Miroslav Volf's Perspective: Muslim and Christian Divinity

1399 Words3 Pages

In the book of Allah: A Christian response, writing as and for Christians, Miroslav Volf addresses what Christian perspective is regarding the God of Muslims in the Qur’an. In the majority of the book, he principally argues that called to love God and neighbors by the same God, Christians and Muslims believe in the same God, who is only one Creator.
What Miroslav Volf has a contentious argument is that Muslims and Christians do worship the same God, revealing that God, who is love, commands that people love their neighbors. However, Muslim monotheism is not compatible with Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which is a hindrance to harmony. He defends the doctrine of the Trinity against Muslim critics, successfully connecting the Trinity to …show more content…

First, Volf has accurately summarized core similarities between Christianity and Islam, highlighting six claims about God’s formal similarity between Muslims and Christians: 1) There is only one God, the one and only divine being, 2) God created everything that is not God, 3) God is radically different from everything that is not God, 4) God is good, 5) God commands that we love God with our whole being, and 6) God commands that we love our neighbors as ourselves (p. 110). Moreover, he describes another four areas of agreement between two faiths: 1) God is loves, 2) God is just, 3) God’s love encompasses God’s justice, and 4) Human being should love their neighbors as themselves (p. 158-159). Christians should listen to what God works and shows His love through Volf’s honestly desire to concentrate on the similarities for the peace and the common good. Second, Volf suggests considerable efforts into revealing obviously what the Qur’an asserts and denies about the Trinity, which is the most contentious issue between Christianity and Islam. According to his argument, there are five hostilities to the Trinity in the Qur’an: 1) God cannot have begotten a son, 2) God cannot have an associate, 3) God is not one of three divine beings, 4) God cannot be Christ, …show more content…

As a committed Christian in Jesus Christ, I believe that I should spread the Gospel in my Christian journey because God calls me for the Gospel. For this reason, I need to prepare various strategies how to share the God’s love to those who do not know Jesus. Accordingly, learning what Muslims believe in their God and think about our God, Jesus Christ, is one of my strategies effectively sharing the Gospel with Muslims. Nowadays, Muslims extremely increase and widely encroach on the entire world. In other words, it is possible to have a chance to encounter them in my ministry or in mission field. When I was studying in Missiology for a bachelor’s degree, I rarely had a chance of learning about Islam. Nevertheless, I have constantly tried to exactly know differences between Islam and Christianity, having eventually learned integral approaches to my Christian journey through this book. In the last two semesters, I had informal discussion times with a professor and my friends who are practicing Muslims. Every time we discussed about God, who is revealed in the book of John. In that time, they asked critical questions that were very sharp and tough. I believe if I already read this book before discussing with them, I would give right answers about God in Christian perspective. This is

Open Document