justify it. We have learnt: “Love your enemy, pray for those who are persecuting you.” Unfortunately many Evangelicals and Pentecostals shun that message. I believe the reason is that most of them have never really studied theology. Fundamental subjects such as patristics and systematic theology are unknown to them; they don’t know anything about the early heresies of the church. All they get is Christian education; but Christian education is not theology. It is very superficial. I think Nigerian Christians need to go back to basics, earnestly, to really see how the church struggled. What informed a colleague of mine to be an evangelist among Muslims was when he was looking at the portrait of Jesus in the Qur’an. It prompted him to go back to the early church, to the patristic period, to study all these fights and struggles among people wanting to explain the nature of Christ. That’s the situation we have in Nigeria. So rather than seeing a Muslim as an enemy, I see a Muslim as a Christian who has misunderstood the nature of Jesus Christ. I see him or her as a potential brother or sister. Therefore it is difficult for me to hurt a Muslim, it’s like me hurting you, it’s like hurting yourself. The cycle of violence can only be stopped by the follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that.
Josiah Idowu-Fearon, born 1949, is the Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna, Nigeria, and Bishop of Kaduna Diocese. He has a PhD in Islamic Studies and is a co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity at Kaduna and is an adjunct professor at Wycliffe College, Canada. In April 2015 he was appointed as the seventh Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council.
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Ny Mission nr. 29