(Part III) Islam's Vision for the World: Control of the Language

Christians are ignorant of their own tongue. ~Ninth-century Spanish Christian

Whoever controls the language controls the world. The success of the Islamic conquest meant not only the disappearance of Christianity, but the dismantling of the languages used by Christians as the medium of communication for thought and culture. By the eighth century Arabic was the language of politics, economics, and culture. The victory of Arabic, as Peter Brown reminds us, opened the doors to Islamization. The rise of Arabic signaled the fall of the older languages used by Christians.

Muslim regimes limited the use of these languages in the public sphere. The Greek, Coptic, and Syriac languages fell by the wayside as speakers of the older tongues realized that Arabic was the only way to get ahead in the world.

The results were predictable. As Philip Jenkins notes:

The Long term religious consequences for Christianity were grim. The texts and liturgy of faith were all available in languages that, though venerable, were clearly associated with fading cultures--literally, the words of the very old. Worse, when members of a faith are unable to express their ideas except in a language that is primarily associated with a rival religious system--can use only the words and intellectual categories of another creed--that minority religion is en route to oblivion.

Today, Arabic is the official language of 28 countries in the North Africa and the Middle East. The languages used by Christians to communicate its ideas and culture have fallen into disuse. Consequently, the memory of their Christian heritage has largely been forgotten. Their Christian history erased. It is not unusual for Christians and Islam alike to believe the same myth, namely, that Christianity is a European religion that came to the region during the 19th century modern missions movement and is linked to Western colonialism. The truth is, as I have said may times now, that North Africa and the Middle East were once the intellectual and theological capital of the Christian world. These were (and in my mind still are) Christian countries. However, most of the great literature of the first six centuries of the Christian era remain unaccessible to the modern Christians in North Africa and the Middle East. Not to mention that very little (practically none) of the good, theologically sound, Christian literature ever gets translated into Arabic.

So what is the way forward? Well, it is safe to assume that the language of Arabic will not be overturned as the official language of Islam and of the 28 countries across North Africa and the Middle East. Therefore, Christianity must not only learn Arabic, we must master it. Like Islam we must use Arabic to communicate our thought and culture. We must work diligently to translate the best of our Christian literature into Arabic and get these works distributed throughout North Africa and the Middle East. In short, Arabic must become the language of Christianity more so than it is the language of Islam. We must learn it, master it, adopt it, think in it, write in it, lecture in it, and preach in it. We need to teach it at our Christian Schools, Bible Colleges, and Seminaries as a required course along with Greek and Hebrew. To put it another way, the church needs to baptize Arabic. That is, Christianity needs to control the language.

Equipping Pastors International is committed to helping the church accomplish this goal. However, we must remember that in the same way it took a united Islamic strategy to accomplish making Arabic the official religious language, it will take no less from the church in the West. May God help us all to join together for this common purpose. The success of Christianity in 28 countries in North Africa and the Middle East depends on it.

On a personal note, please pray for me as I prepare to study Arabic. There are several ways to go about it and I am trying to discern the best approach. Also, please think and pray about what part you may play. Exciting things are going on in the Arabic speaking world. God is moving. Wouldn't it be great to be a part of it?

*I am indebted to Philip Jenkins in general for many of the ideas in this series, and in particular for much of what has been said in this post. See his book The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died.