Christianity at the Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam

Building out of Christ's great commission to his church and speaking into the great diversity of our time, Tim Tennent, associate professor of world missions at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, encourages evangelicals to take their seat at the religious round table and to start talking with the advocates of competing world religions. Cognizant that theology and mission must go together, Tennent offers his readers a focused treatment that engages doctrinal challenges to Christianity from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. At no point does he gloss over the many differences that set Christianity apart from other faiths, and yet he everywhere encourages serious dialogue and advocates our being good listeners as well as charitable conversation partners. As a committed Christian, I can only applaud Tennent's work as a valuable contribution to motivating evangelical Christians to enter the thought world of others and thereby fulfill our obligation to engage the world for Christ. Far from being one of those volumes that stands outside the bounds of historic Christianity and which presents the Christian Gospel as simply one among the many different paths to god, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable is written by a representative of biblical Christianity and conforms to the historic confessions. Written with the intention of marshaling greater evangelical Christian involvement in interreligious dialogue and with the goal of preparing Christians to respond to the objections of non-Christian religions (p.10); Tennent argues for and writes from what he terms "an engaged exclusivist" position. That is, our author rejects the all too familiar pluralist position and, in the end, embraces the exclusivist position in a critical and more nuanced way (p.16ff). This is a great boon for committed Christians who may often struggle to find learned, sensitively written, up to date, dialogically oriented materials which affirm the unique authority of Jesus Christ, as well as the centrality of gospel proclamation, and the explicit need for repentance and faith based on the knowledge of Christ. Structured around fictional conversations between an evangelical Christian and informed members of the three largest non-Christian religions, Tennent tenders a series of high quality exchanges and models penetrating insight and persistent graciousness. Each section opens with some general remarks that serve to orient the reader and then sets forth a dialogue concerning the doctrine of God (Brahman, Dharma-kaya, Allah), and a dialogue concerning a second doctrinal matter (Hinduism's doctrine of creation, Buddhism's doctrine of ethics, and Islam's doctrine of Christ and the Incarnation). While students of world religions may have covered some or much of this material elsewhere, yet what is distinctive about this volume is the way in which the dialogues that make up the body of the work allow for such a vigorous two-way exchange of ideas. In the spirit of Raymond Lull, Tennen

Tennent does something admirable, that is, he goes to the table for a discussion with Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. The result is an interesting interreligious dialogue that is done from the evangelical Christian perspective. And overall, he does a good job, bringing to light many of the differences that make Christianity different from other world faiths. I used this text in a seminary world religions class, and though it was the students' least favorite, it offered a valuable contribution. I appreciate the kindness that Tennent showed to his made-up responders. He could have been much tougher, but he was very gentle in how he answered. I also thought he did a good job staying away from straw man arguments, as "dialogue" without having real people to do the dialoguing with can often invite logical fallacy. Having done much study on these religions, I must say that he was, for the most part, very accurate with the assessments. (I wonder how difficult it would be to get real people to respond and make it a true dialogue.) Finally, his two chapters on Islam were his best work. Truly this was quality material and should be read by anyone hoping to dialogue with the Islamic mindset. So, despite slow reading at times because of the advanced material (the Hindu section was very difficult), I think every Evangelical who wants to better understand the different religions should pick up this book.

What a refreshing book which actually engages evangelical Christianity with the challenges posed by the major world religions. The book is enjoyable to read and yet delves deeply into some great issues, allowing for plenty of interaction between the various religions. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the encounter between Christianity and other religions. JAR