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Personal friendships with Somali Muslims overcome the prejudices and expand the faith of a typical American Evangelical Christian living in the Horn of Africa.
Gold Medal, 2022 Independent Publisher Book Awards, IPPY
When Rachel Pieh Jones moved from Minnesota to rural Somalia with her husband and twin toddlers eighteen years ago, she was secure in a faith that defined who was right and who was wrong, who was saved and who needed saving. She had been taught that Islam was evil, full of lies and darkness, and that the world would be better without it.
Luckily, locals show compassion for this blundering outsider who can’t keep her headscarf on or her toddlers from tripping over AK-47s. After the murder of several foreigners forces them to evacuate, the Joneses resettle in nearby Djibouti.
Jones recounts, often entertainingly, the personal encounters and growing friendships that gradually dismantle her unspoken fears and prejudices and deepen her appreciation for Islam. Unexpectedly, along the way she also gains a far richer understanding of her own Christian faith. Grouping her stories around the five pillars of Islam – creed, prayer, fasting, giving, and pilgrimage – Jones shows how her Muslim friends’ devotion to these pillars leads her to rediscover ancient Christian practices her own religious tradition has lost or neglected.
Jones brings the reader along as she reexamines her assumptions about faith and God through the lens of Islam and Somali culture. Are God and Allah the same? What happens when one’s ideas about God and the Bible crumble and the only people around are Muslims? What happens is that she discovers that Jesus is more generous, daring, and loving than she ever imagined.
I enjoyed learning more about life in the Horn of Africa (the author is such a good story-teller). But what I really appreciated was her reflections on Americanized faith and many of the cultural assumptions we've absorbed. I found it refreshing and eye-opening.
Powerful! This book will change your life, if you let it. Putting aside our prejudices, setting aside suspicions we can learn from each other. In this book Jones chronicles how her faith was refined by her encounters with Muslim friends. Dross is removed and she encounters the centre of what she believes. I am reminded of Eustace who, in CS Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is transformed into a dragon. Aslan helps him peel away the last layer and "undragons" him. It seems to me that is what happens to Jones in this book.
I have read a number of books written by Christians living in Muslim contexts. Rachael Pieh Jones chose a brilliant way of organizing her book, centering her experience around the 5 pillars of the Muslim faith. Anyone with a cursory interest in world religions can quickly learn these 5 pillars as abstract concepts, but Rachel’s book lets us see up close and personal how they impact and shape the daily life of ordinary people in West Africa. This method also lets her highlight the similarities with foundational principles of the Christian faith. Rachael describes honestly the difficult social and emotional realities of being an outsider. Her experience underscores the painstaking work of bridge building that precedes any real understanding of Gospel. I am grateful for her story and her unique perspective.
“Pillars” by Rachel Pieh Jones graphically details how Somali Muslim friends led her, an American Evangelical Christian, into a much deeper walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Her personal friendships calmed her deep-seated fears and deep-rooted prejudices, deepening her appreciation for Islam, and giving her a much greater understanding of the Christian faith. Centering around the five pillars of Islam, Rachel’s Muslim friends help her to rediscover the revitalizing power of ancient Christian practices. Viewing God and faith through the lens of Islam amidst a backdrop of Somali culture, Rachel discovers that Jesus is more generous, daring, and loving than ever. Focusing on Christians living in Muslim contexts, Rachel highlights the similarity of the Five Pillars of Islam with foundational principles of the Christian faith. Rachel’s personal experiences and unique perspective highlights the bridge building that takes the Gospel to the heart of the world. Her untested faith was challenged by devout Muslims who live out ideals and values parallel to those of Christianity. This is an extremely thought-provoking approach to interfaith dialogue, while teaching us how to be a good neighbour to the people of the whole world.
