• This book examines relationship between Sudanese Churches, either as denominations or as ecumenical bodies and the successive central government in Khartoum – Sudan. In this context, and for the propose of this book, church state relations therefore focus on constitutional, political and social aspect of Christian –Muslims relations. The author used the term theologically with reference to the challenges that face Sudanese religious communities to find theological resources in their respective traditions. • The book advances four main arguments: firstly, both Christianity and Islam in Sudan have allowed themselves to become polarized by political, ethnic and cultural factors; secondly, the policy of successive governments and military regimes since independence has been to deploy Arabisation and Islamization as means of national unity; thirdly, both Christianity and Islam have ethical and theological resources that can contribute to national reconciliation and lastly, that the African traditionalist have theological resources that can contribute to consolidate peace building mechanisms among the Sudanese communities. • The objective of the book is to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of the factors that have strained religious communities to enable them draw lessons that can contribute to the challenge of reconciliation and peace building within Sudan as a nation. • The book is recommended as essential reading for everyone seeking to understand these complexities of the historical and theological resources of the Sudanese religious communities involved around the subject.

This series is a valuable tool for deeper understanding of the experience of Christians in Sudan. It is also a resource in a search for reconciliation and peace in this land. These books are gathered from a conference offered in Limuru, Kenya, February, 1997.

This timely collection offers new perspectives on Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa. Working against political and scholarly traditions that keep Muslims and Christians apart, the essays in this multidisciplinary volume locate African Muslims and Christians within a common analytical frame. In a series of historical and ethnographic case studies from across the African continent, the authors consider the multiple ways Muslims and Christians have encountered each other, borrowed or appropriated from one another, and sometimes also clashed. Contributors recast assumptions about the making and transgressing of religious boundaries, Christian-Muslim relations, and conversion. This engaging collection is a long overdue attempt to grapple with the multi-faceted and changing encounters of Muslims and Christians in Africa.

The relationship between the Christian and Muslim worlds has been a long and tortuous one. Over the course of the centuries the balance of power has swung in pendulum fashion—at times the initiative seems to have lain with the Muslim community, with the Christian world simply being compelled to react to developments outside itself, while at other points the opposite has been true and Muslims have found themselves having to respond to Christian challenges in different forms. Today Christians and Muslims comprise the world's two largest religious communities. Although they can coexist fairly peacefully, at times they still engage in violent confrontation, such as in the recent conflicts in Bosnia and the Sudan. This book investigates the history of the relationships between Christians and Muslims over the centuries, from their initial encounters in the medieval period, when the Muslims were the dominant group, through to the modern period, when the balance of power seems to have been reversed. This much-needed overview of the Christian-Muslim encounter places the emphasis on the context within which perceptions and attitudes were worked out and provides a depth of historical insight to the complexities of current Christian-Muslim interactions on different continents.

The author examines the establishment of both religions in the two countries, their relations with the colonial powers, the effect of religion on national independence movements, and the effect of religious questions on ethnicity in mixed communities, setting these issues against the background of the rise of Islamic revivalism and the connections between northern Nigeria and Middle Eastern Islamic states.

Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History19 (CMR 19), covering Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in the period 1800-1914, is a further volume in a general history of relations between the two faiths from the 7th century to the early 20th century. It comprises a series of introductory essays and the main body of detailed entries. These treat all the works, surviving or lost, that have been recorded. They provide biographical details of the authors, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between numerous new and leading scholars, CMR 19, along with the other volumes in this series, is intended as a basic tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations. Section Editors: Ines Aščerić-Todd, Clinton Bennett, Luis F. Bernabé Pons, Jaco Beyers, Emanuele Colombo, Lejla Demiri, Martha Frederiks, David D. Grafton, Stanisław Grodź, Alan Guenther, Vincenzo Lavenia, Arely Medina, Diego Melo Carrasco, Alain Messaoudi, Gordon Nickel, Claire Norton, Reza Pourjavady, Douglas Pratt, Charles Ramsey, Peter Riddell, Umar Ryad, Cornelia Soldat, Charles Tieszen, Carsten Walbiner, Catherina Wenzel

Sharīʿa in Africa Today. Reactions and Responses explores how Islamic law has influenced relations between Muslims and Christians, through a series of case studies by young African scholars working in Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania