The Consequences of Evangelization for Interactions between Muslims and Christians

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph. D. Student, Comparative religions, Department of Christian Theology, Faculty of Religions, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Christian Theology, Faculty of Religions, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

Interactions between Muslims and Christians began with misgivings. However, passage of the time taught the followers of both religions to conduct a dialogue in a more charitable way. In the contemporary world where atheistic inclinations threaten, not a particular religion, but the very foundations of religiosity, an ever increasing convergence was formed between Muslims and Christians. In fact, this convergence still faces historical and theological obstacles. We intend to articulate Christian evangelism as an obstacle for the establishment of convergence in some places. We conclude that evangelization as a theological commitment, rooted in the New Testament and Christian tradition, extended from its limited version among Jews to other nations, including Muslims. Evangelization always plays the role of a major obstacle to fundamental convergence. Suspension of cultural and social identity, inferiority, and cultural uprooting are some of the repercussions of evangelization. Each of these is sufficient to hurt the religious feelings of the Muslim nation. In addition to these, one can add fraudulent activities and deception by several Christian missionaries.

Keywords

References

Abdokhodaei, Mojtaba. 2007. Vatīkān: Kilīsā-ye jahānī-ye Katūlīk (Vatican World Catholic Church). Tehran: Hūdā Publication.
Abdul Razzaq, Isa. 2005. Al-Tanṣīr al-Amrīkī fī bilād al-Shām (American Christianization in the Levant). Cairo: Madbouli Publication.
Abolhassan Shirazi, Habibollah. 2017. “Dīplomāsī-e farhangī wa naqsh-e anjoman-hāye dūstī dar rawābeṭe beyno-l-melal (Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Friendship Associations in International Relations).” International Relations Studies 10 (38): 9-25.
Al-Hajj, Sasi Salem. 1991. Naqd al-khiṭāb al-istishrāqī: al-Ẓahira al-istishrāqiyya wa atharuhā fī al-dirāsāt al-Islamiyyah (Critique of the Oriental Speech: The Orientalist Phenomenon and Its Impact on Islamic Studies). Vol. 1. Libya: Islamic Studies.
Al-Shatri, Muhammad Nasser. 1997. Al-Tanṣīr fī al-bilād al-Islāmiyyah (Christianization in the Islamic Countries). Riyadh: Dar al-Habib.
Al-Tamimi, Abdul Malik Khalaf. 2000. Al-Tabshīr fī minṭaqa al-Khalīj al-ʿArabī: Dirāsa fī al-Taʾrīkh al-ijtimāʿī wa al-siyāsī (Evangelism in the Arabian Gulf Region: A Study in Social and Political History). UAE: Sheikh Zayed Center for Heritage and History.
Amirkhani, Ali. 1999. “Nigāhī be ravesh-hāye payām rasānī-ye muballeghāne Masīhī (A look at the Preaching Methods of Christian Missionaries).” Muballeghān 2:61-67.
Anwari, Hassan. 2014. Farhang-e bozorg-e sokhan (The Great Encyclopaedia of Speech). Eighth edition. Vol. 8. Tehran: Sokhan Publications.
Bonk, J. 2007. The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Missions and Missionaries. New York.
Boroujerdi, Mostafa. 2001. Vātīkān. Tehran: Publication of the Office of Political Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Carson, Thomas. 2002. “Mission and Missions.” In New Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. 9. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.
Durkheim, Emil. 2004. “Eḥsāsāt-e maẕhabī dar ‘asr-e ḥāżer (Religious Emotions in the Present Age).” Iranian Journal of Sociology 5 (2): 201-7.
Elwell, Walter A. 1984. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. USA: Baker Academic.
Garrison, D. 2004. Church Planting Movements. Midlothian: WIGTake Resources.
Hawks, James. 2015. Qamūs-e ketāb-e moqaddas (Bible Dictionary). Tehran: Asāṭīr Publications.
Jones, Tom. 2004. Church Planting from the Ground Up. College Press.
Khalidi, Mustafa, and Omar Farugh. 1968. Al-Tabshīr wa al-Istiʿmār fī bilād al-‘Arabiyyah (Evangelism and Colonization in the Arab World). Beirut: Publications of the Modern Library.
Mahmud, Haidar. 2009. Lāhūt al-ghalabah: al-Ta’sīs al-dīnī li l-falsafa al-siyāsiyyah al-Amrīkiyyah (The Theology of Conquest: Religious Establishment and American Political Philosophy). Vol. 1. Beirut: Dār al-Farābī.
Martin, C. 2012. “A Biblical Critique to Strategies among Muslims.” Accessed September 10, 2020. www.Global Missiology.org.
Murphy, E. 1970. “Missions, Catholic.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.
Omenka, Nicholas Ibeawuchi. 1989. The School in the Service of Evangelization: The Catholic Educational Impact in Eastern Nigeria. Leiden: Brill.
Paul II, P. J. 1994. Catechism of the Catholic Church. London: Geoffrey Chapman.
Rasulzadeh, Abbas, and Javad Baghbani. 2010. Shinākht-e Masiḥīyat (Understanding Christianity). Qom: Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute.
Robert, D. L. 2009. Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion‏. Vol. 20. John Wiley & Sons.
Sanei, Morteza. 2013. “Taʾammulī bar ruykarde tabshīre katūlīkī dar javāmeʿ Islāmī (Reflection on the approach of Catholic evangelism in Islamic societies).” Maʿrefat adyān. 14:97-113. 
Tavasolli, Sasan, and Kevin Higgins. 2013. “The Ethics of the Qur’an Interpretation in Muslim Evangelism and Insider Movements.” Evangelical Review of Theology 37 (4):321-34.
Williams, Paul. 2006. Efshā-ye Vatīkān: Pūl-e jenāyat wa māfīyā. Translated by Ayub Bagherzadeh. Tehran: Omīd e Fardā.
Zamani, Mohammad Hassan. 2007. Sharq shināsī wa Islām shināsī gharbīyān (Oriental Studies and Islamic Studies of the West). Qom: Būstāne Ketāb.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics