with Ant Greenham, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wednesday, August 1st, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
At The Westminster Institute
6731 Curran Street, McLean, VA 22101
A questioning approach lies at the heart of our relationship with God. That is how God engages us. In fact, questioning (or free inquiry), is central to our being human. Yet the major monotheistic religions vary markedly on this matter. In his new book, The Questioning God, Dr. Greenham examines the three major monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to see how they relate to questioning, including questions that God asks us and the questions that we ask about God. His goal is to develop a biblical theology of questioning, avoiding a loss of direction and focus that results from selective questioning, and also a loss of humanity that results from bypassing our questions through an inappropriate submission. The examination is wide ranging, including chapters on questioning in Islam, Judaism, mainline and evangelical Christianity, along with an examination of the consequences of a non-questioning culture. He ends the book with a proposal for a biblical theology and a look at the practical implications–just what it means to pursue a questioning culture. The author finds that questions are not just valuable, they are essential for serious human interaction. “As questioning beings,” he concludes, “there is no limit to what we might ask, but our questions must always be anchored in the questioning God’s enduring concern to engage us.”
Ant Greenham was educated in South Africa and the United States. He has a Ph.D. in missions, with a focus on Islamic studies. Dr. Greenham has taught at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary since 2001, where he is Assistant Professor of Missions and Islamic Studies. Before that, he was employed by the South African Department of Foreign Affairs and during the 1980s and 1990s served in Tel Aviv and then in Amman, where he opened the first South African Embassy.