The Jew a Jew, the Muslim a Muslim? : Paul, Mission and Taqiyya in the Context of 1 Corinthians 9

Summary This article deals with an Islamic criticism that Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 is professing religious dissimulation ‐ in Islam called Taqiyya ‐ and that in Islamic contexts throughout history missionaries, and the so-called Insider Movements in particular, have adopted this as their missionary strategy. Paul seems to change his religion from Jew to Gentile and vice versa in order to trick people into Christianity. A more careful reading of this passage in context, however, shows that Paul primarily emphasizes the essence of the Christian faith while he is willing to give up anything that might hinder people from seeing God in Christ. He never denies his full allegiance to Jesus Christ and the cross, and is even willing to suffer for this confession. He is not dishonest about it, but he merely makes everything subordinate to this essence of the gospel. The author discusses the consequences of this conclusion for contextual missiology and the Insider Movements in relation to the Missio Dei.ZusammenfassungDer vorliegende Artikel befasst sich mit der islamischen Kritik, dass Paulus in 1. Korinther 9 eine bewusste religiöse Verschleierung bekundet ‐ im Islam wird dies Taqiyya genannt ‐ und dass im islamischen Kontext durch die Geschichte hindurch Missionare und besonders die sogenannte Insiderbewegung diese als ihre missionarische Strategie angewandt haben. Paulus wechselt scheinbar seine Religion von jüdisch zu christlich und umgekehrt, um die Menschen zu überlisten, sich zum christlichen Glauben zu bekehren. Jedoch zeigt eine etwas sorgfältigere Lesart dieses Abschnitts im Kontext, dass Paulus in erster Linie das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens hervorhebt, während er bereit ist, jedwede Sache aufzugeben, welche die Menschen abhalten könnte, Gott in Christus zu erkennen. Niemals leugnet er seine uneingeschränkte Loyalität Jesus Christus und dem Kreuz gegenüber, ja er ist vielmehr bereit, für sein Glaubensbekenntnis zu leiden. Paulus ist diesbezüglich nicht unehrlich, doch er ordnet nur alles diesem Wesen des Evangeliums unter. Der Autor erörtert die Konsequenzen dieser Schlussfolgerung für eine kontextuelle Missiologie und die Insiderbewegung in Zusammenhang mit der Missio Die.RésuméCet article traite d’une critique faite par les musulmans à l’encontre de Paul qui, en 1 Corinthiens 9, enseigne la dissimulation (Taqîya dans l’islam) dans le domaine religieux et des missionnaires ‐ des Insider Movements en particulier ‐ qui, dans un contexte musulman, ont de tout temps fait de cette pratique une stratégie missionnaire. Paul donne l’impression de passer d’une religion à l’autre ‐ juif un jour, païen le lendemain, et vice-versa ‐ dans le but d’attirer les gens dans le christianisme par la ruse. Mais une lecture plus attentive de ce chapitre replacé dans son contexte montre que Paul met avant tout l’accent sur l’essence même de la foi chrétienne, tout en affirmant qu’il est prêt à renoncer à tout ce qui pourrait empêcher l’un ou l’autre de voir Dieu en Christ. Il ne nie jamais sa totale allégeance à Jésus-Christ et à la croix et se dit même prêt à souffrir pour cette confession. Il n’est pas malhonnête à ce sujet; simplement, il subordonne toute chose à l’essence de l’Évangile. L’auteur étudie les conséquences de cette conclusion pour la missiologie contextuelle et le rapport entre les Insider Movements et la Missio Dei.

World Christianity, ‘World Religions’ and the Challenge of Insider Movements

While studies in World Christianity have frequently referred to Christianity as a ‘world religion’, this article argues that such a category is problematic. Insider movements directly challenge the category, since they are movements of faith in Jesus that fall within another ‘world religion’ altogether – usually Islam or Hinduism. Rather than being an oddity of the mission frontier, insider movements expose ambiguities already present in World Christianity studies concerning the concept of ‘religion’ and how we understand the unity of the World Christian movement. The article first examines distortions that occur when religion is referred to on the one hand as localised practices which can be reoriented and taken up into World Christianity and, on the other hand, as ‘world religion’, where Christianity is sharply discontinuous with other world systems. Second, the article draws from the field of religious studies, where several writers have argued that the scholarly ‘world religion’ category originates from a European Enlightenment project whose modernist assumptions are now questionable. Third, the particular challenge of insider movements is expanded on – their use of non-Christian cultural-religious systems as spaces for Christ worship, and their redrawing of assumed Christian boundaries. Finally, the article sketches out two principles for understanding Christianity's unity in a way that takes into account the religious (1) as a historical series of cultural-religious transmissions and receptions of the Christian message, which emanates from margins like those being crossed by insider movements, and (2) as a religiously syncretic process of change that occurs with Christ as the prime authority.

Majority World theologizing: Muslim background believer perspectives regarding insider movements

In recent decades, the phenomenon of “insider movements” has emerged as a significant component of Christian ministry to Muslims especially. Insider movements are complex, controversial, and the subject of much academic debate. Most of the scholars writing on insider movements do not come from a Muslim background. While they have added much to the academic discussion, it is also important to hear from scholars and practitioners who themselves come from a Muslim background. They are living as Christ-followers, often in Muslim contexts, and are wrestling with and forming their own opinions of insider movements, even as they seek to theologically evaluate them with scriptural truth. This paper explores the perspectives of several Muslim background believers in Christ regarding insider movements and is based on an examination of their published writings and interviews. It highlights and summarizes a portion of those writings, reveals a diversity of perspectives on the subject, and seeks to represent the voices and varied opinions of the authors about insider movements.

The Inter-Religious Frontier

The article explores the phenomenon of Christians who seek to maintain forms of multiple religious identity. It offers a dual-belonging theology from an Evangelical missiological perspective, with special reference to Christian and Buddhist traditions. The article seeks to offer some trajectories whereby softer forms of dual religious identity may not be incompatible with Evangelical faith. It uses theology of religion as a framework for understanding the phenomenon of multi-religious belonging. First, various types or expressions of multi-religious belonging are described in order to provide a more precise tool for analyzing various forms of religious belonging. Secondly, some of the apparent issues surrounding insider movements are framed in relation to the three typologies of pluralism, inclusivism and exclusivism, demonstrating how different paradigms in the theology of religions raise different sets of questions, add new perspectives and hopefully contribute toward theological clarity on some pastoral or mission issues. Finally, some brief considerations are offered for building a dual-belonging theology.

Dual Belonging: A Missiological Critique and Appreciation from an Asian Evangelical Perspective

Multi-religious belonging is a phenomenon of individuals who identify themselves as followers of more than one religious tradition. People of faiths may find themselves in dual or multi-religious backgrounds due to inter-religious marriages of parents, exposures to multi-religious traditions or conversions to another faith. In Asia, there is a growing phenomenon of insider movements or devotees of Jesus from other religious traditions such as Islam and Hinduism. Previously, Christian theology has tended to treat non-Christian religions as tight and separate religious systems. Such a treatment is increasingly problematic as it does not reflect the multi-religious realities in Asia where influences and cross fertilization of religious beliefs are daily faith experiences. In particular, there is a need to take into account the experiences and struggles of Christian converts from Asian religions, namely, the converts’ own relationship with their previous faiths.The paper seeks to explore the notion of multi-religious belonging and evaluate whether it is theologically possible for a Christian to follow Christ while retaining some form of identification with one’s previous religion such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Chinese religions. Instead of a total rejection of past faiths, is it possible for a Christian, without falling into syncretism, to belong to more than one religious tradition?Firstly, the paper will evaluate three models of multi-religious belonging. Secondly, after discussing some methodological considerations, we will explore whether dual belonging is syncretistic. Finally, we hope to suggest a critical and missiological appreciation of dual belonging.