The Qur’an and the Christian: An In-Depth Look into the Book of Islam for Followers of Jesus

In this unapologetic polemic, Bennett (40 Questions About Islam), a missions and theology professor at Cedarville University, offers a flawed conservative Christian critique of the Quran. Though Bennett exhorts Christians to read the Quran as an act of “neighborly love” and “for understanding, communication, and comparison,” this volume forgoes neutrality and empathy for dubious analysis emphasizing the “fundamental dissimilarity” between the religions. One of the central differences, Bennett posits, is that Muslims please God through the act of ethical living while Christians can only please God after accepting Jesus as their savior. The author engages in biased readings of Islamic scripture and tradition, such as when he distorts the definition of the Sunnah (the traditions and practices of the prophet Muhammad) or reductively frames Islamic obligatory prayer (salat) by its divergence from Christian prayer. Bennett does provide some insight into the structure, arrangement, and rhetorical features of the Islamic holy book (noting, for example, its use of inference and rhetorical questions to impart its teachings), but the end result is a narrow-minded, error-ridden take on the Quran that many Muslims will neither recognize nor appreciate, and will leave Christians with an incorrect impression of the text and faith. (May)