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Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship: Considering Jesus' Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection in Dialogue with Islam--Three Books Edited by David Emmanuel Singh

Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship: Considering Jesus' Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection in Dialogue with Islam--Three Books Edited by David Emmanuel Singh

David Emmanuel Singh of the Oxford Centre for Evangelism and Mission has recently edited and published his third book engaging Christian teaching about Jesus in Islamic contexts.  

I was able to contribute an essay in each of the three volumes.  My titles, and the titles of the three books, are as follows:

Rollin G. Grams, ‘God, the Beneficent--the Merciful, and Jesus’s Cross: From Abstract to Concrete Theologising,’ in Jesus and the Cross: Reflections of Christians from Islamic Contexts, ed. D. Singh.  Oxford: Regnum/Paternoster, 2008.

Rollin G. Grams, ‘Revealing Divine Identity: The Incarnation of the Word in John’s Gospel,’ in Jesus and the Incarnation: Reflection of Christians from Islamic Contexts, ed. David Singh.  Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011.

Rollin G. Grams, ‘‘Jesus Christ, raised from the dead’ (2 Tim. 2.8): Exploring Key Differences over Beliefs about the Resurrection Between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,’ in Jesus and the Resurrection: Reflections of Christians from Islamic Contexts, ed. David Singh (Oxford: Regnum Press, 2014): 113-128.

A theme running through each of my essays is that Christian theology is—or needs to be—concrete.  Theology must not work from general, abstract categories of thought but rather be grounded in and arise from the particular, concrete contexts, texts, and history of the faith.  Weak parallels might be drawn out between Christianity and Islam if one keeps theology at a general and abstract level.  This, however, requires reading against the Biblical text and the very concrete reality of Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, and raised from the dead.


Essays in these volumes do not necessarily agree with one another, and those interested in this subject of Christian and Islamic dialogue will find a variety of approaches, topics, and views within the general subject area.
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