Pillars

Rachel moved to Somaliland with two small children and had to evacuate less than a year later due to threats of violence. She and her husband eventually relocated in Djibouti where she has raised her family, taught English, and tried to be a good neighbor in an exclusively Muslim culture. I have read a number of books written by Christians living in Muslim contexts. Rachael Pieh Jones chose a brilliant way of organizing her book, centering her experience around the 5 pillars of the Muslim faith. Anyone with a cursory interest in world religions can quickly learn these 5 pillars as abstract concepts, but Rachel’s book lets us see up close and personal how they impact and shape the daily life of ordinary people in West Africa. This approach also lets her highlight the similarity of these pillars with foundational principles of the Christian faith.

Rachael describes honestly the difficult social and emotional realities of being an outsider. Her experience underscores the painstaking work of bridge building that precedes any real understanding of Gospel. I am grateful for her story and her unique perspective.

Jones (Stronger than Death) and her husband have lived in Africa since 2003, first in Somaliland, then in Djibouti, where they now run a school. Jones’s Evangelical upbringing, though it provided her with a happy and secure childhood, tended to focus on legalisms. Her untested faith was challenged while she lived in the Horn of Africa, among Muslims who were as devout in their beliefs as Jones was in hers. Islam’s Five Pillars—Shahadah (There is no god but God), Salat (Prayer), Zadat (Almsgiving), Ramadan (Fasting), and Hajj (Pilgrimage)—provide the basis for Jones to reflect on her eye-opening experiences while immersed in a culture that is foreign to her. The author’s soul-searching leads her to understand that her Muslim friends and neighbors live out ideals and values that run parallel to those of aspirational Christianity.VERDICT Jones’s pensive reflections will call into question readers’ unexamined notions about Islam and Christianity. A thoughtful approach to interfaith dialogue.

When Rachel Pieh and her husband Tom Jones moved from Minnesota to rural Somalia almost two decades ago, her safe and sound Baptist upbringing started to be challenged. Overwhelmed by new impressions, the urgent need to learn the Somali language, and being surrounded by Muslims only, Rachiel Pieh Jones quickly had to adapt and make choices. The presence of poverty, violence, weapons, but also faithful and fervent believers in Allah that wanted her to become one too.  While her husband had a job at a local university, she had to find her place raising their newborn twins, coping with all kinds of practicalities with the help of a local maid as well as with the high expectations on religious topics. After the murder of several foreigners, the Joneses resettle in nearby Djibouti, again in need to build new relationships and experiences the differences between countries in the Horn of Africa. 

Pillars : How Muslim Friends Led Me Closer to Jesus takes the five pillars of Islam to reflect on Jones' own belief system, understanding of who God is, and what her position towards fellow humans should be. Confession, prayer, fasting, tithing, pilgrimage, and the personal struggle to get forgiveness and stay free from sin are all addressed from a Muslim and Christian perspective. This original approach is highly personal, bridges gaps, and stirs sincere conversations with all imperfections, language blunders, and cultural bias. Is Islam really as evil, deceitful, and violent as portrayed back in the United States, especially among Evangelicals who maybe never met a single Muslim in their life?

Jones does a great job of describing her journey into an Islamic culture, the amusing and the difficult side of adjusting to her new home. She also carefully shows how her understanding of follow God, of being devoted to him and similar ideas were enhanced by her encounters with Muslims who helped her break down stereotypes and see the common humanity.

Pillars is a beautifully vulnerable telling of a journey toward embodying Christ through interfaith relationships. Rachel's stories and insights regarding personal and spiritual formation are woven together with shared religious texts from both Islam and Christianity. The stories presented welcome interfaith conversation while also highlighting cultural and religious tension. Bravo, to Rachel for walking through life with intentional energy and passion to bridge the gaps of cultural and religious misunderstanding. Rachel's faith reveals the depth and ability to journey into interfaith relationships through the crossroads of transformed character and lived integrity.

This fascinating book about a woman's journey to find her spirituality really resonated with me. While deepening her own faith through her friendships with Islamic friends, she shows us not only how to deepen our own faith, but that our similarities far outweigh our differences. A timely message that is needed in todays divisive world.

Thank you NegGalley for giving me a free e-copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rachel Pieh Jones shares her compelling story of more than twenty years living in the Horn of Africa with her family. The author is a wonderful story-teller, bringing her experiences alive for the reader. She wrestles with questions that many expatriates living overseas will find relevant to their own lives. What does it mean to belong or not belong? How does one choose to remain faithful to ones faith while living in a completely different faith context? Rachel shares how her own faith journey has been challenged and impacted in a positive way by her friendships with Muslim people in the Horn of Africa. She uses the five pillars of Islam as the basis for her reflections, creatively weaving her own faith story into what she has learned through her Muslim friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone living overseas!

“Pillars” by Rachel Pieh Jones graphically details how Somali Muslim friends led Rachel, an American Evangelical Christian, into a much deeper walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Her personal friendships calmed her deep-seated fears and deep-rooted prejudices, deepening her appreciation for Islam, and giving her a much greater understanding of the Christian faith. Centering around the five pillars of Islam, Rachel’s Muslim friends help her to rediscover the revitalizing power of ancient Christian practices.

Viewing God and faith through the lens of Islam amidst a backdrop of Somali culture, Rachel discovers that Jesus is more generous, daring, and loving than ever. Focusing on Christians living in Muslim contexts, Rachel highlights the similarity of the Five Pillars of Islam with foundational principles of the Christian faith.

Rachel’s personal experiences and unique perspective highlights the bridge building that takes the Gospel to the heart of the world. Her untested faith was challenged by devout Muslims who live out ideals and values parallel to those of Christianity. This is an extremely thought-provoking approach to interfaith dialogue, while teaching us how to be a good neighbor to the people of the whole world.

This is the book I wish I could have written. While my overseas experiences are obviously different than Jones's, as I read her story, I felt like my heart journey mirrored hers. Jones shares details of her life in Somaliland and Djibouti but more, she talks about how her Muslim friends have helped her grow in her own faith as a Christian. This is the book I will be recommending to friends in the US who want to understand how I've changed and grown in the years I've lived in Turkey, Morocco and Jordan. It's also a book I recommend to my Muslim friends who want a glimpse of how their lives have impacted my life with Jesus. Obviously recommended!

This fascinating memoir shares stories from the author's experiences living in community with African Muslims. She writes about her childhood prejudices against Islam, her overly simplistic view of faith, and the American evangelical assumptions that she had to work through as an adult, seeing that life was much more complex than she had ever seen it within the context of her childhood church.

I had trouble with some of the timeline shifts in this book, and had a hard time keeping track of the order of events and different characters, but this is very well-written and insightful. Jones organizes her vivid stories and reflections under the Five Pillars of Islam, and writes about how her friendships with Muslims helped her connect with historic elements of the Christian faith which she wasn't familiar with during her earlier life. Even though I was concerned at first that this book might devolve into a message that we're all the same and fundamentally believe the same things, she maintained her Christian faith and honors the distinctive, unique elements of Islam.

I found this very interesting and insightful, and would recommend it to other people who are interested in learning more about the similarities and differences between faiths, or about culture and religion in parts of Africa. Americans who are preparing to go to a Muslim-majority country for missions or humanitarian work should definitely read this, learning from the author's mistakes and insights before they face similar situations in their context, and I would encourage family members and friends of people involved in this work to read this as well, so that they can check their cultural assumptions and better support their loved ones.

This is a MUST READ book for anyone who is planning to live and work in an Islamic context. Rachel's understanding of Islam in the day to day context as well as her obvious study of it helps explain and interpret it in the context of her Christian faith. I loved her raw honesty in every page as she shared her story, struggles and the grappling with deep faith issues.
In a world where Christians live suspiciously with those of other faiths, I think every follower of Jesus should read this and engage with their Muslim neighbors and friends while holding a mirror to their own beliefs.
Thank you Rachel for engaging with your Muslim friends and your Christian faith and challenging us to do the same.

"What happens to faith when fear takes over?" This is the first of many important questions brought to the reader's attention in Rachel Pieh Jones' "Pillars". The author was willing to humbly present an open and honest account of the misguided, prejudiced, and naive notions she held prior to relocating to Somalia and how her experiences ultimately allowed her to dig deeper into her own religion. This book's writing style is clean, concise and easy to get lost in.

I appreciated this book's premise and execution a great deal. After finishing it, I think it should be required reading for a good number of evangelical Christians who view Islam as being nearly the opposite of Christianity. It will especially interest, however, Christians working in multicultural spaces or with groups of diverse religions. It's thoughtful, kind, and open: all that a book dipping its toes into pluralism ever-so-slightly should be. Recommended.