Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, May 2018. 334 pages.

$34.95. Paperback. ISBN 9781599828657. For other formats: Link to Publisher’s Website.

Review

As someone who teaches introductory courses on Islam and Muslims nearly every semester, I have tried many different variations of textbooks as well as compilations of book chapters, articles, blogs. Every textbook written for students will inevitably be idiosyncratic, written to the context of the author’s specific academic institution as well as their methodological approaches. Some textbooks work better than others overall and some work well only in specific institutional contexts. Natana J. Delong-Bas’ book, Islam: A Living Faith, is aimed at undergraduate students, presumably in the North American context, and would be especially poignant at a church-affiliated institution, although it could also possibly work elsewhere.

A specialist in Islamic sectarianism, with a focus on Wahhabism, Delong-Bas is a clear and concise writer who knows her audience and presents up-to-date awareness of her subject matter. Delong-Bas highlights the goal of her book by explaining that it “aims to contribute to the constructive dialogue, to explore Islam as a living practice, not just a belief system, of individuals and communities” (11). She also specifically states that the book focuses on contemporary issues and lived Islam while offering historical context that provides a nuanced approach. That said, her approach seems to be fairly basic, perhaps due to her target audience, as she states, “If there is ever to be global peace, understanding, and cooperative coexistence, it must begin with knowledge, rather than fear, of the religious Other. It is in that spirit that this book was written. Readers are encouraged to set aside the fearful headlines and consider Islam in its entirety as a living faith” (12). Rather than problematizing the fact that some Americans fear the “religious Other,” Delong-Bas assumes that her audience is Christian and does not try to rock their boat by allowing them to see Muslims as fellow humans rather than a friendly “other.”

The book has a scattering of black and white photos, maps, and charts, but it is primarily text-centric. It is divided into nine chapters. The first chapter covers the significance of the five pillars for Muslims but does not offer historical context. Surprisingly, by the third page when she discusses the term ummah and introduces the history of the pillars, Delong-Bas broaches the issue of radicalization. This section is factual and brings in examples of the pillars practiced in everyday situations; it also integrates topics, such as extremism, that students enjoy learning about but that professors of Islam do not usually introduce at the beginning of a course on Islam. Many instructors build up slowly to being able to introduce sensitive topics such as extremism into the classroom, making sure their students are well developed in their understandings of the basics of Islam and Muslim hermeneutics. The end of the chapter briefly explains the difference between the pillars versus sacraments in the Christian context. The remaining chapters are thematic, covering the life and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an, sectarianism, Islamic law, Sufism, Jihad, gender issues, and Muslim-Christian encounters. The topics of the chapter are presumably guided by choosing the basics as well as in the most controversial and misunderstood issues when it comes to Muslims in North America.

Delong-Bas is careful not only to present Islam as normative and prescriptive, but also to show the nuance of Muslim practice and belief across the spectrums, such as when she discusses how and where women pray in relation to men, making note of the various set-ups of prayer and the unequal access some women experience in these spaces (24). She also highlights interesting examples from contemporary Muslim experiences, such as mentioning Hajj Maria ‘Ulfah, a well-known female Qur’an reciter from Indonesia, in the chapter on the Qur’an; Amina Wadud’s leading the first women-led prayers in 2005 in the chapter on women and gender; and The 99 comic book series in the chapter on Muslim-Christian encounters. The book would have benefited from including more of these cases. Delong-Bas covers complicated topics in a short distance; in her chapter on Shariah and Islamic law, she covers the historical context of Shari’ah, fiqh, and how Islam functions in society, and then she does an excellent job discussing the negative impact of colonialism on Islamic law as well as critiquing how some “Islamic” states are often disconnected from pre-modern practices of Islamic law and “often repeat the mistakes of European authorities” (153). She broaches challenging subjects such as hudud punishments in countries like Pakistan but also is firm in her argument that these do not always reflect the intention and message of the Qur’an and earlier Muslim legal scholars. In the “Women and Gender” chapter, Delong-Bas debunks myths and stereotypes about Muslim women and then covers movements such as Islamic feminists, concepts such as gender justice, and even includes a section on discussions around the “saving” of Muslim women, referring to an article by Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others,” which many professors of Islam in North America teach in their courses.

 

The book makes numerous brief references to interesting debates and controversies, but it would have benefited from going into more depth and offering examples in the main text instead of just in the footnotes. With useful review and discussion questions that can be incorporated into the classroom at the end of each chapter, the book could possibly be used in courses on Islam in church-affiliated institutions. It would most probably not work in secular private or public institutions. Islam: A Living Faith represents a commendable effort to present Islam and Muslims in a simple but critical introduction that would work in classrooms at church-affiliated institutions in the North American context or in a secular classroom—that is, if one were to take out a few short sections. The concise and clear writing, as well as its frequent references to contemporary experiences of Muslims, make the book stand out as being accessible to students from Generation Z as well as relevant to teaching Islam in the 21st century.

About the Reviewer(s):

Rose Aslan is Assistant Professor at California Lutheran University.

Date of Review:

March 18, 2020

About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):

Natana J. DeLong-Bas is Associate Professor at Boston College, where she teaches Theology and Islamic Civilizations and Societies.. She is coauthor of Shariah: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2018) and editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women (Oxford, 2013).

ELLEN WHITE, Layer by Layer: A Primer on Biblical Archaeology (Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2019, paper $19.95) 120pp. 2 figs., 17 halftone, 4 maps, 2 tables, Indexed. ISBN: 978-1-59982-959-3.

Noting that “biblical archaeology” is neither a subdiscipline of archaeology nor an independent discipline in its own right but a field of study that occupies the intersection between the two disciplines of archaeology and biblical studies, this introductory textbook on biblical archaeology aims to be accessible to beginning students of both disciplines. After a three-page preface, it first addresses common “myths” surrounding biblical archaeology and separates fact from fiction. Next it defines biblical archaeology in the 21^st century, describes the history of the term, and explores why this phrase became controversial and why it remains so for some scholars. Then it introduces the basic methods of both archaeology and biblical studies, respectively. Finally, it explores the benefits of dialogue between these disciplines through an extended example that is still an open and evolving question in both fields: three different models for the origins of ancient Israel (the conquest model, the peaceful infiltration mode, and the peasant revolt or resettlement model). A seven-page glossary is included. White was previously senior editor at the Biblical Archaeology Society.

DAVID T. LANDRY WITH JOHN W. MARTENS, Inquiry into the New Testament: Ancient Context to Contemporary Significance (Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2019, paper $44.95) 467 pp.

Illustrated. Bibliographies. Indexed. ISBN: 978-1-59982-174-0. This introductory NT textbook, designed for academic use at the undergraduate level, lays out in its six-page introduction some principles for studying the NT critically (context is crucial, evidence-based conclusions, no “special rules” for interpreting the Bible) and places itself in considers the formation of the NT, some prominent noncanonical Gospels, Greco-Roman religions, ancient Judaism, and the Roman empire, respectively. Then, after an introduction to the Gospels and to methods of biblical criticism, respectively, it surveys the NT in roughly canonical order: the Gospel of Mark, source criticism and the Synoptic problem, the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, the Gospel of John and the Johannine letters, Paul and the undisputed letters (four chapters), the Deuteropauline and Pastoral epistles, the catholic epistles and Hebrews, the book of Revelation, the quest for the historical Jesus, and the NT in the modern world. A fourteen-page glossary is included. Landry and Martens are both professors of NT at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Peter Jordan is Research Coordinator at the University of Oxford.

Date of Review 8/21/2019
Winona, MN:  Anselm Academic , January  2016.  318 pages.

$31.95. Paperback.  ISBN  9781599827155.  For other formats: Link to Publisher’s Website.

Review

A friend once told me that when teaching her university courses, she typically keeps the best book on the topic for herself to guide her instruction on the topic, and assigns the second-best one to her students. Although it would be a great shame to keep Joshua Moritz’s Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding from students, the book does such a good job of introducing readers to current questions and debates in the field that it would be entirely understandable if many teachers of the subject—especially those not already familiar with the extensive and ever-growing scholarly literature—decided to keep it for themselves.

Science and Religion could also have been called Science and Christianity, given that it deals almost exclusively with Christian theological ideas. The specificity of its focus on a particular religious tradition, rather than on religion-in-general (whatever that may be), may reduce the book’s appeal to some audiences. Yet for those who care about Christianity’s relationship to science, such specificity allows for a depth of examination and exploration that would not otherwise be possible.

The ten chapters of the book are loosely divided into two groups. The first four chapters look at what Moritz calls the “much-disputed borderlands” (10) between science and religion, primarily through historical and philosophical lenses. The historical material is largely taken from the detailed work done in recent decades by historians of science, work that cumulatively has shown that past Christianity-science relations are more complex than at first seems to be the case, and that they almost never fit neatly into the popular but mythical stories about inevitable conflict that have circulated since the 19th century. On the basis of this historical scholarship, as well as astute philosophical analysis of the boundaries and limits of science and faith, Moritz concludes the first part of the book with the claim that whatever tension or conflict does arise between the two is more often than not the product of one (or both) reaching beyond their proper limits; in the case of science this means scientism, while for Christianity it means fideism. This identification of an “essence” of the tensions between Christianity and science is a little surprising from someone who clearly eschews historical and philosophical essentialism and embraces a complexity perspective (85). Yet Moritz is doubtless right that in many cases scientism and/or fideism do induce stresses and strains in relations between the two.

Chapters 5 through 10 address particular contemporary sites of interaction and contestation between theological ideas and scientific theories: cosmogony and cosmology; the origins of life; the nature and destiny of humanity; miracles and laws of nature; creaturely suffering and theodicy; and the destiny of the cosmos. Moritz does a uniformly excellent job of judiciously selecting and summarizing key aspects of the literature on each topic, and at points, he brings his own original scholarship into the mix. The extensive footnotes and suggested readings for further study in each chapter are valuable for those not already familiar with relevant literature on each topic.

For those who think Christianity’s relationship with science need not be one of unavoidable conflict, the second part of the book is rewarding in that it displays one person’s view of the kind of Christianity that might steer clear of protracted discord. Moritz sees Christianity as an active tradition of reflection, one that draws on past insights but which is also not stuck in the past. It robustly engages with all facets of human endeavor and knowledge, including science, and it does not shy away from modifying its ideas and practices in light of science. This kind of Christianity is modelled by many of the sources on which Moritz draws and which he cites in the book: key early Christians including Irenaeus, Basil, and Augustine; contemporary scientifically-informed theologians such as Robert John Russell (co-editor of a number of books with Moritz, and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Graduate Theological Union where Moritz received his doctorate), John Polkinghorne, Nancey Murphy, and William Stoeger; analytically-inclined philosophers of religion—figures like Richard Swinburne, Michael Murray, Michael Rea, and Thomas Tracy—who have pondered the bearing that scientific issues and ideas have on the faith; and others. Moritz thereby locates himself in a long line of Christian thinkers for whom open and honest engagement with worldly learning is embraced.

If Moritz’s theological engagement with science in the second part of the book has any unique characteristics in contemporary science-and-religion engagement, it is perhaps his consistent focus on the Bible. For example, in contrast to Catholic theological engagements with science—ones in which canonical figures like Thomas Aquinas and magisterial texts from the Catholic intellectual tradition together guide how interaction between Christian theology and scientific ideas and concepts should proceed—Moritz prefers to work as directly, and in as unmediated fashion as possible, with Christianity’s scriptures. He frequently draws on Hebrew and Greek translations of texts to support preferred construals of key Christian claims, and unpacks the relationships between those claims and the relevant aspects of science. While broadly orthodox in character, the vibrant Christianity Moritz depicts in the bookis shaped by arguably more Protestant than Catholic or Orthodox attitudes toward the Bible.

Even if one doesn’t share all of Moritz’s theological commitments, anyone interested in an historically informed, philosophically sophisticated, and theologically and scientifically rich examination of Christianity-science relations will learn much from Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding. Through his mapping of one significant region of the intellectually challenging and highly contested terrain of science and religion, Moritz has done teachers of the subject—and their students, if they can get their hands on it—a great service.

About the Author:

Joshua M. Moritz is Lecturer of Philosophical Theology and Natural Science at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.

John Kaltner, Reading the Old Testament Anew: Biblical Perspectives on Today’s Issues, Winona, Anselm Academic, 2017; 284 pp., $ 29.95.

In Reading the Old Testament Anew, John Kaltner provides a thematic introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Rather than writing a comprehensive introductory work, Kaltner concentrates on six themes in the Old Testament: Creation; Covenant; Liberation; the Human Condition; the Other; and Social Justice. The first chapter offers a succinct but up-to-date introduction to the Old Testament. Kaltner explains that his selection of themes reflects ‘the book’s intended purpose as a classroom resource for courses in religion or theology that have a biblical component in them’ (8). Each theme is discussed under three headings: First Impressions (which identifies and briefly introduces the most important Old Testament passages pertaining to the theme); Second Opinions (where Kaltner sketches debates in Biblical Studies on the selected themes); and Implications and Applications (which offers questions for further thinking and reflection). Moreover, each chapter contains a section that treats the reception of these themes in art and literature. The chapter on covenant can serve as an example of Kaltner’s approach: after briefly introducing Gen 6–9; Gen 15, 17; Exod; Deut; and ‘covenant elsewhere in the Old Testament’ in the first section of the chapter, Kaltner moves on to discuss issues of Pentateuchal source criticism, the role of covenant thinking in prophetic works, and the link between covenants in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern treatises in the second part. The Implications and Applications section offers questions such as: How has your understanding of the Bible changed after reading this chapter? or: Do you think the relationship between God and humanity as it is presented in the Old Testament is primarily healthy and positive? This shows that for Kaltner both exegetical and biblical-theological issues are of importance when reflecting on the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Throughout the book Kaltner’s writing is careful and nuanced. Yet the book explicitly addresses an audience with no prior knowledge of Biblical literature and, as a result, engagement with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament is absent from Kaltner’s work. This would make the book somewhat harder to use in a context where general Introduction to Bible courses of the American type are not common, but I think Reading the Old Testament Anew can still fulfil a useful purpose as a resource in, for instance, an undergraduate Biblical Theology course. There, its thematic approach (which is still predominant in Biblical Studies, but has also been challenged on various grounds) would prove helpful, not only for how it collects the material, but also for stimulating debates on the losses and gains that come with thematic approaches. To sum up: Kaltner has written an engaging book, which is refreshing in how it opens up the Old Testament to students with no prior knowledge of it.