Customer Reviews

Christianity at the Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Building out of Christ's great commission to his church and speaking into the great diversity of our time, Tim Tennent, associate professor of world missions at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, encourages evangelicals to take their seat at the religious round table and to start talking with the advocates of competing world religions. Cognizant that theology and mission must go together, Tennent offers his readers a focused treatment that engages doctrinal challenges to Christianity from Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. At no point does he gloss over the many differences that set Christianity apart from other faiths, and yet he everywhere encourages serious dialogue and advocates our being good listeners as well as charitable conversation partners.

As a committed Christian, I can only applaud Tennent's work as a valuable contribution to motivating evangelical Christians to enter the thought world of others and thereby fulfill our obligation to engage the world for Christ. Far from being one of those volumes that stands outside the bounds of historic Christianity and which presents the Christian Gospel as simply one among the many different paths to god, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable is written by a representative of biblical Christianity and conforms to the historic confessions.

Written with the intention of marshaling greater evangelical Christian involvement in interreligious dialogue and with the goal of preparing Christians to respond to the objections of non-Christian religions (p.10); Tennent argues for and writes from what he terms "an engaged exclusivist" position. That is, our author rejects the all too familiar pluralist position and, in the end, embraces the exclusivist position in a critical and more nuanced way (p.16ff). This is a great boon for committed Christians who may often struggle to find learned, sensitively written, up to date, dialogically oriented materials which affirm the unique authority of Jesus Christ, as well as the centrality of gospel proclamation, and the explicit need for repentance and faith based on the knowledge of Christ.

Structured around fictional conversations between an evangelical Christian and informed members of the three largest non-Christian religions, Tennent tenders a series of high quality exchanges and models penetrating insight and persistent graciousness. Each section opens with some general remarks that serve to orient the reader and then sets forth a dialogue concerning the doctrine of God (Brahman, Dharma-kaya, Allah), and a dialogue concerning a second doctrinal matter (Hinduism's doctrine of creation, Buddhism's doctrine of ethics, and Islam's doctrine of Christ and the Incarnation). While students of world religions may have covered some or much of this material elsewhere, yet what is distinctive about this volume is the way in which the dialogues that make up the body of the work allow for such a vigorous two-way exchange of ideas. In the spirit of Raymond Lull, Tennent really has the positions `talk back' to one another.

In addition to the well written chapters that showcase both the authors own prowess and overarching method, we are also provided with several "case studies" or readings in interreligious dialogue that are then applied back to the discussions occupying the body of the text. (The figures cited in the case studies are the Syrian apologist Justin Martyr, the Hindu convert Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, and the Western European scholar A. G. Hogg). Together with the epilogue, these concluding chapters further assist us to reflect upon the many pressing issues that have and will continue to arise when Christians seriously converse with men and women of divergent faiths.

Once again, I can really only applaud Tim Tennent for sharing with us the fruits of his own studies and efforts. Reading his work not only leaves one aware of how disinterest and non-participation neither serves the gospel well, nor advances our task, but it also provides a good deal of motivation to engage in meaningful dialogue with Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic colleagues, neighbors and friends. Moreover, it quietly reminds us that although the blanket of ecumenism and relativism seems to cloak many of the opportunities we have for dialogue, yet such an atmosphere need not always require the abandonment of the Christian message, only its wise and winsome presentation.

As a final word let me state that I personally found the two chapters on Islam to be among the best. In a day of growing awareness about Islam, Tennent here provides us with examples of the kind of high quality, accurate, charitable and specific material that we need in order to dialogue with the Islamic mindset. Indeed, one can only hope that our author's next volume will be one similar in style but wholly devoted to Islam. Until then, let me suggest that any evangelical wanting to better engage the differing world religions can hardly do better than to pick up this book.

Tennent does something admirable, that is, he goes to the table for a discussion with Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. The result is an interesting interreligious dialogue that is done from the evangelical Christian perspective. And overall, he does a good job, bringing to light many of the differences that make Christianity different from other world faiths. I used this text in a seminary world religions class, and though it was the students' least favorite, it offered a valuable contribution. I appreciate the kindness that Tennent showed to his made-up responders. He could have been much tougher, but he was very gentle in how he answered. I also thought he did a good job staying away from straw man arguments, as "dialogue" without having real people to do the dialoguing with can often invite logical fallacy. Having done much study on these religions, I must say that he was, for the most part, very accurate with the assessments. (I wonder how difficult it would be to get real people to respond and make it a true dialogue.) Finally, his two chapters on Islam were his best work. Truly this was quality material and should be read by anyone hoping to dialogue with the Islamic mindset. So, despite slow reading at times because of the advanced material (the Hindu section was very difficult), I think every Evangelical who wants to better understand the different religions should pick up this book.

What a refreshing book which actually engages evangelical Christianity with the challenges posed by the major world religions. The book is enjoyable to read and yet delves deeply into some great issues, allowing for plenty of interaction between the various religions. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the encounter between Christianity and other religions. JAR

This is an awesome book! Very interesting. Written by one of the most brilliant people. I would recommend it to everyone.

I think that this book is must reading for folks who find themselves in an environment where religious pluralism is either pervasive or becoming more pervasive. If Christians are to fulfill the Great Commission, then understanding the world religions and interreligious dialogue is a must. Moreover it is by in large non-evangelical folks with liberal convictions who often engage in interreligious dialogue. Where are the evangelicals??? Sleeping? We barely writing books in this area?

Anyway. Let me begin...

The book consists of an introductory chapter and four subsequent parts.

The introductory chapter provides a brief apology for interreligious dialogue and furthermore stresses the importance of evangelical engagement in such dialogue. Tennent also comes out and describes himself as an engaged Exclusivist.

Parts one to three, each two chapters in length, consist of interreligious dialogue between a Christian evangelical and adherents of a major world religion. Tennent very helpfully begins each of these chapters by providing theological background on the topics under discussion and then moving into the dialogue. Each of these dialogues then typically begins with the evangelical Christian positing some objections to the worldviews of his interlocutors, and following up each objection with some explanation. His interlocutors then reply to the objections, and then a back and forth parry results.

While these dialogues are fictitious, they are based on actual exchanges that Tennent has had with adherents of other religions. (I might add that Tennent seems to have been overseas a good bit. I have a friend in India who went to a seminary where Tennent taught.)

Part one consists of dialogue with Hindus from the Advaita and Visistadvaita Vedanta perspectives. The doctrines under discussion are the Hindu doctrine of God, in particular Brahman, and facets of the Hindu doctrines of Creation, in particular Lila and Maya.

Part two consists of dialogue with Buddhists, from the Mahayana school, more specifically the Madhyamika and Yogacara schools. Here the discussion centers on the Buddhist doctrine of Dharma-kaya ("God") and furthermore on Buddhist Ethics.

Part three consist of dialogue with Muslims from Shiite, Sunni and even Sufi perspectives. Here the discussion centers on the nature of monotheism as found in Islam, in contrast to that found in Christianity. Islam posits a strict and absolute monotheism. Allah is said to have no distinctions whatsoever in his nature (i.e. Tawhid) unlike God the Trinity. In addition to this the doctrine of Christ and the Incarnation also are discussed. Here an answer is sought to the age old question of contention between Muslims and Christians, viz. "Can God die?".

Part four, the final part, presents a few case studies which deal with questions relevant to interreligious dialogue and a Christian theology of religions. The questions raised concern Justin Martyr's use of Logos Spermatikos to suggest the possibility that certain virtuous historical figures could be Christians in some sense, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay's use of the Hindu doctrine of Saccidananda to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, and finally A.G. Hogg's distinction between faith and the faiths.

The book ends with an Epilogue and also a glossary which is a nice helpful additional feature.

Some thoughts - the books strengths are many and its weaknesses minimal.

Strengths:

~ While the is a rigorous and challenging read, Tennent not only provides readers with sufficient theological background, but also writes with such clarity that even a reader with minimal background in Non-Christians religions would be able to follow the discussions. Tennent is to be commended in this because the dialogues in CRR do not simply stay at the folk level but dive deep.

~ A second strength is that while the discussions are kept at a high level, Tennent manages to draw out implications of many doctrines that would be relevant at a pastoral level. For example, with regards to Buddhism, Tennent points out that there are nihilistic implications to Buddhist ethical teachings.

~ A third strength is simply that you will learn a lot. You will know what are some of the major issues between world religions and you may not have realized that these exist from a basic world religions text book.

Weaknesses:

~ A minor weakness of the book is that it is somewhat overly ambitious. I think that at times, it attempts to cover too much ground and becomes more comprehensive than it needs to be. Perhaps the case studies could have been omitted or made into a separate book with even more case studies.

~ One other minor weakness is that these dialogues, while they have been based in real life discussions of Tennent; they do at times come off as a bit artificial. For example, in the dialogue with Muslims, it is the Sunni Muslim who first uses the terms ontological subordination and functional subordination to describe the views of the evangelical Christian. This seems a bit odd as the terms have thus far not been introduced or explained in the book.

These weaknesses are minor however and the book's strengths far outweigh them.