Ministry Feature: A New Vision for Christian-Muslim Relations Comes to Life
What if you lived in a country where most of your neighbors were of a different religion than you? It might change the way you talk with them, or how you buy groceries, or what neighborhood you live in. It would certainly put an emphasis on what you can do together as neighbors and how you understand your differences. For many Christians in the world, this isn’t hypothetical. Just as Muslims who live in the United States must navigate complex questions of tradition and identity, Christians who live in Muslim-majority countries face complex situations, often for centuries.
What resources would you need to be equipped to be a good neighbor, or to further mutual understanding and peace in the city where you dwelled?
In the Fall 2023 Issue of Scholar Leaders’ newsletter Dr. Wageeh Mikhail shared his vision for equipping the Church to engage intellectually with Muslims in Majority World contexts. Dr. Mikhail highlighted the many barriers that exist between the two faiths and put forward three projects Scholar Leaders was taking on to further mutual understanding. First, developing an online curriculum for Christian students of Islam taught by Christian theologians who live in Muslim-majority contexts. Second, Dr. Mikhail published an edited volume, Islam: Global Christian Perspectives, which brought together 15 Christian scholars of Islam exclusively from global Christian perspectives.
Today, we’d like to update you on the third project: The Network of Centers for Christian-Muslim Relations (NCCMR).
On March 1, 2024, Dr. Mikhail, with support from Scholar Leaders and Templeton Religion Trust, launched the Network. This network brings together individual centers of Christian-Muslim relations from across Africa, Asia, and the Middle-East and North Africa, for greater collaboration, enhanced religious literacy, and an ethos of peace and faith. While the later regions are typically what most Westerners think of when Islam is discussed, the NCCMR reached further into Africa and Asia to gather new partners for more culturally diverse inter-religious dialogue.
Wageeh, who is himself a Scholar Leader, and our Director of Engagement with Islam, is an Egyptian Christian, who after years of work directing the Center for Middle Eastern Christianity at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, had a vision to begin a new chapter in Muslim-Christian dialogue.
This vision enacts three core values that it believes will cause substantial difference: enhancing the resources for religious literacy in each center, bringing individual centers closer for greater collaboration, and a celebration of diversity that will strengthen each religion’s understanding of itself and its other. In short, it envisions a world where Christian-Muslim relations are marked by mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration for a culture of peace and harmony.
The NCCMR offers a few key programs and opportunities, particularly an online diploma in Christian-Muslim Relations, and a NCCMR Symposium which is going to gather this Summer in Amman, Jordan. Together, these scholars are not only convening important conversations but also producing new material to enhance their discourses and cultures.
If neighbors of different faiths can’t understand each other’s language, communication will struggle. To solve this problem, The NCCMR is producing a Contextual Dictionary of Christian-Muslim Relations. More than just defining common words, the dictionary will provide real-life examples from diverse cultures, holding together lived difference instead of imposing one abstract view. This is a groundbreaking work because it imagines a new possibility of what a basic tool, a dictionary, can be.
All this energetic and creative work is based on the commitment of Dr. Mikhail and the entire Scholar Leaders team to engaging with Islam in a spirit of grace and mutual respect, with a vision for the thriving of both Christian and Muslim communities. You can find out more about the Networks ongoing projects at www.nccmr.org.