Multicultural mountains?

MOUNTAINS MOVE:
Achieving Social Cohesion in a Multicultural
Society
By Steve Bell
Paternoster. 240 pages £12.99
ISBN 978 1 788 932 189

Mountains Move provides a credible vision of Christian engagement with mainstream Muslims to foster greater social cohesion in the West and to defuse religious tension, but without sacrificing Christian integrity.

According to author Steve Bell, the mountains (which God can move) are the most pervasive and intractable aspects of history and culture dominating Western relations with Muslim communities.

In successive chapters, Bell provides a carefully researched and remarkably balanced appraisal of each of these mountains. For example, his description of the dark shadow cast by Mount Imperial (i.e., the legacy of colonialism) doesn’t prevent him from mentioning that ‘the British Empire … created reliable and well-run infrastructure, including transport, communication, education systems, the rule of law, and civil administration’.

Similarly. the chapter on Mount Correct (i.e. societal pressure to conform to political correctness) is even-handed in revealing its impact on both Christians and Muslims alike. For instance, Bell explains that, back in 2018, when some UK primary schools banned Nativity plays to prevent religious offence, mainstream Muslims were as baffled as Christians because the virgin birth of Christ is just as much a tenet of the Islamic faith.

While the entire book is undergirded by a wealth of careful research and references (in all, there are 260 of them), Bell’s writing style ensures that every chapter remains eminently readable.

The final two chapters, Mount Mission and Grace Pass, provide some practical, Scripturally endorsed routes for effectively traversing the landscape of interactions between Christian and Muslim individuals and communities. Four types of interaction are described, namely, conversation, dialogue, apologetics, and confrontation. However, instead of pitting one against the other, Bell thoughtfully gives examples in which each of them can be valid, based on the context in which they are deployed.

For faithful Christians seeking to improve their engagement with Muslims and minority communities, the overall preference for the ‘both-and’ approach (vs. either-or) makes this book a worthwhile and commendable read.