Often, when I am discussing the violent teachings of the Islamic faith, someone will counter with “what about the crusades?” I am so tired of this dodge, for many reasons. For one, it is a dodge of the issue, which is that Islam teaches violence...
I get tired of the atheist canard that religion has killed more people in history than any other ideology. First, they are willing to attribute wars to Christianity that were more political than religious, and second, they are unwilling to own the atrocities of atheistic...
This post is part of a series. In Part 1 of this series, I argued that warlike rhetoric is not unethical, but it must be used with caution and some caveats if we are not to be misunderstood as inciting violence. The next level of...
This is our first year doing homeschooling – we are starting our 6th grader, while our two younger children are still in the excellent Walnut Grove public school. We are totally nervous (n00bs), and since we are homeschooling under Connecting Waters charter home school, we...
George W. Braswell Jr.’s Islam: Its Prophet, Peoples, Politics and Power is a concise yet fairly comprehensive introduction to the history, doctrines, and practice of Islam. Braswell, a Baptist professor of missions, has spent the majority of his career understanding and teaching on the beliefs...
In A Muslim View of Christianity: Essays on Dialogue (Faith Meets Faith), Mahmoud Ayoub attempts to initiate, describe and model Muslim/Christian dialogue. These collected lectures are meant as an honest appraisal of the history of Muslim/Christian dialogue, our commonalities, and our differences. While Ayoub seems...
As part of my Religions of the World class at Fuller Theological Seminary, I am focusing on understanding Islam. One of the books I am reading is Ayoub’s A Muslim View of Christianity. I’m in the early chapters, and I am fuming a bit, which...
As an agnostic who became a Christian in his early 20’s, then 10 years later left the faith for 8 years to explore other faith systems, I have a real appreciation for the wisdom and truth found in other faith systems – at least, Buddhism,...
