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Fresh Vision for the Muslim World
After living for more than two decades in the Middle East, pastor, author and college Arabic instructor Mike Kuhn wonders if there can be a fresh vision for the Muslim world—one not rooted in media lies or personal fears but in the values of Christ's kingdom. Is the only option to fight, to eradicate, to judge? Or can the mindset of confrontation give way to one of incarnation?
In Fresh Vision for the Muslim World, Kuhn challenges readers to love the Muslims down the street and across the world with the love of Christ. Kuhn's vast experience and research show readers that Muslims today have the same hopes and spiritual needs as any of us. With practical suggestions, Kuhn helps readers leave the path of isolation, fear and self-preservation and choose a less-traveled road: a path of self-awareness, empathy, and deep listening. Choosing the latter path is radical. It is difficult. And it is a step toward seeing Jesus Christ receive his rightful place of honor among a people longing to know him.
In Fresh Vision for the Muslim World, Kuhn challenges readers to love the Muslims down the street and across the world with the love of Christ. Kuhn's vast experience and research show readers that Muslims today have the same hopes and spiritual needs as any of us. With practical suggestions, Kuhn helps readers leave the path of isolation, fear and self-preservation and choose a less-traveled road: a path of self-awareness, empathy, and deep listening. Choosing the latter path is radical. It is difficult. And it is a step toward seeing Jesus Christ receive his rightful place of honor among a people longing to know him.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 19, 2016
Christian conceptions of Muslims too often lack empathy, love, and understanding. This can occur regardless of whether they are our coworkers and neighbors, or followers of Islam in other countries, unless we have actually forged relationships with Muslims and gotten to know them intimately. Discussions of Islam by Western Christians also frequently lack sufficient knowledge of Islamic religious understandings and practices as they relate to the specific culture or country at issue. In Fresh Vision for the Muslim World, Mike Kuhn, a former missionary in Muslim contexts around the world for over 20 years, offers a compelling and moving vision for Christian engagement with Islam that masterfully avoids these pitfalls, drawing from his deep knowledge of and experience with Muslims, the Islamic faith, non-Western cultures, the Bible, and sharing the Christian faith.
Kuhn’s aim is a fresh vision, which he provides, in the end, not only for the Muslim world but also for interactions in our own communities. In pursuit of this goal, he leaves no stone unturned which might shelter an unhelpful preconceived notion that hinders our witness to Muslims. With clearly evident humility, empathy and love in combination with an overall winsome approach, Kuhn navigates the treacherous waters of terrorism, complicit responsibility for the misdeeds of history, theological and political views regarding the modern state of Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and eschatology. Remarkably, he handles these thorny issues so well that I would highly recommend this book to someone from any theological background or political perspective.
God has clearly blessed Mike Kuhn with an exceptional gift for communication. His ideas are clear, and his writing includes elements of various styles—at times imaginative in its narration of events and provocative approach to ideas, persuasive in its rhetoric and logical force of his vision, descriptive of the contemporary situation of Islam, and expository in its balanced presentation of the various views held on an issue so that the reader can use their own cognitive abilities. Kuhn manages to squeeze a remarkable amount of material into a brief two hundred and seventy-three pages, and the more popular book format he chooses is extremely accessible to the average reader. Though many of the ideas embedded into this book are highly complex and detailed scholarly works exist that discuss elements that Kuhn covers, he successfully communicates the core ideas in a clear and straightforward manner. Another aspect of the genius of this book is the remarkable combination of concepts into one resource, and then the addition of an overarching framework with which Kuhn ties them all together in a decidedly cogent manner.
By way of summary, Kuhn first takes a backwards look at the history of engagement between Islam and Christianity, which indicates a complex and troubled web of conflict and missteps on both sides, along with some good examples of tolerance and outreach from each as well. He then ventures into the theological realm, to discuss Muslim religious belief, and it’s differences from biblical ideas. He also discusses the theological roots within evangelicalism for support of Israel and makes a compelling cases for embracing the an ‘Israel of God’ view that is inclusive of Christians, while leaving room for his readers to disagree without being offended. Attempting to foster greater empathy and less mirror imaging, Kuhn then illustrates how perspective can make a huge difference in one’s view of the world, by describing American support of Israel from a Western lens, followed by a description from an Islamic assessment. Kuhn next dives into some of the complexities of violence in Islam, citing several of the apparently conflicting texts from the Qur’an and providing a helpful explanation of the Islamic abrogation hermeneutic. He calls on Islamic religious leaders to decisively provide an interpretation of the passages which call for violence, as the apparent lack of clarity has allowed the Islamist groups to claim Qur’anic support.
Kuhn’s call to action is of critical importance for the church today as we observe the rise of Islamism around the world, and an increase in godlessness and Christian witness sadly defined primarily by political action in the West. We are too prone to allowing the alarmist media to define our view of Islam, and, accordingly, our view of Muslims. We combine a natural anxiety of the unknown with a fear of Islamist extremism and use this as an excuse to harbor hatred towards all majority-Muslim countries, and even to our Muslim neighbors in our own communities. ‘Part V: Steps to Incarnation’ was particularly edifying and helpful in its theoretical framework regarding culture and missional kingdom thinking, followed by extremely practical advise for carrying it out. The transforming vision of the gospel can be shown, practically, to Muslims we meet by making ourselves accessible and taking the time to reach out and talk, by asking questions and showing an interest in them and their lives, by breaking bread together, and by talking about Jesus. We should also guard against jumping on political bandwagons (especially that might harm our witness), make efforts to understand their faith, and support and pray for Muslim-facing mission work.
On a personal level, I was particularly struck—moved to tears of conviction—in fact, by Kuhn’s plea to Western Christians to remember our brothers and sisters around the world in prayer—and to let them know we stand together in solidarity (101). We tend to think about help in terms of financial giving, but the global unity of God’s one church should be shown in a variety of multifaceted ways. Imagining myself in their shoes (a difficult thing for a privileged Westerner), how encouraging it must be as one struggling in an antagonistic context to hear from a fellow-believer in another part of the world and know that we share a bond of unity, and that we stand with them and support them. Also deeply moving were Kuhn’s accounts of Christian converts from Islam who have literally given up everything to follow Jesus, as well as the poignant story about the woman who lost her son in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and after struggling through that has now developed a ministry of hospitality and neighborly love to Muslims in her community. I wholeheartedly agree with Kuhn’s reflections about this woman: “my neighbor gives me tremendous hope. She reminds me that the love of God is real. It lives in her. She has been devastated by the worst possible expression of fundamentalist Islam, yet her life continues to emanate an aroma of grace, peace, and forgiveness” (266). This, indeed, is incarnational, missional living, following Jesus’ example. This is gospel truth, and this is our calling, as Christ-followers.
Kuhn’s aim is a fresh vision, which he provides, in the end, not only for the Muslim world but also for interactions in our own communities. In pursuit of this goal, he leaves no stone unturned which might shelter an unhelpful preconceived notion that hinders our witness to Muslims. With clearly evident humility, empathy and love in combination with an overall winsome approach, Kuhn navigates the treacherous waters of terrorism, complicit responsibility for the misdeeds of history, theological and political views regarding the modern state of Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and eschatology. Remarkably, he handles these thorny issues so well that I would highly recommend this book to someone from any theological background or political perspective.
God has clearly blessed Mike Kuhn with an exceptional gift for communication. His ideas are clear, and his writing includes elements of various styles—at times imaginative in its narration of events and provocative approach to ideas, persuasive in its rhetoric and logical force of his vision, descriptive of the contemporary situation of Islam, and expository in its balanced presentation of the various views held on an issue so that the reader can use their own cognitive abilities. Kuhn manages to squeeze a remarkable amount of material into a brief two hundred and seventy-three pages, and the more popular book format he chooses is extremely accessible to the average reader. Though many of the ideas embedded into this book are highly complex and detailed scholarly works exist that discuss elements that Kuhn covers, he successfully communicates the core ideas in a clear and straightforward manner. Another aspect of the genius of this book is the remarkable combination of concepts into one resource, and then the addition of an overarching framework with which Kuhn ties them all together in a decidedly cogent manner.
By way of summary, Kuhn first takes a backwards look at the history of engagement between Islam and Christianity, which indicates a complex and troubled web of conflict and missteps on both sides, along with some good examples of tolerance and outreach from each as well. He then ventures into the theological realm, to discuss Muslim religious belief, and it’s differences from biblical ideas. He also discusses the theological roots within evangelicalism for support of Israel and makes a compelling cases for embracing the an ‘Israel of God’ view that is inclusive of Christians, while leaving room for his readers to disagree without being offended. Attempting to foster greater empathy and less mirror imaging, Kuhn then illustrates how perspective can make a huge difference in one’s view of the world, by describing American support of Israel from a Western lens, followed by a description from an Islamic assessment. Kuhn next dives into some of the complexities of violence in Islam, citing several of the apparently conflicting texts from the Qur’an and providing a helpful explanation of the Islamic abrogation hermeneutic. He calls on Islamic religious leaders to decisively provide an interpretation of the passages which call for violence, as the apparent lack of clarity has allowed the Islamist groups to claim Qur’anic support.
Kuhn’s call to action is of critical importance for the church today as we observe the rise of Islamism around the world, and an increase in godlessness and Christian witness sadly defined primarily by political action in the West. We are too prone to allowing the alarmist media to define our view of Islam, and, accordingly, our view of Muslims. We combine a natural anxiety of the unknown with a fear of Islamist extremism and use this as an excuse to harbor hatred towards all majority-Muslim countries, and even to our Muslim neighbors in our own communities. ‘Part V: Steps to Incarnation’ was particularly edifying and helpful in its theoretical framework regarding culture and missional kingdom thinking, followed by extremely practical advise for carrying it out. The transforming vision of the gospel can be shown, practically, to Muslims we meet by making ourselves accessible and taking the time to reach out and talk, by asking questions and showing an interest in them and their lives, by breaking bread together, and by talking about Jesus. We should also guard against jumping on political bandwagons (especially that might harm our witness), make efforts to understand their faith, and support and pray for Muslim-facing mission work.
On a personal level, I was particularly struck—moved to tears of conviction—in fact, by Kuhn’s plea to Western Christians to remember our brothers and sisters around the world in prayer—and to let them know we stand together in solidarity (101). We tend to think about help in terms of financial giving, but the global unity of God’s one church should be shown in a variety of multifaceted ways. Imagining myself in their shoes (a difficult thing for a privileged Westerner), how encouraging it must be as one struggling in an antagonistic context to hear from a fellow-believer in another part of the world and know that we share a bond of unity, and that we stand with them and support them. Also deeply moving were Kuhn’s accounts of Christian converts from Islam who have literally given up everything to follow Jesus, as well as the poignant story about the woman who lost her son in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and after struggling through that has now developed a ministry of hospitality and neighborly love to Muslims in her community. I wholeheartedly agree with Kuhn’s reflections about this woman: “my neighbor gives me tremendous hope. She reminds me that the love of God is real. It lives in her. She has been devastated by the worst possible expression of fundamentalist Islam, yet her life continues to emanate an aroma of grace, peace, and forgiveness” (266). This, indeed, is incarnational, missional living, following Jesus’ example. This is gospel truth, and this is our calling, as Christ-followers.
April 28, 2020
Kuhn says some things in this book that people in my circles will not want to hear. After twenty years as a missionary in the Muslim world, he has earned the right to say them.
November 25, 2024
A wonderful commentary on extending hospitality
May 25, 2015
Mike Kuhn has the difficult task of encouraging American Christians to reevaluate their presuppositions about Islam and the political policies that make ministry in the Islamic World immeasurably more difficult. I came away from this book with a greater appreciation for the perception many Muslims have of The Christian Religion and American politics. This was a fantastic and inspiring book. I cannot reccomend it enough to those who are interested in the subject.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews