Current discussion of Islam in America tends toward two polar extremes. On one hand is the notion that Christianity is superior to Islam and that Muslims are warmongers. On the other is the notion that all religions basically say the same thing and are peaceable. Theologian and critically acclaimed author Lee Camp argues that both these extremes are wrong. He introduces Christian and Islamic views on war and peacemaking and examines Christian and non-Christian terrorism to help readers confront their own prejudices. Camp shatters misconceptions about religious violence, arguing that American Christians often opt for an ethic that has more in common with the story of Muhammad than with the story of Jesus. This book shows readers how to respond faithfully and intelligently to Muslims in today's world as well as to the New Atheists who suppose that all religion is inherently violent. It provides balanced teaching on war and peacemaking, offering hope for reconciliation in a post-9/11 world.
Who Is My Enemy?
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From the Back Cover
Must Christians and Muslims Be Enemies?
Current discussion of Islam in America tends toward two polar extremes. On one hand is the notion that Christianity is superior to Islam and that Muslims are warmongers. On the other is the notion that all religions basically say the same thing and are peaceable. Lee Camp argues that both these extremes are wrong. He examines Christian and Islamic views on war, terrorism, and peacemaking, helping American Christians confront their own prejudices and respond to Muslims faithfully.
"Lee Camp knows Christianity is better than the worst things Christians have done, and he insists we must extend the same grace to Islam. Who Is My Enemy? is an invitation to start addressing the log in our own eye so we can more clearly see into the eyes of others."
--Shane Claiborne, author, activist
"Lee Camp is courageous, and his courage is to believe that what Jesus taught is relevant today. The argument in this book is an old one with some surprising if not inflammatory twists. But the sad reason this book must be written is that Christians continue to ignore the One who said 'love your enemies.' Waging war and following Jesus are incompatible. Do we have the courage to hear and follow Jesus?"
--Scot McKnight, North Park University
"Who Is My Enemy? is truly the best book I know for all Christians who want to be faithful to Jesus while figuring out how to relate to Islam. I hope everyone reads it in this time of testing. It is wonderfully written, wonderfully readable, wonderfully insightful, and wonderfully true."
--Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary; author, Living the Sermon on the Mount
"When does an astute theological inquiry become utterly engaging? When it opens each of us up to the gracious source of our own existence and lets the scales drop from our eyes. Lee Camp lets us see this process in him, thereby making it possible for us to adopt a new way of seeing. Read this book at your peril, for you will surely discover how entering into another faith tradition can enliven your own."
--David Burrell, CSC, Uganda Martyrs University
Current discussion of Islam in America tends toward two polar extremes. On one hand is the notion that Christianity is superior to Islam and that Muslims are warmongers. On the other is the notion that all religions basically say the same thing and are peaceable. Lee Camp argues that both these extremes are wrong. He examines Christian and Islamic views on war, terrorism, and peacemaking, helping American Christians confront their own prejudices and respond to Muslims faithfully.
"Lee Camp knows Christianity is better than the worst things Christians have done, and he insists we must extend the same grace to Islam. Who Is My Enemy? is an invitation to start addressing the log in our own eye so we can more clearly see into the eyes of others."
--Shane Claiborne, author, activist
"Lee Camp is courageous, and his courage is to believe that what Jesus taught is relevant today. The argument in this book is an old one with some surprising if not inflammatory twists. But the sad reason this book must be written is that Christians continue to ignore the One who said 'love your enemies.' Waging war and following Jesus are incompatible. Do we have the courage to hear and follow Jesus?"
--Scot McKnight, North Park University
"Who Is My Enemy? is truly the best book I know for all Christians who want to be faithful to Jesus while figuring out how to relate to Islam. I hope everyone reads it in this time of testing. It is wonderfully written, wonderfully readable, wonderfully insightful, and wonderfully true."
--Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary; author, Living the Sermon on the Mount
"When does an astute theological inquiry become utterly engaging? When it opens each of us up to the gracious source of our own existence and lets the scales drop from our eyes. Lee Camp lets us see this process in him, thereby making it possible for us to adopt a new way of seeing. Read this book at your peril, for you will surely discover how entering into another faith tradition can enliven your own."
--David Burrell, CSC, Uganda Martyrs University
About the Author
Lee C. Camp (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of Mere Discipleship and the host of Tokens, a popular radio show based in Nashville. Camp speaks regularly to university and church audiences and has served in various ministry roles in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Nairobi, Kenya.
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An Alabamian by birth, now a Tennessean happily living in Nashville, Lee is husband of a wonderful wife and father of three active sons--who have been stitched and glued together so many times that there should be a wing at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital named after him. Lee also teaches at Lipscomb University, loves roots music, and much enjoys writing. Most recently he is the creator and host of Tokens (see TokensShow.com), an old-time radio format show which provides space for the intersection of music, theology, comedy, and author interviews. Lee likes to say that Tokens is like Mark Twain, with all his satire, wit, and social conscience, meeting God, and actually liking the God he meets.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helping Churches Reflect on Christian Faithfulness in a Post-9/11 World
September 10, 2011
Format:Paperback
[ This review originally appeared in
THE ENGLEWOOD REVIEW OF BOOKS - Sept 11, 2001 ]
This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. In the days that followed, as we learned more about the men who coordinated the hijackings of planes and who crashed - or intended to crash - these planes into strategic landmarks including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was a huge public outcry, not only against al-Qaeda, the terrorist group who claimed responsibility for the events of the day, but also against the Muslim faith at large. Public opinion of the Muslim community ranged from suspicion to vilification in those days and months following 9/11, which fueled rhetoric that can generally be characterized as depicting a grand conflict between Islam and the West.
As we remember, however, the events of a decade ago, it would serve us well to reflect on the emotions and rhetoric that prevailed in the American public in the months after 9/11. For those of us in the Church, one very helpful tool for such reflection is Lee Camp's new book, the title of which asks the pointed question Who is My Enemy? Camp is professor of theology and ethics and Lipscomb University in Nashville who earned his PhD as a student of John Howard Yoder at Notre Dame, but is perhaps best known these days as the creator and organizer of the Tokens "Old Time Radio" stage show. Camp is also the author of Mere Discipleship, which offers a poignant and compelling call to radically Christ-centered life in the contemporary world.
In Who is My Enemy?, Camp seeks to explode popular conceptions of both Christianity and Islam, contrasting public perceptions with the teachings and traditions of these faiths. He focuses particularly on the political dimensions of each faith, especially their beliefs about war, peace and the use of violence. Camp works here both to nurture deeper understandings of both faith traditions and to call Christ's followers to a radical discipleship that rejects the use of violence - or, following in the theological footsteps of his adviser John Howard Yoder, at least to take the church's Just War Tradition seriously. In this regard, Who is My Enemy? superbly continues the project that Camp began in Mere Discipleship, focusing more specifically than the first book on a relevant social issue, the interfaith relationships between Christianity and Islam. In his typical style that is exhibited prominently in both the Tokens shows and in Mere Discipleship, Camp challenges his readers to critical engagement by seasoning this new work with more than a little provocation. As he concludes the book, for instance, he summarizes what he has endeavored to do here by saying: "[The] mainstream of Christianity, when it comes to war-making and peacemaking, has been playing a tune that is more akin to Muhammad's tune than to that of Jesus, even while claiming Jesus's melody is superior. Or, more perversely, that too often the Christian performance as failed to get the nobility of the Muhammad story, lacking its elegance and justice and equity" (151).
Camp covers a lot of territory in this book, beginning with sacred texts of each faith tradition - a chapter each on the Old and New Testaments and one on the Qur'an. He then also looks at the historical development of both faiths, with an eye toward their interpretations of issues related to war, peace and violence. One of the book's most powerful chapters addresses the medieval Crusades in which many Europeans under the sanction of the Church sought to kill Muslims in the Middle East and conquer their lands. Camp reminds us in this chapter that tensions between Christianity and Islam are nothing new and go back almost a full millennium; he also importantly emphasizes that although this history is often told in both the Western and Islamic worlds as a clash of religious cultures, the historical reality is that the bloodshed of the Crusades was not necessarily a faithful representation of either Islamic or Christian tradition. The Christians on Crusade were not acting faithfully to the enemy-loving way of Jesus, and there were many Muslims of that era who were led by their faith to pursue peaceful arrangements with Christian pilgrims. Furthermore, Camp points to the Western concept of religion as a privatized faith apart from politics and economics, and keenly observes that Islam makes no such distinction, seeing their faith as public one embodied in the community of their believers. This observation cuts both ways: on one hand, Christianity should be a faith embodied in the community of Christ's followers - but embodied in a non-Constantinian way that is not driven by power or violence - and on the other hand, when Osama bin Laden and other Muslim extremists refer to the United States as crusaders, they may be juxtaposing their own way of understanding the faith/culture relationship onto the West, neglecting to take into consideration the West's typical divide between sacred and secular. Another highlight of the book was the later chapter on "Muslim Hospitality" which, of course, also cuts against the grain of popular conceptions of the Islamic faith, and challenges Christ's followers to learn humbly from these hospitable examples of the Muslim faith. As I was reading this chapter I was reminded of another similar story, the story of the hospitality shown by Iraqis of the town of Rutba to Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and others after their car had crashed outside the town (this story will soon be portrayed in a documentary film by Jamie Moffett, The Gospel of Rutba).
My only minor gripe about Who is My Enemy? is that it covers so much territory, and does so with such rapidity. Reading it, I felt at times like I was taking in one of the Tokens stage shows: a conversation with a Muslim scholar here, a little theological song and dance (and I'm speaking figuratively here, not pejoratively!), a bit of historical narrative; these elements are mixed up throughout the text and seasoned with some personal anecdotes and commentary from Camp (e.g., his fears at letting an Arab barber trim his beard with a straight razor), and the result is captivating and thought-provoking, just like a Tokens show. I hope and pray that its somewhat quirky form will grab the attention of Christians in the U.S. and draw churches into conversations about how our faith should be embodied in a post-9/11 world, and how we should relate to those of the Muslim faith who have also been created by God and in the image of God, just as we are.
Who is My Enemy? is an extraordinarily useful book, the insights of which would be helpful for churches to use in reflecting on the past decade and what it means to live faithfully to the Gospel of Jesus in a post-9/11 world. In the months after 9/11, as waves of nationalism washed over many churches in the United States, I helped spearheaded a movement called Kingdom Now that sought to resist a spirit of nationalism in our churches - which undoubtedly had its roots long before 2001, but emerged more prominently in reaction to 9/11. Kingdom Now sought to confront this nationalism, arguing from a number of different angles that it was wrongheaded and not faithful to the way of Jesus. The ten year anniversary of 9/11 offers us a prime opportunity to repent of our misguided allegiances, and Who is My Enemy? would serve as a patient guide into reflection on our response to the 9/11 tragedies as well as to our posture toward Islam over the intervening decade.
THE ENGLEWOOD REVIEW OF BOOKS - Sept 11, 2001 ]
This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. In the days that followed, as we learned more about the men who coordinated the hijackings of planes and who crashed - or intended to crash - these planes into strategic landmarks including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was a huge public outcry, not only against al-Qaeda, the terrorist group who claimed responsibility for the events of the day, but also against the Muslim faith at large. Public opinion of the Muslim community ranged from suspicion to vilification in those days and months following 9/11, which fueled rhetoric that can generally be characterized as depicting a grand conflict between Islam and the West.
As we remember, however, the events of a decade ago, it would serve us well to reflect on the emotions and rhetoric that prevailed in the American public in the months after 9/11. For those of us in the Church, one very helpful tool for such reflection is Lee Camp's new book, the title of which asks the pointed question Who is My Enemy? Camp is professor of theology and ethics and Lipscomb University in Nashville who earned his PhD as a student of John Howard Yoder at Notre Dame, but is perhaps best known these days as the creator and organizer of the Tokens "Old Time Radio" stage show. Camp is also the author of Mere Discipleship, which offers a poignant and compelling call to radically Christ-centered life in the contemporary world.
In Who is My Enemy?, Camp seeks to explode popular conceptions of both Christianity and Islam, contrasting public perceptions with the teachings and traditions of these faiths. He focuses particularly on the political dimensions of each faith, especially their beliefs about war, peace and the use of violence. Camp works here both to nurture deeper understandings of both faith traditions and to call Christ's followers to a radical discipleship that rejects the use of violence - or, following in the theological footsteps of his adviser John Howard Yoder, at least to take the church's Just War Tradition seriously. In this regard, Who is My Enemy? superbly continues the project that Camp began in Mere Discipleship, focusing more specifically than the first book on a relevant social issue, the interfaith relationships between Christianity and Islam. In his typical style that is exhibited prominently in both the Tokens shows and in Mere Discipleship, Camp challenges his readers to critical engagement by seasoning this new work with more than a little provocation. As he concludes the book, for instance, he summarizes what he has endeavored to do here by saying: "[The] mainstream of Christianity, when it comes to war-making and peacemaking, has been playing a tune that is more akin to Muhammad's tune than to that of Jesus, even while claiming Jesus's melody is superior. Or, more perversely, that too often the Christian performance as failed to get the nobility of the Muhammad story, lacking its elegance and justice and equity" (151).
Camp covers a lot of territory in this book, beginning with sacred texts of each faith tradition - a chapter each on the Old and New Testaments and one on the Qur'an. He then also looks at the historical development of both faiths, with an eye toward their interpretations of issues related to war, peace and violence. One of the book's most powerful chapters addresses the medieval Crusades in which many Europeans under the sanction of the Church sought to kill Muslims in the Middle East and conquer their lands. Camp reminds us in this chapter that tensions between Christianity and Islam are nothing new and go back almost a full millennium; he also importantly emphasizes that although this history is often told in both the Western and Islamic worlds as a clash of religious cultures, the historical reality is that the bloodshed of the Crusades was not necessarily a faithful representation of either Islamic or Christian tradition. The Christians on Crusade were not acting faithfully to the enemy-loving way of Jesus, and there were many Muslims of that era who were led by their faith to pursue peaceful arrangements with Christian pilgrims. Furthermore, Camp points to the Western concept of religion as a privatized faith apart from politics and economics, and keenly observes that Islam makes no such distinction, seeing their faith as public one embodied in the community of their believers. This observation cuts both ways: on one hand, Christianity should be a faith embodied in the community of Christ's followers - but embodied in a non-Constantinian way that is not driven by power or violence - and on the other hand, when Osama bin Laden and other Muslim extremists refer to the United States as crusaders, they may be juxtaposing their own way of understanding the faith/culture relationship onto the West, neglecting to take into consideration the West's typical divide between sacred and secular. Another highlight of the book was the later chapter on "Muslim Hospitality" which, of course, also cuts against the grain of popular conceptions of the Islamic faith, and challenges Christ's followers to learn humbly from these hospitable examples of the Muslim faith. As I was reading this chapter I was reminded of another similar story, the story of the hospitality shown by Iraqis of the town of Rutba to Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and others after their car had crashed outside the town (this story will soon be portrayed in a documentary film by Jamie Moffett, The Gospel of Rutba).
My only minor gripe about Who is My Enemy? is that it covers so much territory, and does so with such rapidity. Reading it, I felt at times like I was taking in one of the Tokens stage shows: a conversation with a Muslim scholar here, a little theological song and dance (and I'm speaking figuratively here, not pejoratively!), a bit of historical narrative; these elements are mixed up throughout the text and seasoned with some personal anecdotes and commentary from Camp (e.g., his fears at letting an Arab barber trim his beard with a straight razor), and the result is captivating and thought-provoking, just like a Tokens show. I hope and pray that its somewhat quirky form will grab the attention of Christians in the U.S. and draw churches into conversations about how our faith should be embodied in a post-9/11 world, and how we should relate to those of the Muslim faith who have also been created by God and in the image of God, just as we are.
Who is My Enemy? is an extraordinarily useful book, the insights of which would be helpful for churches to use in reflecting on the past decade and what it means to live faithfully to the Gospel of Jesus in a post-9/11 world. In the months after 9/11, as waves of nationalism washed over many churches in the United States, I helped spearheaded a movement called Kingdom Now that sought to resist a spirit of nationalism in our churches - which undoubtedly had its roots long before 2001, but emerged more prominently in reaction to 9/11. Kingdom Now sought to confront this nationalism, arguing from a number of different angles that it was wrongheaded and not faithful to the way of Jesus. The ten year anniversary of 9/11 offers us a prime opportunity to repent of our misguided allegiances, and Who is My Enemy? would serve as a patient guide into reflection on our response to the 9/11 tragedies as well as to our posture toward Islam over the intervening decade.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Dan Miller
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It seems ironic that sometimes truth that is so obvious is too difficult to accept. Many who call themselves Christians attempt to ignore or twist the clear teachings of Jesus regarding aggression. The childish knee-jerk response to any aggression or perceived threat is to attack. It takes a more mature, thoughtful response to do what may seem counterintuitive. Many of Jesus' teachings are indeed counterintuitive, yet ultimately the "right" thing to do.
In Who Is My Enemy, ethics professor and author Lee Camp contrasts the typical American response to any threat with the clear teachings of Jesus. The rationalization of gun-toting Americans who are protecting their country does not match up with the message we read in the New Testament. If we truly are using the Bible in any sense as a guide for our daily living and as a guide for our nation, our military actions around the world must appear selfish and imperialistic - but not Christian. We condemn terrorism but honor bombing freely.
The message in Who Is My Enemy will not likely be embraced by Americans. Nationalism and "just wars" have replaced even the pretension of Christianity. I stand with Lee Camp in his small but perhaps growing audience.
In Who Is My Enemy, ethics professor and author Lee Camp contrasts the typical American response to any threat with the clear teachings of Jesus. The rationalization of gun-toting Americans who are protecting their country does not match up with the message we read in the New Testament. If we truly are using the Bible in any sense as a guide for our daily living and as a guide for our nation, our military actions around the world must appear selfish and imperialistic - but not Christian. We condemn terrorism but honor bombing freely.
The message in Who Is My Enemy will not likely be embraced by Americans. Nationalism and "just wars" have replaced even the pretension of Christianity. I stand with Lee Camp in his small but perhaps growing audience.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is obvious that Lee Camp's thoughtfulness and gentle questioning have opened a few Islamic leaders and scholars to reveal the real reasons that Muslims view Christians, particularly Americans, with contempt. He finds that Islamic disdain is often more grounded in truth than Christians would care to recognize. Dr. Camp does not shy away from those revelations; he views each as an artifact to be studied from all angles to discern its true value and meaning. It is a refreshing change from the work of many authors that would seek first to refute the veracity or value of Islamic traditions.
Through Dr. Camp's eyes, I understand that we Americans overlook much of the history that prejudices Muslims against the West. It's not because Americans want to ignore these events and their aftermath (although at some point that's probably been the case), but rather we choose to focus on the relatively short history of our own country and its Christian hegemony. Thus, we often excise portions of the Christian record that are most troubling to Islam and, frankly, to modern Christians. We claim that Christianity 'isn't like that anymore' and expect the rest of the world to agree. Likewise, Muslims fully believe that any aggressive actions are measured and necessary to recoup only what is rightfully theirs and expect understanding. The trouble begins when neither is deemed credible by a world filled with spiritual skepticism and both Christians and Muslims adopt portions of the cynical world view as 'evidence' against the other.
So what is to do? Listen. Learn. Be human.
Through Dr. Camp's eyes, I understand that we Americans overlook much of the history that prejudices Muslims against the West. It's not because Americans want to ignore these events and their aftermath (although at some point that's probably been the case), but rather we choose to focus on the relatively short history of our own country and its Christian hegemony. Thus, we often excise portions of the Christian record that are most troubling to Islam and, frankly, to modern Christians. We claim that Christianity 'isn't like that anymore' and expect the rest of the world to agree. Likewise, Muslims fully believe that any aggressive actions are measured and necessary to recoup only what is rightfully theirs and expect understanding. The trouble begins when neither is deemed credible by a world filled with spiritual skepticism and both Christians and Muslims adopt portions of the cynical world view as 'evidence' against the other.
So what is to do? Listen. Learn. Be human.
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