IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD
The battle for global empire and the end of the Ancient World
By Tom Holland. Little Brown. 526 pages. £25.00
ISBN 978 1 408 700 075
Readers may remember previous articles outlining how Islamic polemicists often utilise liberal scholarship, such as the works of Bart Ehrman and the Jesus Seminar, in their propaganda against Christianity. They clearly believe that theological liberalism undermines biblical Christianity.
However, even a short visit to Speakers’ Corner — where evangelists such as Jay Smith and others often employ the works of critical scholars who present an equivalent understanding of Islamic origins — would display that such Muslims are less than keen (to use traditional British understatement) to see the boot on the other foot. The writings of scholars such as John Wansbrough, Michael Cook and Patricia Crone, among others, question the historical understanding Muslims have about how their religion arose, and these are the studies which Christian apologists at Hyde Park and elsewhere use in their counter-polemics.
