Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Kenneth Cragg on as a Way of Salvation

Richard J. Jones

question Christians must ask in relation to neigh­ remedial activity of to which Christian tradition attests. A bors of non-Christian faiths is how Jesus' Great Com­ Accordingly, Cragg criticizes Muslim reliance on ap~eals to mission to go and makedisciples of all nations relates to his Great human moral sensibility and Muslim reluctance to affirm any Commandment to love God wholly and to love our neighbors as revelation by God of his own nature. Smith, in contrast, relies ourselves. One way love of neighbors expresses itself toda~ is by ultimately on human moral responsiveness; he postulates innate taking their more seriously tha~ ~as often the c~se In the individualopenness to the divine. HenceSmithcan prizeas God­ past. Paying attention to our neighbors faith, however, IS bound guided and salvific the efforts of Muslims to establish a social to raise-for those who have not excluded it a priori-a theologi­ order pleasing to God. cal question: Is God involved in the code, cult, and creed of other ? .. . Smith and Cragg: Similar Approaches, Different Christian answers to this question constitute a Christian Milieux theologyof religion. Theologies of religion havebeenforn:ulated in exclusive terms (saving knowledge of God occurs only In Jesus Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Kenneth Cragg both took part in Christ) by Karl Barth; in inclusive terms (Christ is the means of British and North American Oriental studies of the 1930s and God's saving self-communication, even among perso~s who ~o 1940s, gained firsthand acquaintance with living Muslim com­ not profess him) by Karl Rahner; and mor~ r~ce~tly In pluralist munities through combined academic and ecclesiastical posts, terms (there are multiple ways to God, existing In parallel) by and have intended their writings on Islamic topics to be read by and Hans Kung.' These and similar attempts to recon­ Muslim as well as by Christian and Western academic readers. cile the acknowledged phenomenon of other human religions Born in 1916,Smith pursued a classical education involving with a faith born in the Christian community and reliant on the Hebrew and at the University of , followed by Christian tradition have two common elements: 1) they attempt theology at Westminster College, Cambridge, and Islamics un­ to formulate generalconclusionsapplicable to any.and al.l human der Hamilton A. R. Gibb. Having worked actively as an under­ religions, and 2) their Christian authors lack sustaIned~ fIrst~and graduate in the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Mis­ involvement with another living religion. The question anses: sions and the Student Christian Movement, it was natural for What kind of theological estimate of other religions would be himto apply to teach Indian history at Forman ChristianCollege, made by a Christian who for decades had studied and shared in , in 1941, under the auspices of the Canadian Overseas the life of a non-Christian religious community? Missions Council. He recalls these as four of the happiest years of This article presents theological estimates b~ t~o such s~­ his life, making friends across boundaries that separated Mus­ dents each located at a different point on the Christian theologi­ lim, Hindu, and Sikh. Leaving just prior to its partition, cal spectrum, concerning one aspect of a single non-Christian Smithfounded and for fifteen years directed McGill University's religion. The two students are the liberal Canadian Wilfred Graduate Institute of , where it was intended that CantwellSmith and the evangelical Englishman Kenneth Cragg. half the faculty and students be Muslims. The non-Christian religion selected is a particularly challenging Kenneth Cragg, was born in England in 1913, studied mod­ one: Islam. ern history at Jesus College, Oxford, and theology at Tyndale Among the many questions a theology of religion may Hall, Bristol. While serving as a chaplain and teacher of philoso­ profitably pose concerning Islam are questions about the Islamic phy at the American UniversityofBeirut~etw:en1942and 19~7, way of arriving at knowledge of God, whether God the Holy Cragg learned Arabic and began his sustained Involve~entwI~h Spirit can be affirmed to be active in the lives of Muslims, an.d­ Muslim thinkers and issues. Cragg has shown more Interest In of particular relevance to Christian mission-whetherIslam IS to the interaction of Islam with modern secular pressures, with be regarded as a way of salvation. This article presents the Communism, and with Christian thought than in Islam's medi­ findings of Smith and Cragg, both lifetime stud~nts of .I~lam, on eval treasures. Nevertheless, he cites al-Ghazzali (d. A.D. 1111) a single strand in the endless skein of Islamic ~radition and as illuminating, "as no other writer does, the meaning of faith," experience: Is Islam to beregarded asa w.ay. of saloation? and Cragghas translated into Englishfor the benefitof Christians Their distinctive emphases as Christians have ensured that numerous Sufi prayers.' Cragg and Smith would each affirm an~ challenge dif.ferent Smith, although a historian of religion} has worked from an elements withinIslam. Cragg is very conSCIOUS of humanSInand identifiable theological standpoint. Son of a "continuing Presby­ places correspondingly high value on the self-disclosing and terian" father and a Methodist mother, Smith's experience of religious groups, in southern as l~ter in norther~ India, sensitized him to the threat to humanrelations of dogmatismand Richard J. Jones hasserved asan Episcopal priestin Ecuador andtheUnitedStates. Camb~idge HeisnowAssociate Professor ofMissionand World Religions atVirginia Theologi­ the imperious demands of group loyalty. At he ,:as impressed by a theology relying on personal exper~ence to gIve calSeminary, Alexandria, Virginia. His Ph.D.dissertation "Wilfre~ Cantr:llSmith and Kenneth Cragg on Islam" (1988) is available from the National Libraru of fundamental and reliable access to God. He studied theology Canada, Ottawa. under H. H. Farmer, successor of John Oman, the English trans-

JULY 1992 105 lator of Schleiermacher's Christian Faith. Among many scholars and cosmic. Mundane salvation is a matter for empirical obser­ such as Oman, the authority of Scripture as a textbook asserting vation-"almost verifiable." It consists of an individual's having eternal truths about objective states of affairs had been eroded by faith. Mundane salvation involves awareness of the moral di­ nineteenth-century textual and historical criticism. According to mension of life, of "access to a splendour that is not altogether Thomas Langford, "The question of the status of the Bible pre­ obvious here on earth," of being in the hands of God-aware­ cipitated a notable switch ... to the authority of the person of ness, in a word, of transcendence. Smith takes Luther's descrip­ [esus.":' Smith's theological ideas suggest that he in turn moved tion of the sinner justified through faith (simul justus et peccator) from the interpretation of Christian life as "response to Jesus" to and insists that the Muslim, like the Christian, is saved by faith: Christian life as response to Cod." In India, in his subsequent "faith of an Islamic form, through Islamic patterns; faith medi­ ated by an Islamic context." The effect of such faith and the mundane content of such salvation is that Muslims are delivered from meaninglessness and foundering. They exhibit multiple Smith moved from seeing gifts:

Christian life as "response their courage, their dignity, their capacity to suffer without disinte­ to Jesus" to seeing it as grating and to succeed without gloating, their sense of belonging to a community, of accepting and being accepted, their ability to trust and "response to God." to be trusted, to discipline themselves, to formulate ideals, to postpone reward, to work hard towards a distant goal."

Beyond this analysis of a mundane aspect of salvation ob­ studies of Islam and in his relating of Islam to other religions, and servable in the lives of Muslims present and past, Smith affirms especially to Christianity, he was drawn particularly to the more also a cosmic dimension of salvation. By cosmic salvation he mysticalstrands of Islam found in India and Persia, as contrasted means being "saved for all eternity." To know about such eternal with the dominant Sunni version of the Arab heartland where matters requires more than empirical grounds. The grounds Cragg worked. Smith found the Sufi emphases congenial with Smith relies on include Christian ethics, a doctrine of Christ, and his own emphasis on the personal apprehension of God; he his own judgment that Islamic personal faith is more important judged less authentic any Muslim reliance on received proposi­ to the Islamic community than any concern for doctrine or order. tions, objective signs, or external authority. Smith's ethics reinforces his theological argument for the The piety of Kenneth Cragg's upbringing may be inferred accessibility of salvation through Islamic faith. Smith argues that from the fact that his family's involvement with the cause of Christians are not permitted to believe in the damnation of their missions was not through one of the Church of England's older neighbor. Such a conclusion is ruled out before the start of any missionary societies butwith the Bible Churchmen's Missionary inquiry. "The damnation of my neighbor," Smith says, "is too Society, formed in 1922 to attest to the complete reliability of the weighty a matter to hang on a syllogism."!" This objection is Scriptures. Suchanevangelicalorientationdid notpreventCragg made in part to caution against proceeding from the affirmation from beingimpressed,justas Smithwas,by Oman'sexploringof "salvation is in Christ" to the questionable corollary "outside the interpenetration of grace and personality, and of God and Christ is no salvation." Smith also disallows any reasoning that nature. Yet the title of his 1937 theological essay at Oxford, "The concludes thatourwayleads to salvationwhileothers' wayslead Place of Authority in Matters of Religious Belief," suggests a to damnation; such logic invalidates itself by partaking of a self­ higher valuation of the community entrusted with a tradition by justifyingethnocentricpreferencefor "us" and"ours" over"them" which fresh personal religious experience may be evaluated. and "theirs." Finally, Smith would rule out such a conclusion as Cragg's intervals of teaching Arabic and Islamics in the West detrimental to an overriding duty of love to neighbor, which in never extinguished his concern for the life and witness of the the present circumstances means chiefly the duty to build world Christian community in predominantly Muslim lands. His ser­ community. One may question whetherSmith has given the first vice as a bishop--from1970to 1973he oversawAnglicancongre­ commandment of Jesus (love to God) commensurate weight gations in Egypt-and teacher in the church reflects Cragg's with the second (love to neighbor). One may also ask why God's conviction that the work of Christ goes beyond teaching human­ will that humans refrain from passing final judgment on one ity about God: "The Cross is finally what God does, answering another should limit God's own freedom to judge the adequacy what humanity did there, and accomplishing the divine purpose of human responses to him. Smith, however, for his part, consid­ in what Christ did.:" The necessity of incarnation for God to ers a negative finding about Islam as a way of eternal salvation, make his love prevail yields, in Cragg's view, a like necessity for or about Muslims' being eternally saved as individuals, to be the continuing incarnate community, the church, and its re­ ethically unacceptable. ceived signs of belonging, nourishment, and regeneration? In affirming the positive alternative-the "cosmic" (i.e., Cragg's continuing concern to present Christ for Muslim consid­ eternal) salvation of Muslims-Smith does not rely on Muslim eration has coincided with his episcopal office, whereas Smith's grounds but appeals rather to what he takes to be the central and career has been primarily academic," Cragg's highestimate of the major Christian understanding of God's saving will demon­ church, the incarnation, and the Bible, encountering a predomi­ strated in the outreaching love of Jesus. Smith infers Muslim nantly Sunni and Arab Islam, prompted him to notice and give salvation from God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ. He has considerable weight to analogous elements in Islam, including suggested interpreting Karl Rahner's "anonymous Christian" the Islamic community, the person of the Prophet, and the proposal by an alternate formula: "There is neither Christian nor authority of the Qur'an. Muslim nor other; for we are all one in being offered grace, and potentially one by accepting it."!' Smith is confident that God Smith: Salvation Through Faith saves through any and all religious texts, devotional acts, art, or persons that serve to arouse or nurture generic faith. "God is Smith conceives of salvation as having two aspects: mundane

106 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH more imaginative than we Christians used to think," Smith To affirm Islam as a way to a cosmic salvation indistinguishable asserts. "And man more responsive." from the cosmic salvation that is the object of Christian hope, Smith's affirmation that God saves Muslims eternally by Smith is obliged to minimize as an element in Islamic faith its means of Islam thus rests primarily on his view of the Cross. repugnance for disobedience. This minimizing of a concern that Islamic data enter in only to corroborate this judgment from is prominentin theQur'anandin Islamicdoctrineraises a serious Christian tradition. Corroboration proceeds from the argument doubt aboutSmith's theological estimate of Islam. If Smith's aim that the essential feature of Islam is personal faith. Islamic is to portray an Islam that most Muslims can claim as their own, teaching on heaven, hell, and judgment represent for Smith he appears here to violate his own canons. decidedly secondary concerns. They are metaphors that once met a need, or intellectual constructions that derive from a vital Cragg: Salvation as Reconciliation sense of constant personal accountability for one's actions and attitudes before God. Such metaphors and ratiocination remain Cragg's wrestling with Islam as a way of salvation has no such for Smith incidental to the fundamental, characteristic Muslim clear outcome as Smith's. When he turns to Christian Scripture disposition of faith. The relationship to God that "faith" signifies and tradition for insight into the extent of God's saving will and for Smith eludes description in its cosmic dimension. The most work, Cragg finds contradictory indications. The New Testa­ he affirms is that "cosmic salvation too [like the mundane] is the ment yields for him conflicting inclusive and exclusive apostolic same for an African tribesman and for a Taoist and for a Muslim testimony regarding the activity of the Holy Spirit beyond the as it is for me, or for any Christian.r'" Smith typically describes salvation as something obtainable by the individual, despite his repeated protests that his concept of personal salvation does not exclude a community dimension. Smith concluded that God Even more noteworthy is Smith's insistence that eternal is "more imaginative than salvation via one form of faith or another will be "the same" for we Christians used to all persons. This assertion seems particularly precarious in rela­ tion to Islam. The faith that characterizes Muslims, by Smith's think." account, is a "faith in God, and in the obligatoriness of what He has enjoined. A Muslimis saved not in the final analysisbydoing good works; but by recognizing that they are good, that he ought church, testimony arising in response to encounters with both to do them."B The will of God as something that can be known the philosophies and religions of the ancient Mediterranean. and obeyed is the focus of what Smith calls the Islamic form of Cragg's essential inference from Scripture is to expect the Holy faith: he sees righteousness serving in Islamas mediatorbetween Spirit to be "unceasing and unfailing ... everywhere at work," the human and the divine, analogous to the role played by including in disconcerting ways and unexpected places, yet rationality in Greek philosophy and by Christ in Christian tradi­ always to act in some continuity with what God has previously tion. revealed of himself in creation and in Christ." In the end Cragg A word of critique of Smith's argument may be inserted at refrains from voicing God's judgment on the cosmic (in Smith's this point. Latent in the Islamic focus on obedience and righ­ sense) or objective salvation of Muslims. teousness (and often not so latent), observers other than Smith It is possible to infer some of the considerations keeping have noted, is a keen concern about disobedience and Cragg silent on this point. To affirm with Smith that God saves unrighteousness. The opening surah of the Qur'an, described by Muslims through "faith in Islamic form" would undercut the Pickthall as "an essential part of all Muslim worship, public and divine intent Cragg sees in the Cross. Cragg uses the term private," reveals this negative concern: "salvation" to mean redemption. Societies and individuals alike, he affirms, need to be redeemed from tyranny and pretense into Guide us in the straight path, truth, peace, joy, and reconciliation." Cragg's assessment of the the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, human predicament gives so much attention to enmity, idola­ not of those against whom Thou art wrathful, trous self-love, and active rejection of our God-given status as nor of those who are astray." stewards that he necessarily looks for a salvation that does more than simply heighten awareness of transcendence or educate the If the focus of Muslim faith is on conforming all of life to the will conscience. For Cragg, the cross of Jesus measures "what human of God, should no weight attach to Muslim concern over avoid­ beings do in their wrongness." The willingness of Jesus there ing deviance from agreed community standards, avoiding the both to suffer and to forgive "makes an end of evil because it haram (thatwhich is forbidden) in personalchoices, and avoiding freely takes all its consequences upon itself." Jesus' resurrection being found among the unbelievers? Smith acknowledges such is the victory of this suffering love, validating that God was in historical phenomena in Islam as overinterpreting the shari'ah Christ and at the same time assuring an eternal dimension to the and excessive certitude in judging transgressors, but he offers salvation of all who associate themselves with Christ in his three responses: death." As the need for salvation is a collective human need, diversely expressed in individuals, so access to salvation is 1. such is not true Islam; true Islam expresses itself in other collective, emanating from one historic life to as many individu­ ways (a question of definition and of observation); als as will link themselves to this life.20 2. we should look at the best, not the worst, in another faith Does God save apart from participation in the death and when we wish to compare it with the best or theoretical resurrection of Christ? Does God, as Smith says, save through version of our own faith (a question of method):" "faith of an Islamic form"? Cragg implies that, if so, God saves in 3. expressions of faith that to an observer might seem trivial spite of some deficiencies in Islamic awareness of their need and or superstitiousmayin fact overlie,andon occasionreignite, of the mode. Cragg feels bound to make comparisons between a genuine devotion to the transcendent."

JULY 1992 107 salvation as offered in Islam and salvation as offered in Christi­ passion, justice, or any of the marks of a redeemed community anity.As he relates "thegood" accessible in Islam and "thegood" will endure. In his Jerusalem studies for Christians living in accessible in Christian community, Cragg finds differences that Islamic societies, Cragg hazarded a judgment: "In the end, all he takes for deficiencies: in Islamic concepts of salvation, in the other systems, somewhere, abandon the necessities of love [i.e., Islamic confidence in good works, and in the shape into which the suffering that love must endure to prevail] which God in Islamic faith is directed. Christundertakes and through him teaches men to undertake.r'" The prevalent Muslim concept of salvation is the first thing Relying on Pauline insight into law's limitations, Cragg doubts to give Cragg pause. He does not feel at liberty to take the that quranic injunction, sunnah example, or shari'ah rulings can Qur'an's descriptions of heaven and hell only in the metaphoric overcome the double threat of human pride and sloth. sense that the most liberal Muslim interpreters might give them. Insofar as salvation means living in this world in a true Nor does he take quranic teaching about heaven and hell as only awareness of and relation to God, Cragg affirms Muslim piety to expressive of emotion or referring only to private experience. For be realistic and authentic. He is confident that Muslim prayer is Cragg the quranic picture provides Muslims their warrant for addressed to the one true God and sees it concurring with theological statements by aiming to describe universally valid Christian prayer in its readiness to praise and to align the human states of affairs beyond the presently verifiable. Their picture, he will to the divine." He calls attention to aspects of God made finds, "is of a secure and static bliss and a pointless, hapless accessible to humanity through Muslim acknowledgement, for anguish"-whereas the expectation he would himself affirm, on example, that God is Creator, Judge, and Lord. Cragg warns, the basis of Christian tradition, is of purgation in remorse, however, that access to God based on knowledge of such at­ growth in service, and an ultimate beatific vision." He finds the tributes as are made known in the revealed ninety-nine names is two sets of expectations irreconcilable. an access neither "finally pledged nor necessarily operative." Concerning the commitment to justice and solidarity in­ "[T[he offering of [Muslim] prayer depends altogether for its stilled in Islamic society over fourteen centuries, Cragg recog­ acceptability upon the divine will ." 25 Insofar as no Muslim is nizes the intent that a person's relation to God should pervade given grounds to pray "Abba, Father," to that extent a benefit of also one's relations to one's fellows." He recognizes with Smith salvation is lacking in Islam. the personal virtues and social achievements that adorn Islamic society over the centuries. Yet Cragg repeatedly questions both Other Religions and Christian Mission the Islamic readiness to use compulsion in establishing a social order intended to translate God's will into operative norms, as Cragg takes a doubtful view of Islam as a way of salvation, while well as the durability of the commitment therein to compassion. Smith's view is essentially positive. This contrast should serve, at Short of human beings recognizing that in the suffering love the very least, to warn us against too confidently identifying any incarnate in Jesus they are encountering God's way of both given Christian theologian's estimate with a Cod's-eye view of revealing himself and overcoming evil, Cragg doubts that com- the subject. Here are two thorough and sympathetic assessments Noteworthy Personalia Africa in Pretoria and was dean ofthe faculty oftheology at the university in 1974-77and 1981-87.He was general secretary of The School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, the Southern African Missiological Society since its inception Pasadena, California, has appointed J. Dudley Woodberry as in 1968and editorofits journal Missionalia sinceit was founded dean, effective September 1, 1992.Paul Pierson, dean of the in 1973. He also served as national chairman of the South school for the past twelve years, retires as dean but will African Christian Leadership Assembly in 1979 and of the continue on the faculty as professor of history and National Initiative for Reconciliation since 1989as part of his American studies. Woodberry, 58, has been on the faculty tireless ministry to bring about reconciliation between racial, since 1985and is associate professor of Islamic Studies. Earlier denominational, and theological groups in South Africa and he ministered in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. across the world. His books in English include A Spiritualityof the Road (1979), Witness to the World (1980), The Lord's Prayer: Wheaton College GraduateSchool,Wheaton, Illinois, has Paradigm of a Christian Lifestyle (1985), and Transforming Mis­ appointed two new faculty members to its Missions/ sion (1991). This last book, his magnumopus, has now become Intercultural Studies and Evangelism department. C. Dou­ his enduring missiological testament. glas McConnell most recently was general directorofthe Asia PacificChristian Mission and served as a missionary in Aus­ tralia and New Guinea for 16years. A.Scott Moreauserved on Announcing the faculty of Nairobi International School of Theology for seven years. The annual meeting of the United States Catholic Mission Mission scholars around the world were shocked and Association will be held at the Airport Mariott in Pittsburgh, saddened at news of the death of David J. Bosch in an Pa., November 6-8, 1992. Theme of the conference is "The automobile accident in South Africa on April 15. Bosch, 62, Emerging World Order: A New Context for Mission." For was a missionaryin the Transkei during 1957-71. Since1972he further information, write to: u.s.Catholic Mission Associa­ had been professor of missiology at the University of South tion, 3029Fourth Street N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017-4040.

108 INTERNATIONAL B ULLETIN OF MISSIONARY R ESEARCH of Islam that seek to rise above the descriptive and analytic to the however, reflects his theological judgment that others' aware­ theological level. Each has attempted to allow Muslims to speak ness of God stands to be thereby enhanced. He accordingly for themselves and has been sensitive to the multiple strands of welcomes opportunities to correlate doctrine bilaterallybetween the living entity that is Islam. Yet the findings are disparate. the Christian tradition and any other." Smith, persuaded that Cragg finds Muslims afflicted by a Qur'an-based overconfi­ any apprehension of God is partial yet salvific, seeks to move dence in law, while Smith focuses on the personal faith that Islam dialogue as quickly as possible beyond doctrine to appreciate engenders. In accordance with his overall theology of religion, whatever awareness of the transcendent may be induced in Smith describes Islam as furnishing a form to human faith that persons-others and ourselves-by doctrine. Such being the makes individual persons open to God. Since to have faith is to outcome hoped for, Smith is pleased when conversations be­ be saved, Islam, being an expression of human faith, is for Smith tween religious traditions become multilateral colloquy." an undeniable way of salvation. Cragg, with his more Qur'an­ and doctrine-centered view of Islam and his view of faith as dependent on the community that houses it, notices in Islam points of closedness to God. Indeed, convinced that God is Smith views mission as rightly understood only in Trinitarian terms, Cragg has to con­ clude that doctrinal elements in Islam tend to block Muslims God's activity, while Cragg from full saving knowledge of God. Convinced that humanity sees it as the church's task. requires more than a mere reminder of its vocation, Cragg remains constrained to proffer to Muslims additional dimen­ sions of salvation not contemplated in the usual pattern of their response to God. Still, Cragg abstains from judgmenton whether Smith and Cragg's theologies of mission also owe their devout Muslims are saved. differing shapes in part to the concerns of the specific communi­ How far do these differing estimates of Islam as a way of ties and particular times in which they were thought out. Smith salvation go toward accounting for Smith and Cragg's differing conceives of mission as peacemaking interreligious dialogue, in theologies of Christian mission? It turns out that their theologies which the continuation of the church as a boundaried human of mission, particularly as far as the ends and the agents of community is subordinated to the rescue of the larger society mission are concerned, are formed largely on other grounds. from communalism and colonialism. Such a theology was com­ Smith holds as a Christian axiom, independent of his estimate of pelling for postpartition India and the agenda of demoting Islam or other human religion, that mission is God's activity, colonial ideologies tainted by racial pride. It remains to be seen mysteriously produced. In our time, Smith suggests, God is at whether this is a theology of mission for future, more egalitarian work making formerly isolated religious traditions of the world intercultural conditions. rub shoulders and exchange words with one another. Our par­ To implement a Smithian concept of mission requires the ticipation in mission consists of learning to perceive God at work availability of representatives of each tradition emotionally and underournoses.26 Cragg,for his part,sees missionas thechurch's intellectually equipped not only to enter into conversation with task, because the once-for-all incarnation has axiomatic rel­ outsiders but to sustain conversation even when it begins to evance to all human beings, and the church makes God's incar­ arouse internal contradictions or reconceptions. Cragg's concept nation universally accessible to human beings. of mission entails reaching out first to understand the other and Where Smith and Cragg's understandings of God's activity then additionally to explain ourselves. This theology reflects the within Islam have been brought to bear is in the matter of the situation of Christian communities entrenched as ingrown mi­ means of mission that might be considered permissible and norities in predominantly Muslim societies. It remains to be seen pleasing in the sight of God. Both men describe dialogue and whetherthe communities among whom this viewof missionwas shared service to humanity as the means for advancing mission formulated, and others similarlysituated, can find thestrengthto in present world circumstances. Cragg's interest in dialogue, act it out.

Notes------­ 1. See Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: Clark, 1956),1,2, sec. 17.2, sity Press, 1979), p. 325 n. 65; TheFaith of OtherMen (Toronto: Canadian 5.3,6.2,6.3,69, and 72;Karl Rahner, "Christianity and the Non-Christian Broadcasting Corporation, 1962), p. 47; "Participation," in Religious Di­ Religions," Theological Investigations V (London: Darton, 1966), and his versity,ed.Willard Oxtoby (NewYork: Harper, 1976),pp. 131-32;Towards Foundations of Christian Faith (London: Darton, 1978), pp. 131-36; John a WorldTheology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981), p. 40. Hick, Godand the Universe of Faiths (New York: St. Martin's, 1973); Hans 6. Cragg, Callof the Minaret, p. 272, emphasis added. Kung, "What Is the True Religion?" Journal ofTheology forSouthern Africa, 7. See Cragg, Sandals at the Mosque(London: SCM, 1959), pp. 140-41. no. 56 (September 1986):4-23. 8. See Cragg, Jesus and the Muslim (London: Allen & Unwin, 1985). 2. Kenneth Cragg, The Callof the Minaret 2d ed. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis 9. Smith, Towards a WorldTheology, p. 168. Books, 1985), p. 54; Alive to God: Muslim and Christian Prayer (London: 10. Smith, "The Christian in a Religiously Plural World," in Religious Diver­ Oxford, 1970);TheWisdom oftheSufis (New York: New Directions, 1976). sity, p. 17. 3. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, "Theology and the World's Religious History," 11. Smith, "The World Church and the World History of Religion," Catholic in Toward aUniversal Theology ofReligion, ed. Leonard Swidler (Maryknoll, Theological Societyof America Proceedings 39 (984): 68. N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1987), p. 55. 12. Smith, Towards a WorldTheology, p. 170. 4. ThomasA. Langford, In Search ofFoundations: EnglishTheology, 1900-1920 13. Smith, Islam in Modern History (Princeton: Press, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1969), p. 296. 1957), pp. 17-20. 5. SeeWilfred CantwellSmith, Faith andBelief(Princeton: Princeton Univer­ 14. Qur'an translationby ArthurJ.Arberry, TheKoran Interpreted (New York,

JULY 1992 109 Macmillan, 1955), p. 29; comment by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, 21. Cragg, The Dome and the Rock (London: SPCK, 1964), p. 211. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New York: New American Library, 22. Cragg, Callof the Minaret, p. 128. n.d .), p. 31. 23. Cragg, Dome and the Rock, p. 248. 15. Smith, Faith of Other Men, p. 62. 24. Cragg, Alive to God, pp. 37-39. 16. "Hi storically, it has happened that God speaks to men and women by 25. Cragg, Callof the Minaret, pp. 1-2, 30, 36. means of rosaries" (Smith , Towards a World Theology, p. 167). 26. For a succinct and practical exposition of this theology of mission , see 17. Cragg, The Christian and Other Religion (London : Mowbrays, 1977), pp. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, "The Mission of the Church and the Future of 79-81, 104-6. Missions," in The Church in the Modern World, ed . George Johnston and 18. Ibid ., p. 83. Wolfgang Roth (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1967), pp. 134-70. 19. Cragg, Callof theMinaret, pp. 270-75. 27. For two examples, see Cra gg's works and the Christian: A 20. For Cragg's exposition of the "necessity of the Cross to an adequately Question ofResponse (London : Darton, 1984) and Jesus andtheMuslim:An divine forgiveness," see his "Islamic Theology: Limits and Bridges," in Exploration (London: Allen & Unwin, 1985). The Gospel and Islam, ed . Don M. McCurry (Monrovia, Calif.: MARC, 28. Smith, "Mission, Dialogu e, and God's Will for Us," International Review 1979), pp. 201-3. of Mission 78, no . 307 (July 1988): 369-74.

Where Is It? A New Index to Non-Western Christian Literature

Douglas W. Geyer and Sharon Vlahovich

n researching missions and non-Western Christianity} and acquire such documents. The result is that these types of I and in globalizing theological education, it is important to conference documents and rare periodicals remain unused. have extensive bibliography and, in the best of all possible Researchers may head for the libraries they are familiar with, worlds, to have full access to the sources revealed by the bibliog­ content with the assumption that there they will painlessly find raphy. Locating necessarymaterials maybe easy if the researcher non-Western trade publications and periodicals, either through is interested only in a few well-known books and periodicals and computer on-line services (and the subsequent interlibrary loan concerned only with a fairly broad overview. For the work of of desired materials) or through the cataloging services there. But continent-wide or worldwide organizations and agencies, such there are disheartening difficulties, even when research goals are general. The accumulation of catalog records in national data­ bases exhibits an array of different cataloging philosophies, uneven cataloging methods, varying forms and standards of Mission researchers may entering key informationsuch as imprintgeographic names, and have an "indexing other anomalies that make it very difficult to search for specific problem" of managing too headings, names, and groups. Even the most careful searches will yield uneven results.' much information. In addition, a search for slightly more general topics pro­ duces too many citations, leaving the researcher stymied in the attempt to sort through the mass of data. The problem of too sources may suffice. Research problems arise, however, when much information can be called an indexing problem. When one has a narrower scope of interest. researchers cannot pick out accurate smaller pieces from single Materials that may help with this narrower interest might be blocks of search retrievals, it is usually because there are inad­ known but may not be easy to use because they are known only equate distinctions to instruct them where to begin to look. generally or vaguely. Researchers might recall, for example, a Particular names, places, groups, agencies, or ideas are invisible, series of conference proceedings from Singapore or two or three or not indexed. The only solution to this problem-reading unusual and rare journals from Ghana but not have any practical through the text of every document-is not feasible. way to make use of these items because they are aware of them Another research problem antagonizes as well, with equally only generally. Who are the authors? What are the topics dis­ devastating results. This is the dilemma of unknown documen­ cussed? Without knowing these things, researchers naturally tation. Vital non-Western "grey literature'? required for detailed question whether they should spend time and money to identify research often lies just beyond a researcher's line of vision.' Included also in this greyliteratureareartic1es from unestablished non-Western periodical literature (issued irregularly) as well as Douglas W. Geyer is Project Director for the International Christian Literature essays, reports, and contributions in non-Western multi-author Documentation Project. Sharon Vlahovich is Indexer for the project. The authors works. These materials are often totally unknown bibliographi­ gratefully acknowledge the assistance of David Bundy and Robert Dvorak in the cally to students or researchers and, together, add up to a vast preparation of this article. reservoir of untapped resources."

110 INTERN ATIONAL B ULLETIN OF MISSIO NARY R ESEARCH