Bishop reflects on challenges from Islam
A leading UK evangelical, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, considered challenges facing the church from radical Islam and militant secularism during his recent visit to Melbourne. The visit, sponsored by Family Voice Australia, included three public lectures attended by hundreds of Christians from various denominations.
“My father left Islam to become a Christian in our native Pakistan,” he explained. “As I grew up, I had very good relations with Muslim children at school. But over the last 30 years the harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims in Pakistan has been poisoned by the resurgence of radical Islam.”
He was appointed Bishop of Raiwind in West Punjab in 1984. “Especially noteworthy for me was that Raiwind was the headquarters of Tablighi Jama’at. At that time they drew 800,000 Muslim missionaries to their annual gathering there. Today it is even more.”
With death threats in an increasingly Islamized Pakistan under President Zia ul-Haq, Bishop Nazir-Ali moved to Britain in 1986 on the urgings of then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. He first served as General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and in 1994 was appointed as Bishop of Rochester, the first Asian at this level within the English Church. Five years later he entered the House of Lords. In 2002, Bishop Nazir-Ali was on the final shortlist for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, with Dr Rowan Williams ultimately appointed. In 2009 he became President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.
In his first presentation in Melbourne, Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke about “Witnessing to the unique and universal Christ in a plural world” in the annual Leonard Buck Lecture in Missiology at the Bible College of Victoria on 17 September 2010.
Two lectures for Family Voice Australia followed that same day, with the first on “Promoting the Kingdom of God in an Increasingly Hostile Culture”, and the second considering “The Challenge of Radical Islam and Aggressive Atheism”.
“Some Christians insist that politics is not the job of the church,” said the Bishop. “However, God created community from the very beginning.” Drawing a contrast with Islam, he pointed out that King and priests in Hebrew society were distinct. “This tradition of recognising two domains continued in the work of Jesus,” he added. “Nevertheless there is a clear charter for Christian engagement, going back as far as Jeremiah, who urged the Hebrews in exile to pray for the peace, welfare and prosperity of the city where they were being taken,” he said.
Regarding unjust rulers, Bishop Nazir-Ali said “Scripture tells us to obey rulers, but this is conditional. We should obey until rulers command us to do what God forbids, or when they forbid us to do what God commands. Then we must obey God, not men,” he said.
On the biblical metaphors of salt and light, Bishop Nazir-Ali commented: “Churches generally take the salt approach, working away for the good within society. But as our culture moves from a Judeo-Christian worldview to a situation where we have to take a counter-cultural approach, then we need to adopt a visible light metaphor.” He explained: “If churches project a clear moral and spiritual light, people will be drawn to them from the darkness that surrounds them.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali also considered the rendering of the Gospel message into different cultures: “Translatability is intrinsic to the Gospel, and has gone on through history. The Anglican reformation was committed to the business of translation of principles of the Gospel to every culture.”
A contrast with Islam was again drawn. “Islam is quite different in this way from Christianity,” he explained. “In Islam everywhere there is always a residue of Arabness, even when contextualised such as in Southeast Asia.”
The Bishop sounded a note of caution: “With its tendency to contextualise, the Christian faith can become captive to a culture. Some Reformation leaders over-identified with their nation, leading to folk churches. This had the effect of undermining world mission, so a counter-reformation was needed to right the balance,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali posed a rhetorical question: “Are there limits to inculturation?” He identified two boundaries. “First, the nature of the Good News cannot be compromised. God has revealed himself through sending his son into the world. We can’t compromise that by remaining silent because it might offend.”
He continued: “Secondly, a Christian outsider should recognise the Gospel within a local expression of Christianity.” He explained: “For example, the US church is accommodating various sexual lobbies to the extent that outsiders will not recognise the gospel. Such a process of inculturation has gone too far.”
Concluding his afternoon presentation by considering the scope of mission, Bishop Nazir-Ali said, “We should own the wholeness of mission. It should be incarnational; mission involves the action of serving our fellow human beings. Mission is dialogue; we must talk to people if we want to convey the Good News. And there is a prophetic aspect to mission.”
“But at the end of the day,” he continued, “evangelism is also very central. Sharing the Gospel with people brings them to a remembrance that they are made in God’s image. This leads to repentance: a turning from what misleads to walking in the way of Christ. Unless the Gospel is brought to people, they will never know how their aspirations can be fulfilled.”
In interview with Dr David Phillips, National Director of Family Voice Australia, Bishop Nazir-Ali referred to the floods in Pakistan. “They are a tragedy upon other tragedies,” he said, “but the good news is that the churches have been at the forefront of the relief effort. However, the real danger for Pakistan is not the floods, nor the earthquake in Kashmir, but this virus of radical, militant Islam that is eating away the soul of the country.”
An edited version of this article first appeared in "The Melbourne Anglican", October 2010, p19
“My father left Islam to become a Christian in our native Pakistan,” he explained. “As I grew up, I had very good relations with Muslim children at school. But over the last 30 years the harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims in Pakistan has been poisoned by the resurgence of radical Islam.”
He was appointed Bishop of Raiwind in West Punjab in 1984. “Especially noteworthy for me was that Raiwind was the headquarters of Tablighi Jama’at. At that time they drew 800,000 Muslim missionaries to their annual gathering there. Today it is even more.”
With death threats in an increasingly Islamized Pakistan under President Zia ul-Haq, Bishop Nazir-Ali moved to Britain in 1986 on the urgings of then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. He first served as General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and in 1994 was appointed as Bishop of Rochester, the first Asian at this level within the English Church. Five years later he entered the House of Lords. In 2002, Bishop Nazir-Ali was on the final shortlist for the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, with Dr Rowan Williams ultimately appointed. In 2009 he became President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue.
In his first presentation in Melbourne, Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke about “Witnessing to the unique and universal Christ in a plural world” in the annual Leonard Buck Lecture in Missiology at the Bible College of Victoria on 17 September 2010.
Two lectures for Family Voice Australia followed that same day, with the first on “Promoting the Kingdom of God in an Increasingly Hostile Culture”, and the second considering “The Challenge of Radical Islam and Aggressive Atheism”.
“Some Christians insist that politics is not the job of the church,” said the Bishop. “However, God created community from the very beginning.” Drawing a contrast with Islam, he pointed out that King and priests in Hebrew society were distinct. “This tradition of recognising two domains continued in the work of Jesus,” he added. “Nevertheless there is a clear charter for Christian engagement, going back as far as Jeremiah, who urged the Hebrews in exile to pray for the peace, welfare and prosperity of the city where they were being taken,” he said.
Regarding unjust rulers, Bishop Nazir-Ali said “Scripture tells us to obey rulers, but this is conditional. We should obey until rulers command us to do what God forbids, or when they forbid us to do what God commands. Then we must obey God, not men,” he said.
On the biblical metaphors of salt and light, Bishop Nazir-Ali commented: “Churches generally take the salt approach, working away for the good within society. But as our culture moves from a Judeo-Christian worldview to a situation where we have to take a counter-cultural approach, then we need to adopt a visible light metaphor.” He explained: “If churches project a clear moral and spiritual light, people will be drawn to them from the darkness that surrounds them.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali also considered the rendering of the Gospel message into different cultures: “Translatability is intrinsic to the Gospel, and has gone on through history. The Anglican reformation was committed to the business of translation of principles of the Gospel to every culture.”
A contrast with Islam was again drawn. “Islam is quite different in this way from Christianity,” he explained. “In Islam everywhere there is always a residue of Arabness, even when contextualised such as in Southeast Asia.”
The Bishop sounded a note of caution: “With its tendency to contextualise, the Christian faith can become captive to a culture. Some Reformation leaders over-identified with their nation, leading to folk churches. This had the effect of undermining world mission, so a counter-reformation was needed to right the balance,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali posed a rhetorical question: “Are there limits to inculturation?” He identified two boundaries. “First, the nature of the Good News cannot be compromised. God has revealed himself through sending his son into the world. We can’t compromise that by remaining silent because it might offend.”
He continued: “Secondly, a Christian outsider should recognise the Gospel within a local expression of Christianity.” He explained: “For example, the US church is accommodating various sexual lobbies to the extent that outsiders will not recognise the gospel. Such a process of inculturation has gone too far.”
Concluding his afternoon presentation by considering the scope of mission, Bishop Nazir-Ali said, “We should own the wholeness of mission. It should be incarnational; mission involves the action of serving our fellow human beings. Mission is dialogue; we must talk to people if we want to convey the Good News. And there is a prophetic aspect to mission.”
“But at the end of the day,” he continued, “evangelism is also very central. Sharing the Gospel with people brings them to a remembrance that they are made in God’s image. This leads to repentance: a turning from what misleads to walking in the way of Christ. Unless the Gospel is brought to people, they will never know how their aspirations can be fulfilled.”
In interview with Dr David Phillips, National Director of Family Voice Australia, Bishop Nazir-Ali referred to the floods in Pakistan. “They are a tragedy upon other tragedies,” he said, “but the good news is that the churches have been at the forefront of the relief effort. However, the real danger for Pakistan is not the floods, nor the earthquake in Kashmir, but this virus of radical, militant Islam that is eating away the soul of the country.”
An edited version of this article first appeared in "The Melbourne Anglican", October 2010, p19