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Joining in with the Spirit: Connecting World Church and Local
Mission.
Citation for published version:
Stanley, B 2010, 'Joining in with the Spirit: Connecting World Church and Local Mission.', Studies in World
Christianity, vol. 16, pp. 342-343. https://doi.org/10.3366/E1354990110001036
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):
10.3366/E1354990110001036
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Studies in World Christianity
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©Stanley, B. (2010). Joining in with the Spirit: Connecting World Church and Local Mission.Studies in World
Christianity, 16, 342-343doi: 10.3366/E1354990110001036
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342 STUDIES IN WORLD CHRISTIANITY
(for example of the Tsars and Bolsheviks) because of his rejection of
force and the state, his treatment of his own family, and his inability
to compromise. Yet, as the author puts it, ‘Tolstoy’s legacy lies in his
powerful statement of the urgent human need to connect our daily living
to a deep and fulfilling conception of the meaning of life’ (p. 217). This is
an insightful book.
Frank Whaling
University of Edinburgh
DOI: 10.3366/E1354990110001036
Kirsteen Kim. 2009. Joining in with the Spirit: Connecting World Church and
Local Mission. London: Epworth Press, pp. ix + 319, Pb, £25.00. ISBN-13:
9780716206583.
The surprising inversion of adjectives in the subtitle of this book
encapsulates its message, directed particularly, though not solely, at the
British churches: individual congregations will discover their rightful
place in the mission of God when they relate their local missions more
consciously to the reality of a world church whose representatives from
Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean now figure so prominently in the British
religious landscape. Kim wishes to counter the parochialism that has
contracted the missionary vision of European Christians in the wake
of the anti-colonial reaction. The remedy, she argues, is not a return
to Eurocentric approaches to world mission, but a pneumatological
understanding of the Missio Dei. The Spirit of new creation is at work on a
broader and more polychromatic canvas than most Christians in the north
realise.
Whilst Kim’s ultimate concern is to shape the understanding of mission
in local churches, one may predict that her book will find its greatest
use as a textbook in theological education. As such, it has a great deal to
commend it. It is lucid, accessible, up-to-date, and extraordinarily wide-
ranging. Students will find within its pages not simply expositions of
such predictable themes as the Trinitarian basis of mission, approaches
to inculturation, and theologies of religious encounter, but also a survey
of the expansion of Christianity through two millennia, and a helpful
introduction to Korean Christianity (the author has lived in Korea and
is married to a Korean). The book integrates theology and history
with considerable skill and only occasional historical inaccuracies (the
Plymouth Brethren did not, for example, sail in the Mayflower in 1620,
p. 169). Kim’s theological judgements will not command universal assent,
but the dissent is likely to come in roughly equivalent quantities from
Reviews 343
left and right, which is a sign of the independence of mind of the
author.
Brian Stanley
University of Edinburgh
DOI: 10.3366/E1354990110001048
Oddbjørn Leirvik. 2010. Images of Jesus Christ in Islam, second edition.
London: Continuum International Publishing Group, pp. 304, Pb, £19.99.
ISBN-13: 9781441181602.
It is somewhat misleading that the author of this general introduction
to Muslim perceptions of Jesus states in the introduction that he has
approached the topic not as ‘an Islamicist or a scholar of religious studies’
but as ‘a theologian committed to Christian-Muslim dialogue’ (p. ix): the
book offers both a lucid survey of the diversity of Muslim views of Jesus
from the Qur’an to modern times (chapters 2–7) and a ‘committed’ norma-
tive reflection (chapters 8–9). Perhaps the caveat is added because in the
chapters in which the author discusses traditional Muslim genres (Qur’an,
Sunna, Qur’anic exegesis, the semi-popular ‘Tales of the Prophets’, and
Sufi texts), he relies exclusively on previous studies in Western languages
rather than the original Arabic and Persian sources. However, the Muslim
literature on Jesus is, in the main, reliably translated, and in consequence
the quality of the information presented here does not suffer significantly.
The main thrust of the author’s theological argument is that the
attention given by twentieth-century Muslim theologians to the concept
of ‘conscience’ (damir) in their portrayal of Jesus can serve as a platform
on which to build an anti-particularist sense of ‘knowing together’ (Lat.
con-scientia), rather than ‘knowing with oneself’ as member of either the
Christian or Muslim community (p. 269). To extract such an overarching
principle from the figure of Jesus alone, however, is questionable, as most
Muslims will of course turn to the example of Muhammad for guidance
in all walks of life, including in the area of inter-religious dialogue. This
is why the Anglican priest Kenneth Cragg, a well-known translator of
the Qur’an and one of the most prolific modern authors on Christian-
Muslim dialogue, decided to write a sequel to his Jesus and the Muslim
(1984), entitled Muhammad and the Christian (1985). The book under
review has chosen to shed light on only one side of the coin. Since it
accomplishes this, however, in an eminently readable way it deserves to
be recommended whole-heartedly.
Christian Lange
University of Edinburgh