Review: "40 Questions About Islam" (manuscript)

            I am thankful to Kregel Academic for sending me a copy of 40 Questions about Islam to review.  There are a growing number of Muslims in my community and I wanted to better understand their religion.  To that end, I did buy a Koran, but I haven’t read it yet.  This book gives me a good background for when I do get around to it.

            Michael Aaron Bennet, the author of the text, explains that Islam is not a monolithic religion – which surprised me.  I had heard of Sunnis (which make up 85% of Muslims world-wide) and Shiites, but I didn’t realize that there are many smaller “denominations” of Islam – it is like Protestantism in that way (13).

            The reason for the different branches of Islam is due to a controversy over what line of decent on follows from Mohammed.  Since the Sunni branch is the largest, Bennet focuses primarily on the Sunnis.

            The first part of the book – questions 1 through 6 (19-61) look at the traditional history of how Islam came to be.

            Then Barret looks at the sources of authority for Islam (questions 7-12, pp. 65-104), the theology of Islam (questions 13-18, pp. 107-147), and the practice of Islam (questions 19-24, pp. 151-192).

            In the fifth part. He compares the history and teaching of the Bible with what the Koran teaches about the same characters (questions 25-30, pp. 195-232).

            Part six looks at the critical scholarship concerning the Koran (questions 31-34, pp. 235-258), and Bennet begins with a disclaim asking his readers not to use this section to bash Muslims about their religion – it will not be helpful in any way.  This section is written to help the Christian – in particular – understand where there are issues that they may find useful in lovingly discussing with Muslim friends.

            The final section looks at the difference between the teaching of the Koran and the Christian Gospel (questions 35-40, pp. 261-295).  One of the issues that he looks at is if Muslims and Christians worship the same God – there has been debate about whether the monotheistic religions all worship the same God or not.

            The book ends with a glossary of select terms, a select bibliography, and an index (297-303).

            This book is a tremendous resource for anyone who wants to understand the basics of Islam – especially for Christians – as that is the perspective the book is written from.  It is a book I will hang on to and look to as I talk to my Muslim friends and neighbors.  Islam is currently the world’s fastest growing religion.  It would do us well to have an understanding of it.  Especially if we are to love our neighbors and introduce them to the Christian Gospel.

            I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel, Amazon.com, Kregel.com, and Goodreads.com.]