Journeys of the Muslim Nation and the Christian Church: Exploring the Mission of Two Communities

Christian community and Muslim community are both missionary movements in a constant competition. Each community tries to win the other. It seems that their mission target is the same, however, the ways each community see this mission to be realised is drastically different. To understand the mission of these two communities, convergences and divergences must be identified. A Muslim or a Christian wants to know the reasons behind and how to bridge them to develop credible and trusting relation. The uniqueness of this book is that David W. Shenk is both a biblical Anabaptist theologian and Islamic scholar; in addition, he has a long rich experience of mission and dialogue with Muslims. Therefore, this book is one of the best that can provide adequate information for both communities to learn from each other. Through this book David tried to establish comparison and contrast ground between Muslim nation, which he called 'Ummah' and the Christian church and specifically that based on Anabaptist theology. Mostly we see the convergences in general and superficial aspect of the two communities, however, when addressing the divergences we start falling into a very deep differences in terms of theological and missiological grounds. Shenk brought Muslim contribution into this book i.e. voices, ideas, opinion, and theology through anecdotes and dialogues he had held whether was in a formal and informal settings. In deed, Muslim nation, and Christian church have very different journeys. Sometimes it is correct to say that they are in opposite directions. The comparison and contrast of these two different journeys is made in various historical, theological, and missiological areas. These areas are: the history of the beginning and the growth of each community, creation, the Sons of Abraham (Ishmael-Isaac), leaders (Mohammed-Jesus), Scriptures (The Qur'an- The Bible), revelation (Tanzil-revelation), power (Hijra-The Cross), holy cities (Medina-Jerusalem), God (Tawhid-Trinity), pilgrimage (The Hajj-The Eucharist), ways to apply mission (Shari'a-The Holy Spirit), Prayer (Salat-Fellowship), and Global Mission (The Umman-The Church). As an area of convergence Muslims and Christians agrees on the existence and oneness of God, and Abraham as the father of both faiths. Any step forward will encounter so many distortions and misunderstanding that need to be identified and corrected. Best correction made for Christians and Muslims is about the divinity of Jesus the Messiah. It is correct to say that Jesus the messiah is God; but it is incorrect to say God is Jesus the messiah. The difference is explained very well, opening a door to Muslims to remove some of their preconceived theological ideas about Jesus Christ in the Bible. One ultimate divergence in the mission journeys of the two communities is about the power of God. Both Islam and the Gospel celebrate the power of God. Islam proclaims that all-powerful God cannot suffer for us. The Gospel proclaims that all-p