Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

by Matthew Kaemingk

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2018

Overview

An alternative, uniquely Christian response to the growing global challenges of deep religious difference.

In the last fifty years, millions of Muslims have migrated to Europe and North America. Their arrival has ignited a series of fierce public debates on both sides of the Atlantic about religious freedom and tolerance, terrorism and security, gender and race, and much more. How can Christians best respond to this situation?

In this book theologian and ethicist Matthew Kaemingk offers a thought-provoking Christian perspective on the growing debates over Muslim presence in the West. Rejecting both fearful nationalism and romantic multiculturalism, Kaemingk makes the case for a third way—a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic Christian faith and the public rights, dignity, and freedom of Islam.

Key Features

• Focuses on how theology can help us learn how to live together
• Addresses the failure of contemporary Christian theology to address current issues
• Provides an introduction to the Reformed tradition of public thought

Contents

Part 1: Mecca and Amsterdam: A Case Study

• The Myth of Multiculturalism
• Marginalizing Islam
• Interlude: A Christian Defense of Islam?

Part 2: Christian Pluralism: A History

• The Emergence of Christian Pluralism
• Kuyper’s Deconstruction of Uniformity
• Kuyper’s Construction of Plurality
• Interlude: Beyond Kuyper

Part 3: Christian Pluralism: A Future

• Pluralism and Christ
• Pluralism and Worship
• Pluralism and Action

Part 4: Islam and Christian Pluralism in America

• Islam and Christianity in America
• Muslim Spaces in America
• American Evangelicals and Islam: The Pluralist Option
• Epilogue: The Politics of Holy Week

Top Highlights

“No longer did they argue that politics should be guided by the principles of scientific socialism or divine law.” (Page 43)

“First, in a pluralistic culture, God the Son is both temporally and spatially sovereign over all faiths and cultures. God the Son declares all faiths and cultures free, and he alone sits in sovereign judgment over their public lives. Second, in a pluralistic culture, God the Holy Spirit is at work in all faiths and cultures through the generous gift of common grace. All faiths and cultures have been blessed with some measure of goodness, virtue, and knowledge by the Holy Spirit. Third, in a pluralistic culture, God the Father is the common creator and father of all people. All are brothers and sisters under his reign. Furthermore, God the Father has placed all his children together in a common creation that is arranged with a common set of norms, patterns, and laws that they can all sense.” (Pages 155–156)

“First, a Christian pluralist will—without a doubt—fully embrace descriptive pluralism. She will take the deep differences of cultures, communities, and faiths seriously. She will do so because she believes human beings are worthy of careful listening, analysis, and description because they are made in the image of God. At first blush, committing oneself to merely describing diversity accurately does not sound like a difficult task. That said, we will soon see that there is a consistent pattern in the West of reducing diverse and multifaceted cultures, communities, and faiths to simplistic caricatures. Soon enough we will find that the simple act of listening and paying attention to the complexity of human life is not only a critical skill; it is a virtue.” (Page 18)

Praise for the Print Edition

Kaemingk gives several splendid examples of ordinary hospitality that, as they develop into consistent practice, make an extraordinary impact.... A timely, instructive book.

—Christianity Today

Some will argue that evangelical beliefs have yielded the xenophobic madness that marks politics on both sides of the Atlantic. But Kaemingk has marshaled enough evidence to say that it need not be so. Christians have someone to obey other than the stock talking points of the left or the right. The fruits are stories as surprising and delightful as Kaemingk’s.

—Jason Byassee in Christian Century

While engaging lived realities and introducing us to actual people impacted by those lived realities, Matthew Kaemingk provides a compelling vision for Christian faith to serve as a bridge, not a barrier, to loving the many different neighbors we live alongside within our contemporary pluralistic context. This extraordinary book is of tremendous import for the big questions the church needs to ask in this complex cultural moment; at the same time it affirms the significance of the small, daily ways Christians can love their neighbors through their regular lives and callings. I wish all Western Christians would engage with Kaemingk’s exceptionally readable and timely book as they wrestle with what it means to be a Christian called to love with generous hospitality in our pluralistic culture

—Kristen Deede Johnson, Western Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
• Author: Matthew Kaemingk
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 352
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Christianity and Culture

About Matthew Kaemingk

Matthew Kaemingk is an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, the associate dean of Fuller Texas in Houston, and an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. His scholarship focuses on Islam and political ethics, workplace theology, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology.