The Gospel and Islam: A 1978 compendium

This 638-page tome reprints research papers of 43 different articles detailing how the Christian movement can reach out in attempting to convent Muslims to Christianity. It was produced by the “Missions Advanced Research and Communications Center”, a ministry of “World Vision International.”

Usually one encounters a small booklet written by some Christian missionary who discusses his efforts in some small community for 25 or so years; usually, not much depth besides reproducing many quotations from the Bible. Unlike that, here, about 150 Christian missionary leaders got together to scratch their heads and pondered how to improve the ways as to how Christianity could be spread amongst Muslims. Paper topics: The Gospel and culture; the Cross-cultural communication of the Gospel to Muslims; the Muslim convert and his culture; Dynamic equivalence churches in Muslim society; Power encounter in conversion from Islam; New theological approaches in Muslim evangelism; Resistance/response analysis of Muslim people; Islamic theology; Popular Islam; the comparative status of Christianity and Islam in Sub-Sahara Africa …in North Africa…in the Middle east…in Turkey..in Iran…in the Sub-continent…in Southeast Asia….in China….in Russia; the current status of Bible translations in Muslim languages; an overview of missions to Muslims; a selected bibliography for Christian Muslim workers; the development of new tools to aid in Muslim evangelism; tentmaking ministries in Muslim countries; food and health as partners of Muslim evangelism; the Christian approach to the Muslim woman and family; glossary.

This is typewriter-set print (uneven right margins) but readily readable. Contributors include spokesmen/researchers from: Sudan Interior Mission, International Missions, World Vision-Kenya, Samuel Zwemer Institute, Westminster Theological Seminary, NCCCUSA-Indonesia, Concordia Theological Seminary, Dansalan Research Center-Philippines, Fuller Theological Seminary, Overseas Ministries-Cameroon, Fellowship of faith for Muslims-Turkestan/Lebanon, North Africa Mission, Luther College-Canada, Living Bibles International, The Navigators-Singapore, and many more. A lot of thoughts from missionaries who had their “boots on the ground.”