I received this book much later than expected and since I was busy, procrastinated about reading it. As it sat in a pile of books, I will admit that it hardly seemed worth the effort. In the meantime I had received a copy of the Koran and later a book about Islam, both times from Muslims. What could I learn from a book about Islam by a white eveangelical woman?

I underestimated this book. She writes as a friend and a person who has experienced cultures in which she is the minority and her own American culture in which she is not. She writes of her blunders such as a last minute stick fugure drawing meant to convert a grieving coworker when she should have instead consoled her.

Her writing is at times lively and the descriptions carry a quick pace that makes this readable. At times, I wish I weren't reading this from a Christian perspective. Perhaps a cowriting endeavor would have been best. For she does sometimes appropriate and make thin comparisons. But overall, Christians, especially conservative ones, will benefit from this book as an entry way to viewing Muslims as their neighbors rather than their enemies. I do not know if the right audience will read this. I certainly haven't seen it make a big splash in the media. But for those who do, this book stands a chance of opening hearts and minds and will hopefully lead the reader to next get to know Muslims from their own voices. ( )

With candor and humor, Rachel Pieh Jones takes the reader into the heart of the Muslim world. Here, she shows how witnessing to those of the Islamic faith made her reconsider her own faith in Christ. At times heartbreaking, Jones doesn't hold back from an honest account of her own blunders and embarrassing mistakes as she navigates into a world not her own. Highly encouraging and a must read for anyone considering mission work to the Muslim world.

Wonderful work, although based on the title I worried that this might be a theological problem of not universalism, but appropriation. Does not appear to be the case and offers great discussion and thought. ( )

Summary: An account about how the author’s attitudes both toward Islam and her Christian faith changed as she and her husband lived among Muslims in Somalia and Djibouti.

Rachel Pieh Jones grew up in a warm and thriving evangelical church in Minnesota. A lot of love–and some legalism. She didn’t know any Muslims but believed that they were “violent, backward, and just plain wrong.” Yet in Pillars, after a number of years in Somalia and Djibouti, she writes:

“I had a lot to learn about how to love my neighbors and practice my faith cross-culturally. I don’t identify with the label ‘missionary,’ with its attendant cultural, theological, and historical baggage, though I understand this is how many view me. I do love to talk about spirituality–and what fascinates me is that the more I discuss faith with Muslims, the more we both return to our roots and dig deeper. As we explore our own faith, in relationship with someone who thinks differently, each of us comes to experience God in richer, more intimate ways. In this manner, Muslims have helped me become a better Christian, though things didn’t start out that way” (p. 49).

How did she change? It began with some relationships with Somali refugees in their apartment complex in Minnesota while her husband completed doctoral studies. An opportunity opened up to teach in Somalia at Amoud University. This led to an immersion in Somali life, aided by their housekeeper and the guard assigned to them as foreign nationals–for ten months, when all their plans were interrupted when several foreign nationals were killed and they had to grab their evacuation bags and flee on a moment’s notice. The found refuge in neighboring Djibouti. Over the next years, Rachel and Tom grew close to a number of Muslims, entering into shared life, and observing their devotion to Islam

They didn’t become Muslims. They learned a lot about Islam. When urged to pray the shahada, she was able to say, “No, I love Jesus.” She answered a lot of questions about Jesus. She learned how to live among the people. She celebrated weddings and births and the breaking of fasts.

Jones organizes her account around the five pillars of Islam: creed, prayer, giving, fasting, and pilgrimage. Learning how her Muslim neighbors encountered God made her reflect more deeply on her own faith, and fall more deeply in love with Jesus. The shahada, a call to convert, to submit to God who is one is really a call to revert. It reminded her of Jesus and Nicodemus, the call to be born again. The prayers, which she sometimes was able to join some women in, led her to a renewal in her own prayer life–amid a pregnancy, ever present dangers, and the everyday challenges of life. The practices of almsgiving forced her to face how she also was conscious of reward in giving and recounts her experiences of helping a poor refugee establish an outdoor restaurant. She had rarely fasted but fasted along with others during Ramadan and joined in the joyous celebrations of Eid. Learning about the pilgrimage to Mecca brought her to a realization of her own lifelong pilgrimage.

I so appreciated this narrative. It was earthy and incarnational. Jones adopts an open and learning posture, both with her Muslim friends and toward what the Lord Jesus would teach her. She can recognize difference without “othering.” She’s as open about Jesus as she is to learning from her friends, like Amaal, her spirited maid. And over time she is able to distinguish what is American Christianity and what is the core of the gospel of Jesus.

This is not a book for those interested in polemics against Islam. Jones takes us into the lived experience of Muslims in the Horn of Africa and what a real engagement with them can be like with risk, affection, difference, and real learning. We also should remember her learning journey began with the Somali refugees in Minnesota. Many of us are near Muslim communities. We may have Muslim neighbors or work colleagues or health care providers. This is a valuable book both for its exploration of Islam, but also for its model of humble, open dialogue, willing to make mistakes and take risks, to welcome and be welcomed. And it points to what can happen as we engage those of another faith. We not only learn about their faith. We rediscover our own.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I really enjoyed Rachel Pieh Jones's "Pillars: How Muslim Friends Led Me Closer to Jesus." Jones and her family, Midwest Christians, move to the horn of Africa where Jones's husband teaches at a university in Somaliland. Jones describes how the traditions and rituals of Islam come to enrich her own faith. Jones does not attempt to make this a compare and contrast of the two religious faiths, and she does not hesitate to discuss the realities of the difficulties of trying to raise a family without the luxuries of modern American life, and with near constant threats of physical harm. I appreciated that Jones was honest about her fears as well as the joys she experienced. I learned a great deal about this part of the world, and about how Islam is lived in it. ( )