Practical Approach to Muslims by Jens Christensen

Today’s free book is a reprint of a series on lectures on outreach to Muslims by Bishop Jens Christiensen, the fruit of a lifetime spent in missionary work in Pakistan. This book is in copyright and has been reproduced by kind permission of AWM Pioneers. My thanks to Book Aid for providing a copy of the book for digitisation.

Bishop Christensen spent a lifetime working among Muslim Pathans in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. He was probably closer to Pathans both in their thinking and in the use of their language, Pushto, than any other westerner. I had the great privilege of working under him for seven years, and later I succeeded him. As few others he was committed to the Church of Christ and to the apostolate to Islam. His own scholarly study of Islam was profound. Nevertheless, he trusted his experience of the living Islam rather than the academic presentation of it by Western scholars. For his whole life-time he was grappling with Islam as a theological challenge to the Christian Church and its mission. He is one of the very few original thinkers in missiology since the second world war. As a person and as a theologian he was always scrupulously honest and never willing to accept an easy way out unless it was the answer to the problem. This is why Jens Christensen’s books, whether in Danish, English or Pushto, are always interesting and reward the reader. It is due to his efforts that we have a relatively rich Christian literature in Pushto, and his excellent Pushto translation of the New Testament is among the best in any language of the subcontinent.

From the Foreword by the Right Rev. Arne Rudvin, Bishop of Karachi, Pakistan

Jens Christensen, The Practical Approach to Muslims. The North Africa Mission, 1977. Pbk. pp.644. [Click here to visit he download page for this title]

Contents

• Editor’s Note
• Preface

1. Introduction
   
   Just how are You Going to Approach Muslims?
   
2. Means
3. Criticism
4. Politics
5. Proclamation I
6. Proclamation II
7. Intolerance
   
   Just What are You Aiming at?
   
8. Individual Conversion or Mass Movements
9. Preaching, Teaching and Witnessing
10. The Muslim Convert in the Church
    
    Just Where Does Your Christian Living Fit in?
    
11. Just Collective and Individual Responsibility I
12. Collective and Individual Responsibility II
13. Good Deeds in Realtion to Evangelism
14. Prayer in Relation to Evangelism
    
    What About the Question of Universiality?
15. Is Christianity Universal?
16. Is Islam Universal
    
    Is It “A Battle of Books”
17. Yes and No
18. Inspiration and Revelation
    
    Is it Law or Evangel?
19. Wherein Did Christ Differ from the Jews in the Matter of Faith?
20. How Does Your Conception of Faith Differ from that of a Muslim?
21. Is Islam Law or Evangel?
    
    What About the Dogma of the Holy Spirit?
22. Is this Dogma Preachable I
23. Is this Dogma Preachable II
24. If not Preachable, Then What?
    
    What About the Eternal Sonship of Christ?
25. Conceived by the Holy Spirit
26. Born of a Virgin
    
    What is Your Attitutude Toward Muhammad?
27. Muhammed’s Conception of God in Relation to Yours
28. Muhammed’s Conception of Preaching in Relation to Yours
29. Muhammed’s Conception of His Book in Relation to Yours
30. Muhammed’s Conception of Ethics in Relation to Yours
    
    Why has Christianity Not Developed a Sunnah?
31. Just What is Sunnah?
32. Is a Christian Sunnah Possible? If nt, Then What?
    
    A Few Comparisons
33. Why DOes the Muslim Object to Our Principle of Ethics
34. Belief in Allah – Belief in the Father of our Lord
35. Belief in Books and Prophets
36. Belief in Predestination and Fatalism
37. Belief in Judgement and Resurrection

Main image: Hagia sophia, Istanbul by sofiane dougheche from Pixabay