Estimates suggest that seventy percent of Muslims follow
folk Islam (popular Islam), rather than the orthodox Islamic
faith. Most methods for reaching Muslims with the
Gospel have concentrated on one of two broad approaches
with a third blending the first two methods.
Apologetic, polemic and dialogue techniques argue
that Christianity is more valid or reasonable than Islam.
Other approaches consist of contextualized methods seeking
some common ground between Christianity and Islam.
Apologetic arguments have not been very effective
with folk Muslims because cognitive propositions fail to
answer the “why” questions posed by popular Islam. Most
contextualized methods also miss the mark with folk Muslims;
they rarely attend Islamic worship, observe the
five pillars of Islam, or read the Qur’an. A few missiologists
propose a fourth category for reaching Muslims –
contextualizing according to their worldview.
This thesis explores what are the best approaches
for evangelizing folk Muslims who are particularly influenced
by African Traditional Religion (ATR). The Beja
tribe of the Sudan and the Sukuma tribe of Tanzania serve
as case studies. I argue for a contextualized approach to
folk Muslims, addressing their unique worldviews. ATRinfluenced
folk Muslims lean toward a fear-power
worldview, while the Sufis among them hold to an existential-
transcendent worldview. Each group, therefore,
necessitates a different evangelism approach.
The first chapter presents preliminary matters, the
research question, a literature review, and a rationale
for the thesis. The second chapter analyzes the case
study example of Beja folk Islam. Chapter three examines
folk Islam and its relationship to orthodox Islam,including further illustrations from the Beja tribe. The
fourth chapter explores the subject of ATR and its relationship
to folk Islam. The Sukuma tribe of Tanzania
serves as a base-line model of ATR for a comparison with
Beja folk Islam. Chapter five introduces the topic of
contextualization in Muslim evangelization and assesses
the effectiveness and validity of methods that have been
used. Chapter six suggests worldview approaches for
reaching ATR and Sufi-influenced folk Muslims. The final
chapter summarizes the thesis content, reviews the response
to the research question, and analyzes the implications
of the findings of the case study. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/4659 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Hadaway, Robin Dale |
| Contributors | Saayman, W. A. (Willem A.) |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (319 leaves) |
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