A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by A. C. Carter
A principal apologetic question facing evangelicals in the 21st Century involves sharing the gospel message with followers of Islam. Geopolitical events, social media, and concern for cultural diversity have made Islam a significant topic of discussion among both Christians and non-Christians in the West today. Additionally, many Muslims have moved to Western nations, contributing to a global diaspora of people seeking economic, political, or cultural freedom. These factors have brought issues of Christian witness to Muslims to a focal point of apologetic concern.
Chief among these concerns is how to explain the doctrine of the Trinity in an understandable way for followers of Islam. Islam shares some historical and doctrinal elements with Christianity, but the dividing line between these two belief systems is their understandings of how Jesus relates to God. Followers of Islam are taught to revere Jesus as a prophet and to follow his teachings, but they reject the Christian belief that Jesus is the Divine Son of the same substance as the Father. For Muslims, claiming God has multiple persons, or that he has a Son is to deny the essential oneness of God. This makes the Trinity a significant stumbling block for many Muslims to give ear to Christian teaching. (This even presupposes the Muslim listener has a proper understanding of the Trinity. A common misconception among Muslims is that the Trinity consists of God the Father, Mary the Mother, and Jesus the Son. See Carlos Madrigal, Explaining the Trinity to Muslims: A Personal Reflection on the Biblical Teaching in Light of the Theological Criteria of Islam [Littleton, CO: William Carey Publishing, 2011], 10.)
To flatten this stumbling block, Carlos Madrigal offers an apologetic for the Trinity based on his own experience ministering as a pastor and ministry director in the Islamic context of Istanbul, Turkey. His book Explaining the Trinity to Muslims was originally published in Turkish in 1984, then translated to Madrigal’s native Spanish and later to English for new audiences. This book builds on diverse apologetic frameworks (presuppositional, evidential, classical, etc.), and provides helpful analysis of Islamic doctrine and worldview, but it is not without its shortcomings; its imagery can obscure clear historic teaching on the Trinity, and its frequent use of technical Arabic language makes it inaccessible for a popular readership.
Much of this book is exceptionally helpful. Madrigal gives excellent explanations of what exactly it means that Jesus is the “Son” of God in a spiritual sense rather than a blood sense (p. xiii), Christ is a “person” of God from an Arabic linguistic foundation (p. 5), and why the Incarnation was necessary (p. 62). He also provides an excellent explanation of the eternal generation of the Son (p. 28) and uses Old Testament passages like Psalms 2 and 110 to point to Christ (p. 70).
Chapter Four, “Trinitarian Declarations in the Bible,” is the best chapter of the book. Madrigal goes to great lengths to show that the Trinity is not a fourth century invention of ecumenical councils, but a thoroughly biblical doctrine. The amount of scripture he uses to support his argument is impressive; the precision with which he applies it is sharp. He will later show how the theology of Christian creeds and confessions also aligns with the biblical description of God as Triune. The arguments found in this chapter offer a helpful defense of the Trinity for any audience – Muslim, postmodern, or otherwise.
One shortcoming of this book is its use of imagery in attempt to describe the Trinity. For example, Madrigal uses the triads of power, light, & heat (p. 22), as well as mind, action, & expression (p. 27) to describe the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Later, Madrigal describes God as “one God who exists in three states” (p. 33, emphasis original). Aside from the word “states” in this sentence, Madrigal’s explanation of the Trinity is thoroughly orthodox. Some readers may balk at referring to the persons of the Trinity as “states” because this could be misinterpreted as modalism. In effort to give Madrigal a charitable reading, perhaps this verbiage can be attributed to difficulty translating the original work from Turkish to English since he elsewhere describes the Trinity in orthodox Christian terms.
Additionally, many of the visual illustrations and diagrams Madrigal uses obscure his teaching on the Trinity. While likely meant to clarify his teaching, the diagrams distorted the sound and reasonable words Madrigal had used to build his arguments. Again, attempting to give Madrigal a charitable reading, perhaps these visual illustrations could be helpful to other readers; however, I felt as though the diagrams at best detracted from his otherwise clear teaching of the Trinity, and at worst imported unbiblical doctrine into this vital area of Christian theology.
Almost every explanation and illustration of the Trinity will eventually fall short. God is in fact incomprehensible. In this work, Madrigal gives excellent explanation of the Trinity while integrating Islamic teaching and Arabic language for apologetic support. While some of Madrigal’s illustrations may possibly confuse or distort Trinitarian teaching, perhaps my concerns are too restrictive.
A second challenge to this book is its frequent use of Arabic terms. This may be very helpful for a Muslim who knows Islamic doctrine, but English-speaking readers may get bogged down in sounding out unfamiliar words or looking up unfamiliar doctrines.
This book simultaneously left me nodding my head in agreement and scratching my head in confusion. At times, I found myself “amening” heartily; other times, I found myself wondering if it was slipping into heresy. After reading this book, I admit I may not be the ideal candidate to offer this review; my work and ministry are currently based in the US, and I have not lived long-term in an Islamic or Arabic-speaking culture. I have an interest in Islamic studies, but have not formally studied Arabic. Perhaps this book would be an excellent resource for the intellectual field worker or an educated Muslim inquirer. For the average American Evangelical, it is likely too technical to be helpful.
A. C. Carter