Islam and the Cross: Selections from "The Apostle to Islam"

Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867-1952), proclaimed the gospel in Muslim lands for almost 40 years before serving as professor of missions at Princeton Theological Seminary. Reformed and evangelical in his theology, Zwemer was also one of the greatest Islamic scholars of his day. He was an expert in Arabic and Arabic literature. He was thoroughly familiar with the Qur'an, the Traditions and the Commentaries. And having spent over twenty years in the Arabian Peninsula and almost twenty more based in Cairo, Egypt, was well acquainted with Muslims, their practices and their patterns of thought. Well-received amongst Muslims on account of his intellectual presentation of biblical Christianity and his always respectful treatment of Islam, Zwemer's writings are substantive, energetic and clear. They are also a tremendous asset to anyone wanting to understand Islam and for this reason I am glad to see this selection of them available once again. Dr. Greenway, who also supplies a brief biographical introduction, is to be congratulated for choosing such useful and representative chapters from Zwemer's astounding corpus. I personally would like to have seen selections from his The Moslem Doctrine of God (Bahrain, 1905), but chapters on Christ, the cross, the Holy Spirit, evangelism and animism do make this a good source book and admirably fulfill the purpose for which this book was compiled (xi). As a Christian wanting to understand Islam two things are necessary. The first is to read the Qur'an and other principal Islamic texts. The second is to read Zwemer.