This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. LIVING AMONG THE BREAKAGE: CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY-MAKING AND EX-MUSLIM CHRISTIANS BY DUANE ALEXANDER MILLER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 2014 ABSTRACT Since the 1960’s there has been a marked increase in the number of known conversions from Islam to Christianity. This thesis asks whether certain of these ex-Muslim Christians engage in the process of theology-making and, if so, it asks what these theologies claim to know about God and humans’ relation to God. Utilizing the dialectic of contextuality-contextualization of Shoki Coe, and the sociology of theological knowledge of Robert Schreiter, the thesis seeks to answer these questions by the use of two case studies and an examination of some of the texts written by ex-Muslim Christians. Lewis Rambo’s theory of religious conversion and Steven Lukes’ theory of power will be used to clarify the changing dynamics of power which have helped to foster modern contexts wherein an unprecedented number of Muslims are both exposed to the Christian message and, if they choose to do so, able to appropriate it through religious conversion. The two case studies are of a Christian community which founded a Muslim-background church in the Arabophone world and some Iranian Christian congregations in the USA and UK Diaspora. Aspects of the contexts of these believers are investigated in some detail, including motives for religious conversion, numbers and locations of the converts, how apostates may be treated by Muslims, changes in migration and communications, and the Christian concept of religious conversion. The concept of inculturation which helps to describe the meeting of a specific community with the Christian message will aid in analyzing the communities and individuals being studied. The final chapter brings together the various threads which have been raised throughout the thesis and argues that ex-Muslim Christians are engaged in theology-making, that areas of interest to them include theology of the church, salvation and baptism, and that the dominant metaphor in these theologies is a conceptualization of love and power that sees the two divine traits as inseparable from each other; they represent a knowledge about who God is and what he is like, which, in their understanding, is irreconcilable with their former religion, Islam. SIGNED DECLARATION I, DUANE ALEXANDER MILLER, HEREBY DECLARE THAT I HAVE WRITTEN THIS THESIS AND THAT THE WORK IT CONTAINS IS ENTIRELY MY OWN. I FURTHERMORE DECLARE THAT THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR ANY OTHER DEGREE OR PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION. SIGNED DATE Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ix ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Theology-making and Power .................................................................. 1 1. Reason for this Research ..................................................................................................... 1 2. Research Methodology ........................................................................................................ 2 3. Who are theology-makers? ............................................................................................... 10 4. What is theology-making? ................................................................................................. 11 5. What counts as God knowledge? Robert Schreiter on types of theological output ......... 22 6. Power ................................................................................................................................. 24 7. Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................................................... 35 8. Chapter Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 37 Chapter 2: The Context of the ex-Muslim Christian: Conversion and Apostasy ............................................................................................................................ 39 1. Context and Conversion ..................................................................................................... 39 2. Religious Conversion .......................................................................................................... 40 3. Apostasy (Ridda or Irtidaad) .............................................................................................. 54 4. Reasons why Muslims Convert to Christ ........................................................................... 65 5. Identity ............................................................................................................................... 73 6. Chapter Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 78 Chapter 3: The 20th Century: Changes in Context, Numbers and Locations of Converts ........................................................................................................................ 81 1. A brief historical background: the Great Experiment ........................................................ 81 2. Difficulties related to estimating numbers of converts ...................................................... 83 3. Countries and Regions ........................................................................................................ 87 4. Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 89 5. Question on Influential Figures .......................................................................................... 90 6. Question on Factors Facilitating Conversion ...................................................................... 94 7. Chapter Conclusion........................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 4: Context and the Birth of a Muslim-background Congregation in the Arab World ............................................................................................................. 117 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 117 2. The Context and Birth of a Church ................................................................................... 117 3. Empowerment through Inculturation .............................................................................. 130 4. Towards a New Identity in Kitma ..................................................................................... 141 5. Kitma and the Beginnings of Theology-making? .............................................................. 151 6. Chapter Conclusion........................................................................................................... 156 CHAPTER 5: LIBERATION AND WISDOM IN THE TEXTS OF EX-MUSLIM CHRISTIANS 159 1. Theology as Liberating Praxis ........................................................................................... 160 2. Theology as Wisdom......................................................................................................... 172 3. Examples of Theology as Liberation and Wisdom: Gulshan Esther and Hannah Shah .... 178 4. Chapter Conclusion: Contextuality and Contextualization............................................... 182 CHAPTER 6: IRANIAN CHRISTIANS IN THE AMERICAN AND BRITISH DIASPORA ....... 185 1. The Growth of Iranian Christianity since 1979 ................................................................. 185 2. Research Background ...................................................................................................... 190 3. Ritual, Antisyncretism, and Persianness .......................................................................... 195 4. Contextualization of the Teaching Ministry and Message .............................................. 202 5. The Attraction of Christianity ........................................................................................... 210 6. Chapter Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 214 Chapter 7: Theology-making: Context, Content, Metaphor, and Purpose 217 1. Chapter Introduction ....................................................................................................... 217