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ELCA College Professor Says Jesus Was a Muslim

5/11/2012

9 Comments

 
At Luther College (ELCA) there is a teaching professor who claims Jesus was a Muslim. The professor is Robert F. Shedinger, an Associate Professor of Religion and Department Head at Luther. (see here)  Professor Shedinger wrote a book to promote his view titled, Was Jesus A Muslim? in which he writes:
  • “‘Was Jesus a Muslim?’  I will answer with a very qualified yes.” (page 10)
  • “. . . I firmly believe that the life and work of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels resonate more with particular interpretations of the nature and essence of the Islamic tradition than with common Western articulations of the nature and essence of Christianity.  It is in this hermeneutical sense that I conclude that Jesus was really a Muslim.” (page 12)
  • “. . .the world is in dire need of a movement of Christian-Muslim solidarity . . . Positioning Jesus as a point of commonality between Muslims and Christians may be a first step toward this goal, and this book seeks to accomplish just that.”  (page 12)
  • “It is necessary to conclude that the historical figure of Jesus outlined here accords better with a Muslim than with a Western Christian worldview.  Jesus really was a Muslim in the sense that his mission stands outside the discourse of sui generis religion.” (page 136)
  • “And the world has the most to gain when Christians and Muslims work together and demand that global political, economic, and social institutions be reconfigured to promote justice and the dignity of every human being.  Jesus may really have been a Muslim.  Let the dialogue begin.” (page 170)
In a video interview Professor Shedinger tells how he came to this view saying a student challenged the way he taught Islam and it led him “. . .over eight years to completely rethink the whole way that I think about Islam and the whole concept of religion which culminated in me asking the question 'Was Jesus a Muslim?' and answering it 'Yes,' even as a Christian I still have to say 'yes' to that.” (Laughter by Professor Shedinger)  Be sure to watch this video because the professor’s answer and laughter speaks volumes.
Professor Shedinger went on to say that the purpose of his book “is a call for Muslims and Christians to learn how to work together for social justice.”

Later he says, “And I think that is who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim than the Christianized Jesus that is more a spiritual savior and not as interested in issues of social justice.”


During a different interview with Professor Shedinger regarding his book he said, “Muslim readers really like the book and don’t find the idea of Jesus being a Muslim at all controversial . . . What does surprise them is seeing such an idea coming from someone who identifies as a Christian. But overall Muslim readers have embraced the book . . .The Christian reaction has been mostly silence . . .” (read here)

So while the Luther College website boasts that professor Shedinger, "has been a regular speaker in mosques and Islamic Centers around the country,"  (see here)  Bible-believing Christians everywhere should let the leadership in the ELCA and Luther College know that they disapprove of anti-Christian teaching happening in their church supported and congregational supported denomination’s schools.  Let us not be found silent.

-----

Luther College is an ELCA affiliated school.  (see here)

Shedinger, Robert (2009). Was Jesus A Muslim? Questioning categories in the study of religion. Fortress Press, Minneapolis. ISBN 978-0-8006-6325-4

9 Comments
Chuck Braun
5/12/2012 03:37:47 pm

Utter apostasy! Jesus shed His precious Blood and rose again to
Glory, to save us by grace alone, through faith, not works. Islam's false prophet founded a works-salvation religion, and totally denies His Divinity. The god of Islam is unknowable; our God is known, who chose us to be His own, and by the power of the Holy Spirit resides within all baptized, believing Christians in the person of the resurrected Christ Jesus. Pray for this poor deluded professor, that Almighty God would lead him to repent!

Reply
Didaskalos
5/14/2012 03:26:54 am

Syncretism is yet another ELCA means of currying favor with the world, whether it's the God-denying world that demands fealty from its "friends" to its abortion-on-demand and homosexual-marriage edicts or the false-religions world that deconstructs and denies the real Jesus.

The ELCA sadly continues its pursuit of serving as the subject of this verse in Hosea: "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone."

Reply
Chuck Braun
5/14/2012 11:26:23 pm

Yes, indeed, the ELCA's version of "social Justice" has no regard for unborn life, and is thus rendered null and void. Did Jesus not say "The poor you will have always", rather than "I will end poverty"? Is Sharia law a good model for social justice?

Something else to consider: Jesus was here 600 years before the start of Islam. Allah was one of a pantheon of ancient Arabian gods, thought to be a latter-day version of the moon god Baal.

Reply
Stuart
7/12/2012 02:14:03 pm

Why look at Jesus as a Muslim and not as a Jew?

Reply
Rev. Kris L. Snyder
7/20/2012 04:25:03 pm

If you expect Luther to teach according to the Lutheran confessions and be true to scriptures you will be disappointed. Ever since the 1960s Luther has made a clear decision to teach religion verses teaching foundational Christian and Lutheran teachings from a confessional background. That my friends is a distinction that must be made. Once you make this distinction you can shake the dust off your feet and move on. I graduated from Luther and shake my head at the direction the school has gone - but consider this, a conservative orthodox professor would not make it. This person would face undue persecution and would never last.

Here's what confessional orthodox pastors must do if they are committed to their vocational vows. As an NALC pastor I will not recommend an ELCA college or seminary. We must divorce ourselves from institutions which make a practice of mocking the Christian faith and finding it necessary to apologize for foundation values and beliefs of our heritage. Are the other options? Yes. Our Free Lutheran brothers/sisters in Christ have a college as do the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod etc. The tract for ELCA institutions is this - become more secularized and liberally conscious otherwise die.

Not surprised at all. Why he is department head is interesting. Nothing in his bio suggests that he is even Christian. But this comes from the same school that 10 plus years ago sought out a lesbian Buddhist to teach religion.

Reply
Daniel Hayes
7/25/2012 05:57:26 am

Another reason on top of all the others which makes us happy that we left the ELCA.

Reply
Ken
10/1/2012 12:59:06 pm

Individuals who desire factual information about Islam can go to www.AnsweringMuslims.com. I recommend starting with the video, "Whitewashing Islam: 20 Errors on 20/20."

Reply
Ken
10/2/2012 08:52:50 am

In his interview, Professor Shedinger said, "There is no evidence that the society in which Jesus lived--first century Palestine--made the conceptual distinction between sacred and profane, or religion and politics." But the prophet Ezekiel, writing in 573 B.C. (see 40:1), wrote of his vision of the temple: "it had a wall all around...to divide between the holy and the profane" (43:20). And Jesus himself said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).

Reply
William Mayer
11/27/2018 01:19:28 pm

Absolute Crap! Just a perfect example why I bailed out of that Crap School in the 70s. ANYTHING to sell books, huh?

Reply

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    Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.  
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    Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.


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  • Home
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