Description
Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice challenges Christians to stand up against Islamophobia as an expression of discipleship. Anna Piela and Michael Woolf expose the Church’s role in fostering anti-Muslim prejudice and equip congregations to dismantle it. Blending sharp history, “holy envy” theology, and ready-to-use resources that weave Islamic scripture into the lectionary calendar, they make interfaith engagement both practical and transformative. This is a call to replace fear with solidarity—and to live the Gospel fully in a pluralistic world.
Reviews
“The book itself is a crucial and timely contribution that deserves to be read widely. The authors have done a beautiful job combining their expertise on the Qur’an and the Bible, providing readers with a nuanced interfaith perspective.”— Dr. Albert Frolov, Research Fellow, Lonergan Research Institute, University of Toronto
"Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice is an insightful and practical tool for Christian clergy, seminarians, congregational faith leaders, and all people who wish to deepen their faith expression; it is a focused guide for those of us who wish to be agents of change in our communities.
“Piela and Woolf, both ordained American Baptist ministers themselves, offer informed and accessible overviews of Islam and Islamophobia, and share valuable concrete examples of how Christians can incorporate the lessons and themes into their congregational worship and ministry. The authors ground this text with history, research, real life experiences, scripture, American ideals, and a theology of interfaith engagement that will enrich our understanding and practice of faith in American public life.
“As a representative of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign: Standing with American Muslims, Advancing American Ideals, a network of people of faith and goodwill working to understand, counter, and prevent Islamophobia in the U.S., this is a book we have long been waiting for. It is a must-read for our Christian partners, and an invitation for all of us, regardless of our faith or background, to do the work of building an America that moves closer to its ideals of religious liberty and human dignity for all.” - Nina M. Fernando, Executive Director, The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign
“Anna Piela and Michael Woolf draw on their pastoral experience and scholarship to create a wonderful and needed resource for pastors and others who shape worship services. The authors provide thoughtful and helpful ways to develop and experience worship that is transformative in attitudes and practices towards Muslims and, by extension, to people of other faiths.”— Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, General Secretary Emeritus, American Baptist Churches
“Piela and Woolf chart new territory by offering Christian leaders accessible liturgical resources for countering Islamophobia. They make a compelling case that worship and ritual are not peripheral but rather essential to a robust Christian response to Islamophobia and to the cultivation of authentic and mutually inspiring relationships between Christians and Muslims."— Todd Green, Author of The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West
Author Bio
The Rev. Dr. Anna Piela is a scholar of gender and Islam, with areas of expertise that include feminism in Islam, Eastern European Islam, and Islam in popular culture and digital media. She has conducted research with Muslim women of diverse backgrounds in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. She received her Ph.D. in Women's and Islamic Studies from the University of York, U.K. Her first book: Muslim Women Online: Faith and Identity in the Virtual World (Routledge, 2012) explored theological alliances between Muslim women who use digital technologies to facilitate the creation of women- centered interpretations of the key Islamic texts. Her second book, Wearing the Niqab: Muslim Women in the UK and the US (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), focuses on the voices of women who choose to wear the niqab (the Islamic face covering) in the West. Having interviewed 40 women on both sides of the Atlantic, Dr. Piela discusses how women respond to controversies, bans, and debates involving the niqab in Europe and North America. Simultaneously, she argues for shifting the attention to niqab-wearing women's concerns and their incisive diagnoses of problems plaguing secular-liberal societies, including endemic racism, sexism, and nativism.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf (he/him) holds a Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree from Harvard Divinity School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a BA in Religious Studies in 2011 and completed his Master of Divinity degree in May 2014. Michael is also an ordained American Baptist Churches USA pastor currently serving as the Senior Minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston in Evanston, IL, a progressive congregation with a commitment to social justice and interfaith dialogue. Michael's dissertation, "Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Rethinking Practical Theological Categories in Light of the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s," situates the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s as an object of practical theological inquiry. In paying attention to the narratives of recipients of sanctuary, Michael proposes a reorientation of the discipline using Judith Butler's theory of subjectivation. He has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Cult/ure: The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School and the Director of Publishing at the Journal of Inter-Religious Studies. His work has been published at the Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies, Glossolalia, and Cult/ure. He has also written for several popular publications.