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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012
ACW, the ‘Yale Response’ 26 stands out in that its list of signatories
and the subsequent responses to it – both informally within the
blogosphere and more formally in individual and institutional
statements – demonstrate the manner in which evangelical Christians
have been split in their assessments of ACW and thus in their
responses to it (see, e.g., Lewis 2008; Love 2008b; Reitsma 2008;
Poston 2010). 27 These differences have articulated and exposed existing
differences concerning ministry to Muslims in a more intense
interaction than was previously the case. 28
With regard to C5 and insider movement practices, some responses
to ACW reasserted existing arguments to fit the new situation.
Thus, Lewis (2008) presented the Samaritans in John 4 and
Luke 10 as the ‘Muslims’ of Jesus’ day, and saw Peter in Acts 10 as
reaching out, in a Jesus-like manner, which commends itself for believers
today. In this regard, Lewis continued earlier assertions regarding
a non-extractionist oikos model for ministry (Lewis 2004a;
cf. Caldwell 2000). As well as appeals to 1 Corinthians 7 outlined
earlier in this review, Lewis (2007) had also appealed to John 4:39-
41 as supporting such a model. Lewis (2009b: 17) later added Acts
8:14-17 as evidence of Samaritan believers remaining in their own
communities and retaining their Samaritan identity. Ridgway (2007:
79) saw such a Samaritan insider movement as paralleling a Judean
Jewish insider movement earlier in John, and also proposed a Galilean
Jewish insider movement in Mark 1-4 and subsequent gentile
insider movements starting around Legion and then the Syro-
Phoenician woman later in Mark.
26 The ‘Yale Response’, written by four scholars from the Yale Divinity School, has
been published in various settings, and has attracted a diverse list of signatories.
For its text, see Attridge et al. (2007).
27 In comparison, Grace and Truth, a consensus statement by a global network of
Christians concerning Christlike relations with Muslims (Love 2009; Various 2009)
was not nearly as divisive.
28 See, for example, the comments made by Colin Chapman, one signatory to the
Yale Response, published in April 2008 as a ‘Featured Article’ entitled Christian
Responses to “A Common Word”: Why I Signed the Yale Response at
www.globalmissiology.org 3(5).
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