Witnessing God

Alexander E. Massad, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of World Religions at Wheaton College (IL) and an Affiliate Faculty in the School of Mission and Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary (CA). He is a comparative theologian whose research and publications focus on Evangelical and Reformed theology in dialogue with the Muslim tradition.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 Purpose and Outline of the Book2 Clarifications and NuancesPART 1: Methods, Comparative Theology, and Missions1 A Historical Account of Christians Accounting for Non-Christians1 Missionaries, the “Old” Comparative Theology, and the Scientific Study of Religion2 The Theology of Religions: a Response to Christian Primacy3 The “New” Comparative Theology: an A Posteriori Response to Hegemony4 Assessing the “Dialectical” Narrative5 Critique of Nicholson’s Narrative – Overstating the Dialectic6 The Missionary Spirit in Comparative Theology2 The Potential for a Missiological Comparative Theology1 Evangelical Concerns: Comparative Theology, Multiple Religious Belonging, and Missions2 Hegemonic Discourse: Comparative Theology’s Amenability to Missiology2.1 The Promise of a Missiological Comparative Theology3 An Aggiornamento for Exclusivism and Comparative Theology4 Review of Part OnePART 2:Neo-Calvinism and the Islamic Tradition3 A Neo-Calvinist Comparative Theology1 Neo-Calvinist Soteriology and Epistemology2 Neo-Calvinist Comparative Theology and Soteriological Exclusivism3 Warranting a Neo-Calvinist Comparative Theology3.1 Abraham Kuyper: Common Grace and Comparative Theology3.2 Herman Bavinck: General Revelation and Comparative Theology3.3 Contemporary Neo-Calvinist Approaches to Common Grace and General Revelation4 Developing a Neo-Calvinist Comparative Theological Perspective5 Concluding Remarks4 Neo-Calvinist Approaches to Muslims and the Islamic Tradition1 Abraham Kuyper’s Encounter with the Islamic Tradition2 Herman Bavinck’s Meditations on Islam3 Johan Herman Bavinck’s Preoccupation with Islam4 Assessing Early Neo-Calvinist Theological Engagements with Muslims and the Islamic Tradition5 Contemporary Neo-Calvinist Approaches to Muslims and the Islamic Tradition5.1 Contemporary Antithesis-Driven Neo-Calvinist Approaches to Muslims and the Islamic Tradition5.2 Bartholomew and Strange: a Priori Presuppositionalism6 Contemporary Common-Grace-Driven Neo-Calvinist Approaches to Muslims and the Islamic Tradition6.1 Mouw and Kaemingk: an Unwitting Perpetuation of Binaries7 The Need for a Neo-Calvinism Aggiornamento with Muslims and the Islamic TraditionPART 3: Contemporary Reformist Muslims and the Religious Other5 Rashīd Riḍā and Christianity: the Problem of Christian Missions and Riḍā’s Ṭarīq al-Daʿwa1 Riḍā and Ṭaʿn2 Riḍā and Taḥrīf3 Riḍā and Daʿwa4 “Missiology” and Riḍā’s Ṭarīq al-Daʿwa6 From Daʿwa to Shahāda: Muslim Religious Imagination and the Religious Other1 Nguyen’s Muslim Theology of Imagination and Engagement1.1 Nguyen’s Muslim Theology of Prostration1.2 Nguyen’s Muslim Theology of Engagement1.3 Nguyen’s Muslim Theology of Imagination2 Reimagining Anthropology: From al-Ghazālī’s Epistemological Emphasis to Riḍā’s Fiṭra Focus3 Riḍā – Religious Imagination in al-Ghazālī’s Soteriological Taxonomy4 From Dār al-Islām to Dār al-ʿAhd to Dār al-Daʿwa5 From Daʿwa to Shahāda: Tariq Ramadan5.1 Ramadan’s Call to Western Muslims5.2 Ramadan’s Fiṭra Anthropology5.3 From Fiṭra to Shahāda6 From Dār al-Daʿwa to Dār al-Shahāda7 Concluding RemarksPART 4: Comparative Theological Conclusions: Neo-Calvinism, Islam, and Missiological Comparative Theology7 Reconfiguring Neo-Calvinism through Islamic Thought1 Idenburg: a Case Study in Colonial Neo-Calvinism2 Colonial Neo-Calvinism and Ṭaʿn3 Perpetuating the Problem: a Priori Presuppositionalist Neo-Calvinism3.1 The Ethical Problems of Antithesis-Driven A Priori Presuppositionalism4 Assessing Ethical Implications within Common-Grace Driven Neo-Calvinism5 An a Posteriori Autobiographically Vulnerable Neo-Calvinism: Readings Romans 1 with Riḍā8 Towards a Missiological Comparative Theology1 Accad’s Kerygmatic Missiology2 Contemporary Muslim Ṭarīq al-Shahāda3 Missio Dei and Comparative TheologyReferencesIndex