Allah: A Christian Response

There and a half billion people—the majority of the world's population—profess Christianity or Islam. Renowned scholar Miroslav Volf's controversial proposal is that Muslims and Christians do worship the same God&Mdash; the only God. As Volf reveal;s, warriors in the "clash of civilizations" have used "religions" —each with its own God and worn as a bade of identity—to divide and oppose, failing to recognize the one God whom Muslims and Christians understand in partly different ways.

Writing from a Christian perspective, and in dialogue with leading Muslim Scholars and leaders from around the world, Volf reveals surprising points of intersection and overlap between these two faith traditions:

• What the Qur'an denies about God as the Holy Trinity has been denied by every great teacher of the church in the past and ought to be denied by Christians today.
• A person can be both a practicing Muslim and 100 percent Christian without denying core convictions of belief and practice.
• How two faiths, worshipping the same God, can work toward the common good under a single government.

Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?

Yale University religion scholar Miroslav Volf—widely known for the much-publicized course on faith and globalization he coteaches with Tony Blair—places this question at the root of the twenty-first century’s most sensitive, and critical, geopolitical concerns. Volf reveals how the prevalent belief that these traditions worship different gods is directly linked to increased hostility and violence around the globe. Theological wars fuel real wars.

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.