March 2, 2023

Deconstructing the Kerygmatic?

By Martin Accad This year will mark nearly twenty years since I first began to think about the SEKAP spectrum for Christian-Muslim interaction. I have advocated for a moderate posture on a five-level continuum between Syncretism (D1: “all roads lead to Mecca”) and Polemics (D5: “aggressive and exclusivist”), with D2 […]
July 14, 2022

Can We Learn From the Qur’an?: The Prayer of Yūnus

by Emad Botros In a previous ABTS Blog post I made the argument that the Jonah of the Bible and the Yūnus of the Quran are the same character. The post concluded with the questions: is it possible to learn from the Qur’an? Can the Qur’an help us as we develop theology […]
June 9, 2022

Yearning for Mercy: A Christian Reaction to the Death of Non-Believers

by Nabil Habibi My colleague, Abed, reflected last week on the death of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the subsequent debate among Muslims about whether it is acceptable to wish mercy on a dead Christian. Building on his own research of the effects of attitude on relationships, Abed […]
June 2, 2022

Abu Akleh and the Religious Other

By Abed Zein El Dien On May 11, Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist and longtime TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic in Palestine, was shot dead by the Israeli forces while covering army raids in the city of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank. Her death is a tragedy […]
March 10, 2022

Let’s Be Honest, Christianity Has a Sobering History of Violence Against Muslims

By Brent Hamoud There’s no denying that violence has an unfortunate place in Muslim and Christian history, but too often our historical narratives are laden with denial. Common presumptions position Islam as the antagonistic force versus Christianity as vivid examples of violence (of which there are many) committed by Muslims […]
February 17, 2022

Yunan or Yūnus? Re-Considering the Relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an

By Emad Botros As I was reading my colleague Martin Accad’s ABTS Blog article from last year, “What’s in a Name?: A Case for Using ‘Isa in Arabic Translations of the Bible,” my mind continually turned to another Biblical figure, Jonah, who appears in the Arabic Bible under the name […]
June 24, 2021

Summer Repost: The Commodification of Mission in the Muslim World

by Mike Kuhn This is a revised version of a post that was published by IMES in 2016 A commodity—something that is bought and sold. Mission—the loving and joyful response of Christ’s followers to disciple the nations, holding forth Jesus’ life and teaching among all the peoples of the world. […]
May 27, 2021

What’s in a Name?: A Case for Using ‘Isa in Arabic Translations of the Bible

By Martin Accad “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2) As Juliet agonizes over her love for Romeo, forbidden to her merely because he bears the Montague name, the family which is […]