comes in though when we set our eyes on the desired target. It is true that many times we disciple, if we disciple at all, with a desired outcome of making a "good Christian" according to our western and highly questionable standards. This book help me to understand that my goals in evangelism and discipleship is not to make a new Christian look like me, the average American: middle-aged, overweight, more month than money, white guy with a nice Christian name, Mark, and my wife, three children, dog, home, and car, "but" seek to make them look like Christ.
The goal is to lead our lives and those around us to transformation towards the person of Christ. And if that means that we stay in our home country, Arab, Muslim or inner-city America we are conforming into the image of Christ to function in His body where He has called us. Romans 8:29; I Cor. 12:12-14.
This book will challenge you and your conventional wisdom toward evangelism, especially in your relationships and evangelism with your Muslim neighbor, but also in all of your relationships with lost friends and family. You will take new stock in your message and the receiver of your message, and I have sent for the addendum for the challenge to the messenger, me.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Asks probing questions! Jul 06, 2009
While the message of the gospel never changes, there is wisdom in communicating it in a way that hearers will be open to receiving it. Yet this elementary principle is often not practiced.
Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour's book The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross speaks of the ineffectiveness of the Church to share the love of Jesus to the world's Muslim population. It is a straightforward book written for Christians (particularly American, but relevant for other multi-religious societies) who have difficulty deciding & understanding how best to relate to them.
Reflecting on his own experiences of relating to Muslims and living in the Middle East, he breaks the book down into 3 sections, the setting, message, and receiver.
In the Setting, he challenges the reader to expand his perceptions of Muslims as people, and to rethink the assumptions often made in sharing Christ or doing Church in the western context.
This is one of his major themes, as can be seen throughout the book, and the rhetorical challenge is the book's strongest focus. I will not reveal too much, but one example is the discerning what is absolutely essential for a non-believer to become a follower of Jesus - the gift, as he calls it; from the wrapper or non-essentials that is helpful in one context but inappropriate or even harmful in another.
Nabeel first uses more abstractions to help us understand behaviour, followed by the gritty operational aspects of relating to Muslims, such as the selection of words & actions and use of conceptual frameworks they are familiar with. He offers wise and reasonable observations on working with Muslims.
It is a simple book, not a teach-all. But a teach-all would not be possible to write without being overly judgemental and rigid. It feels incomplete even, perhaps because the last section of the book is made available only via email (for free) in the form of an addendum. But it does serve its purpose of giving an introduction and context for Christians to start working learning more and witnessing from.
It is a quick read, and I found the reflection questions found after most chapters to be genuinely helpful to check both by understanding and self. These are question that I suspect will facilitate reflection even if you have worked with Muslims for many years.
If you live in a multi-religious society, or work with Muslims, you may find this book a relevant read.
Review: The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross Jun 15, 2009
When my copy of "The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross" by Nabeel Jabbour arrived at the door, I was really impressed with the speed of delivery from the date when I first requested for a review copy. To add to the state of blissfulness, I was immediately flabbergasted by the fact that what I was holding in my hand was an autographed copy! No it's not about the person, though after reading the book I have much respect for the author. Think about it, it's not a surprise to send a slightly imperfect copy as a review copy, but who ever thought of sending an autographed copy for free? It was with this elated feeling that I dived into the content, knowing that it would be a good read.
True enough, there were many precious gems and jewels hidden in this book, of which I will highlight a couple of them in this review. At some early point in the book, I came across a quotation of Rabi'a al-Adawiyya which challenged my perception of other faith as religious and non-relational. Directly from the book, Rabi'a al-Adawiyya was an eighth-century mystic woman in Iraq. As a child, she was a slave. Over the years, she demonstrated a deep love for God to the degree that her owner set her free. Because of her fame as a woman of God, many Muslim women came to her and asked her to mentor them. With time, she started something like a convent for Muslim women. Here is one of her famous prayers which Nabeel paraphrased into our terminology:
"Lord, why do I love you?
Do I love you out of fear of going to hell?
If this is my motive then send me to hell.
Or do I love you out of a motive of wanting to go paradise?
If this is my motive, then deprive me of paradise.
O God, please purify my motives.
Help me to love you for your own sake.
Because you are worthy of all my love and all my worship."
Granted that Rabi'a may not know about Christ, but in times when materialism and the prosperity gospel are rampant, how many believers can be honestly sincere in praying this prayer? This came as a shock that people of other faith, in particular one Muslim's worldview, can be equally relational in their dealing with the Supreme Being as taught in their faith. There is certainly much common ground we can establish when talking about a non-religious and relational faith in Christ Jesus, with the help and discernment of the Holy Spirit. And it is also a strong reminder that stereotyping is undesirable and there is no one size which can fit all whenever we make general statements out of practicability.
At any rate, what I think is worth the price of the whole book are the chapters on the four main different paradigms towards the Gospel that exist in the Scripture, namely:
(1) Guilt / Righteousness Paradigm
(2) Shame / Honor Paradigm
(3) Defilement / Clean Paradigm
(4) Fear / Power Paradigm
While we may revere in our western heritage in perceiving the Gospel from a legal context of guilt and forgiveness only, Nabeel said that we end up having blind spots and miss out on the rich tapestry of the Scriptures. I concur with him and would add that to a great extent, the Reformed tradition advanced the guilt/righteousness paradigm, while the Pentecostal/Charismatic perfected the fear/power paradigm. Though we do talk about being cleanse from sins, it also seemed that it is more of an objective cleansing from sins and within the bounds of textbooks on systematic theology. Have we forgotten that Christ came also to make the filthy feel clean, and to lift the lowly heads up? Ultimately all the different facets or paradigms of the one Gospel are required.
To illustrate, Nabeel gave a very insightful example of a young woman being a victim of a rape, who experience physical pain, shame, humiliation, guilt over the brief moment of sexual pleasure she had experienced, and, above all, a sense of being filthy. During the counseling session, the counselor succeeded in assuring the victim that she need not feel guilty about her brief moment of sexual pleasure and was encouraged by a job well done. The counselor assumed that guilt was the major felt need and therefore once guilt was dealt with, the problem was solved. Yet, the biggest need of the victim was to know how to deal with her feeling of being filthy. In other words, her deepest problem was not guilt but shame and defilement. In similar way, the western legal perspective of the Gospel may not always connect with others who are from a different cultural exposure.
Towards the end of the book, another thing that left its trail deeply in me is regarding witnessing and especially in cross-cultural context. Often we hear of people talking about earning our rights to speak before we preach the Gospel, and this may mean exercising deeds of kindness to occupying certain desirable positions of influence. But most of the time when we did earn our rightful rights, we left our humility at home and self righteous and arrogance are what others perceive of us when we do speak. Perhaps then, we merely earn our rights to be humble. Since we cannot lower down ourselves or lay down our rights, unless we first possess them, it does make senses that we only earn our rights to humility. Naturally if we take perspective from agape love, rights earned or not, would not be an issue.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Kingdom of God less Churchanity, Christ less Christendom and cross-cultural witnessing in general and in particular to the Muslims. The examples cited are immensely practical and insightful in a real life context, not to mention the insights into Middle-East situation in relation to waging war for the souls and minds of the majority of Muslims who are pulled between moderate Islam and Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism. But after reading, it does leave one to ponder over Nabeel's view on ecclesiology proper, which I hope to see him write about someday in the future. Also, if you are currently reading the book, do remember to ask the author for the addendum after finishing.
This review is part of NavPress Blogger Review Program ([...]), of which I have received a free review copy.
A Timely Book for Today's Christians Jun 13, 2009
If I was asked to describe this book in one word I would have to say, "WOW!"
In two words, "Eye Opening!"
Dr. Jabbour did a masterful job at making me realize that I have no idea what Muslims believe or how they view us as Christians. OK, I will stop being politically correct; Dr. Jabbour busted my chops!
Dr. Jabbour was born in Syria, grew up in Lebanon and lived in Cairo for fifteen years, so he has a deep understanding of Muslim culture and religion. Dr. Jabbour created a fictional character, Ahmad, which was the culmination of many of the Muslims he has known over the years. Through Ahmad, Dr. Jabbour puts together a case for the Muslim faith. While building this case he points out how we as Christians do not understand Muslims, and as far as I'm concerned he hits the nail on the head.
Here is one of the points Ahmad makes that really blew me away:
"If a young Palestinian man who is an American citizen leaves this country and goes to Palestine and uses his only available weapon, his body, to defend his occupied territory, you perceive him as a terrorist. When you read in your Bible how Samson died, do you perceive him as a terrorist? Do you blame Samson for using his only available weapon, his body, to kill innocent civilians?"
Now don't misunderstand the point. Ahmad was not condoning suicide bombing, but just saying that our position on it is inconsistent. We see Samson as a hero because he died for what he thought was right. Don't the suicide bombers die for what they think is right?
I think the biggest affect this book had on me was it showed me that I do have some prejudices toward Muslims that are unfounded and wrong. Christ died for them too. They need the gospel just like I do. They are people with souls and hearts, and many of them are searching for something real. If we are ever going to begin reaching out to Muslims effectively this book should be used as the starting point.
Upon completing this book, Dr. Jabbour gives you the opportunity to contact him directly and he makes more resources available to you free of charge. This guy is the real deal and this book is a must-read!
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