Contemporary Muslim and Christian Responses to Religious Plurality

This publication is one to welcome in general albeit there are caveats to note in specifics. The ‘general’ welcome is for a work by a Christian theologian who belongs within the Evangelical tradition, which has been accustomed to eschew inter-religious dialogue and has adhered to ‘exclusivist’ expressions of the Christian faith and revelation in Jesus the Christ. Winkler argues in this work for Christians to be prepared to enter into inter-faith dialogue and in particular with Muslims. The contribution of the Roman Catholic initiatives is carefully documented (pp. 59 ff.]. However, his summary of other evangelical theologians’ work in this purpose is also valuable and salutary. Thinkers such as McDermott (2000 and 2007), Pinnock (1992), and Tennent (2002) are helpfully introduced to a wider audience. At the beginning of the book Winkler asserts that ‘Religious plurality is nothing new to Islam or Christianity. Both were forged in the fires of multiple religious cultural settings’ (p. 14). Then he reviews, in the initial two chapters, contemporary Christian and Muslim responses to contexts of religious plurality, and offers a summary historical overview of Muslim–Christian relations. He moves on to introduce the theologies of religions elaborated by the Christian systematic theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and the Muslim scholar Abdulaziz Sachedina. In Chapters 3–5 he attempts to bring the concepts and theologies of Pannenberg and Sachedina into dialogue with the intention of proposing a fresh model of discussion between Christian and Muslim thinkers and traditions that will lead to genuine mutual engagement and understanding.