Flags, Crosses and Religious Identity
The ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally of Saturday 13th September 2025 has already received a huge amount of comment. Over 100,000 people gathered in London to march, listen to speeches – and wave flags. Many Christians took part, and the cross was prominently displayed even as some speakers made anti-Muslim speeches. Why the flags? Why the crosses? In this blog I think about the power and importance of symbols in Christian-Muslim engagement.
Responses of Protestant Denominations and traditions
From learned conciliation documents crafted by bishops to fiery denunciations by revival preachers, there is a huge variety of responses to Islam amongst the world’s Protestant Christians. Some see Muslims as cousins, closely related believers in the One God, whilst others see them as followers of a demonic religion who pose an existential threat to Christians. This blog explores the approaches of mainline Protestant denominations as well as the divergent attitudes of evangelicals and Pentecostals.
Denominations and traditions: Roman Catholics & Orthodox
Christians are hugely diverse and respond to Islam and Muslims in many different ways. One important factor in those responses is the denomination, or tradition, which a Christian comes from. In this blog, I explore the official responses to Islam of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches since the 20th century. It tells the stories of Vatican II, papal visits to mosques and kidnapped bishops in Syria.
‘Types’ of Christian responses to Islam
In the third blog of this series I explore typologies as a tool used by social science to simplify complex issues. It looks at polarisation within the Christian community with respect to Islam and examines the causes behind some of the reactions and the labels assigned to them.
‘What do you think of Muhammad?’
A prophet? A well-meaning reformer? A heretic? A false prophet? Even a historical fiction? These are just some of the ideas that different Christians have about Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. The second blog in the new CMCSO blog series explores the controversial answers given by Christians to the question ‘What do you think of Muhammad?’
An Introduction to Christian Responses to Islam
To mark the publication of my book in paperback (August 2025) I am writing a series of blogs on the theme of Christian Responses to Islam which appear on the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford website. They are broader than the book in that they include responses from non-evangelical and non-Protestant denominations wherever possible. I hope you find them helpful!