download the pdf - St.Francis Magazine

St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012
has been read as indicating “adaptability even to a pagan culture like
Corinth as long as one is guided by conscience and by the desire to
glorify God and see people be saved,” (Woodberry 2007: 25) and 1
Corinthians 11:1 has been read as supporting an embrace of Muslims
and Islam (Woodberry 2007: 24, also appealing to Acts 16:3;
21:26). Such claims need to engage with the wider context of 1 Corinthians
8-10 and its assertions of an anti-idolatry reading which
Witherington (1998: 466) succinctly summarises as being concerned
with “venue rather than menu.” Such a reading would problematise
claims for C5 in a manner not yet recognised within the debate. It
will also provide important contextual considerations for performative
utterances such as the shahada. 23
The same need for more integrated appeals to scripture is also
evident in relation to the use of Acts in defending C5. For example,
too many appeals to Acts 15:19 have not taken v.20 into account,
with its four elements which qualify the preceding verse. Remarkably,
among the literature reviewed here, Tennent (2006: 105-107)
was the first, and a rare, exception in considering both these verses.
Further, he did seek to address the practical difficulties of parsing
‘culture’ from ‘religion’ within actual lived experience via his hypothetical
musing about a ‘Cairo Council’ mirroring his reading of
Acts 15 (Tennent 2006: 107). Yet Tennent’s exegesis remained
narrow and detached from the wider context of Acts 15. Corniche
(2010a) has provided the most detailed and persuasive exegesis of
Acts 15 within the literature reviewed here, but he is no advocate
23 Waterman (2007: 58-59) called for attention to the theologically ‘untrue’
dimensions of such confessions, especially when made regularly rather than in
extremis as a last resort. He questioned whether the shahada confession can be made
simply as a cultural marker, akin to an unbeliever in England participating in a
toast declaring ‘God save the Queen.’ (Brown, in Corwin et al. 2007: 15) Waterman
demurred on two grounds: first, that it risks taking God’s name in vain (Exodus
20:7) and, second, that early believers did not follow such an approach to the
confession ‘Caesar is Lord.’ Waterman judged this latter confession to be more
analogous to the shadada than ‘God save the Queen.’ Brown (2007b: 71-73) has
responded to Waterman and Corwin: while not always convincing, his response
does demonstrate the spatial and performative complexities of the question.
St Francis Magazine is a publication of Interserve and Arab Vision 471