Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

This fantastic debut by Kaemingk, professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, pairs philosophical rigor and practical advice in a powerful call for Western Christians to deal more justly with Muslims. Using the left-leaning Netherlands as an example of the failure of unquestioning multiculturalism, he assails liberalism’s inability to account for the real problems of integrating Islam into Western life, namely, fundamental cultural differences that should be acknowledged and celebrated rather than elided. His answer to this is for Christians to cultivate a pluralism that celebrates diversity while maintaining theological commitment. He builds his argument off the work of Abraham Kuyper, a late-19th-century Dutch theologian who critiqued liberalism’s shallow view of faith. Kaemingk offers suggestions for outreach efforts (including Dutch success stories such as that of a group of Christian women in Rotterdam who spend a weekend each month in the Muslim area of the city to “stitch, knit, and talk” as the communities make clothing together) that he says will cultivate the kind of respect for difference his new expansive orientation requires. He closes with 10 ways for American evangelicals to mend the rifts between Islam and the West. Despite the seriousness of his argument, Kaemingk’s tone is encouraging throughout. This useful and accessible academic work provides Christians a compassionate, coherent approach to the pressing problem of how religious difference should be handled in a secular society. (Jan.)