Matthew Kaemingk: Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear

Matthew Kaemingk, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 338 pages.

The kind of book Evangelical Christians need to be reading on navigating Christian-Muslim relations today is the kind of book Matthew Kaemingk has written in Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. So then, I am beginning this review with a positive recommendation right up front. Please let me explain why.

Matthew Kaemingk is assistant professor of Christian ethics and associate dean at Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. Kaemingk is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He presently lives in Houston with his wife Heather and their three sons Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon.

Kaemingk’s research and teaching focus is on Islam and political ethics, faith and the workplace, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology. Thus Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear comes rather directly out of his primary expertise. And it shows. The Foreword by Jamie Smith, quite the heavy hitter himself and a Charismatic Calvinist on top of that, not only testifies to the credibility of Kaemingk’s work and frames it for readers but helps connect it with Evangelical Reformed readers as well as Pentecostal/Charismatic readers.

Matthew Kaemingk faces several pressing questions head-on. How can diverse people live together? How should Western Christians respond to their new Muslim neighbors? Can Islam and Christianity peacefully coexist? Are there limits to religious freedom and tolerance? How much religious diversity can a single nation withstand? He believes the far left’s unqualified concessions and the far right’s reflex aggressions are both mistaken. Yet he does not simply draw a line down the middle between the two. He proposes another option: “Christian hospitality” or, as he (cover aside) more often puts it, “Christian pluralism”. Yet before prematurely dismissing him at this point readers should note that he does not mean by “pluralism” what may be the first thought which comes to many minds (i.e. he is certainly no John Hick). Kaemingk is firmly committed to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior and Lord. He is also firmly committed to loving neighbors—even enemies, if so they be—of other faiths.

Kaemingk is sure that Christians must respond to the crisis precipitated by the massive increase of Muslim immigration to the West in a specifically Christian manner. He sees theologians such as himself as servants attempting to help facilitate that process. He does not address, important as it is, the question of salvation after death so much as the question of life together before dying. He carefully defines pluralism in terms of culture, structure, and direction in life, and the varied responses Christians can and should make to each. But he does argue for a “Christian pluralist”—one who is personally committed to Christ while being tolerant of and engaged with others—as well suited to navigate the current crises between Christians and Muslims brought on by globalization and immigration.

The methodology of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear is to study the encounter between Christianity and Islam in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, and then to apply lessons learned as appropriate implications for American Evangelicals and Islam. He chose the Netherlands partly due to their history with Christian-Muslim relations and partly due to his own interest as a Reformed theologian in the influence of Abraham Kuyper on the rise of Christian pluralism. For Kaemingk, Kuyper provides a resource for combating hegemony and uniformity while constructing a theology of pluralism nevertheless remaining faithfully Christocentric, even Evangelical.

I will offer three observations. First, this is a very Reformed book. That’s not meant as a criticism, merely a description. It will be both a plus and a minus for readers. For Reformed folks this is an excellent model of a constructive, positive approach for theological underpinnings to Christian-Muslim relations. For non-Reformed folks (such as me) a lot of the categories and constructs can seem kind of strange (e.g. “spatial sovereignty” or “sphere sovereignty”). Yet most of us can recognize it as a valiant attempt within its own tradition to accomplish a much-needed task. And all of us can learn from it.

Second, as a Pentecostal believer I find the pneumatological lacunae lamentable. True enough, Kaemingk acknowledges that any effectiveness in achieving combating hegemony and accomplishing interfaith cooperation will be ultimately due to “the gracious work of the Holy Spirit” (p. 150). But that is a rare remark. Sadly, the rich potential of the dramatic diversity of Pentecost is missing. Rather, the work of the Holy Spirit is only briefly presented through the lens of the Reformed doctrine of “common grace” which, despite Kaemingk’s efforts, is not energetic or robust.

Third, I fear Kaemingk’s vigorous effort to retrieve the category of pluralism for an Evangelical audience may be doomed from the start. Although I am sympathetic to his objective, and have even occasionally employed it myself, the language is probably so negatively loaded emotively that few will feel comfortable with it. Hospitality is a better term. It has positive associations and can carry the load biblically and theologically. Yet Kaemingk, though using it, and even including it in the main title of the book, in practice employs Christian pluralism much more than Christian hospitality. This is probably because of his reliance on Kuyper. More importantly, I get a sense that he would have us understand hospitality and pluralism, at least of the type he espouses, as close cousins—if not actually synonymous. If so, that’s not a bad idea. Nevertheless, I am reminded of the unsuccessful attempt of early church father Clement of Alexandria to retrieve the notorious category and terminology of Gnosticism, which, in his opinion, had been hijacked by heretics, by carefully defining and qualifying it in accordance with orthodoxy. In any case, Kaemingk’s strident theological and ethical arguments against hegemony and uniformity, which are really at the heart of this work, are insightful and to be taken seriously. They sound a warning worth hearing well.

Briefly, note that Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear is to an extent a political theology for the public square but not overtly partisan. However, although it is about responding to the interreligious realities of immigration it is not necessarily concerned with advocating for this or that particular immigration policy. It is more about dealing with the reality on the ground, so to speak, from a theological perspective. My sense is that globalists and nationalists, liberals and conservatives will find in it qualities with which they agree and disagree. Perhaps all will be challenged and stimulated.

With all of that being said, I repeat: the kind of book Evangelical (and other) Christians (Reformed or not) need to be reading on Christian-Muslim relations today is the kind of book Matthew Kaemingk has written in Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. I highly recommend it. Quibbles aside, I could not agree more with what I take to be the main thrust of this engaging and well written monograph. That is to say, that Christian theology can and should serve as a resource for Christians in creating a gracious and welcoming space for religious diversity in society while staunchly maintaining the firmest commitment to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That may sound like an almost impossible task; however, Matthew Kaemingk does an exceptional job of doing just that.

Reviewed by Tony Richie

 

Publisher’s page: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7458/christian-hospitality-and-muslim-immigration-in-an-age-of-fear.aspx

Publisher’s blog: “Eerdmans Author Interviews: Matthew Kaemingk on Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear” https://eerdword.com/2018/01/22/eerdmans-author-interviews-matthew-kaemingk-on-christian-hospitality-and-muslim-immigration-in-an-age-of-fear/