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 […]
September 8, 2022

Is Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses more “Satanic” than Attempted Murder? Revisiting the Rushdie Affair

By Martin Accad When the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, saw that his people were shunning him, he was aggrieved by their rejection of the message he brought them and he secretly wished that Allah, exalted is He, reveals something to him which would bring […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
May 6, 2021

Ramadan Kareem!: Thoughts for Christians about Engaging Muslims this Ramadan

By Abed El Kareem Zien El Dien Muslims around the world are in the final week of Ramadan. Many Christians I know, and Evangelicals particularly, are not positively inclined toward Muslims. Islam and Muslims are widely demonized and essentialized in their eyes. But why and how can we care about […]
January 14, 2021

That They Might See Your Christmas Trees: A Post-Christmas Reflection on Arab Christianity and the Challenge of Presence

By Nabil Habibi Dad comes home with a big box. The four of us children, two girls and two boys, stare with curiosity. Mom is grinning. Dad opens the box. It is a Christmas tree! In almost any other Christian house in the Middle East, and indeed many Muslim ones, […]