Pillars

Reviews / Votes

Filled with hard-won insights of a mature faith lived in long community with Muslim neighbors, Pillars refuses sentimental calls for the kind of peace that glosses over differences. Instead, Jones finds her faith unraveled and rewoven, stronger for what she's learned in the Horn of Africa and from her Muslim friends. Anyone whose faith has been challenged by life experiences will find a helpful model for spiritual growth here. --Amy Peterson, author of Dangerous Territory: My Misguided Quest to Save the World This is a beautiful story, beautifully told. It's much more than the memoirs of a Christian American living in Africa and exploring Islam with devoted Muslims; it's about learning how to be a good neighbor to the people around you, wherever you might be in the world. This is the kind of book we need right now. --Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation As an American raised in a Muslim country, I have waited for a book like Pillars all my adult life, a personal book that discovers similarities and honors differences between Christianity and Islam, a book that, pillar by pillar, builds bridges of greater understanding across what are often chasms of disconnect. Read and savor this book, which shows what can happen when we connect rather than collide. --Marilyn R. Gardner, author of Between Worlds: Essays on Culture & Belonging This is a book Christians and non-Christians alike can relate to: its core message is one of knowing how to admit you are wrong and learn from your mistakes, while strengthening friendships. -Booklist In this charming memoir, Rachel Pieh Jones (Stronger than Death), an expat American writer living in Djibouti, recounts her experiences moving from Minnesota to the horn of Africa when her husband took a professorship there, showing readers how her time in Muslim regions freed her from Islamophobic prejudice and deepened her own Christian faith....The author's considered, evocative prose and friendly persona make this a pleasure to read. Pieh Jones's courage to embrace her adventures, rethink shallow faith, and find genuine friendships will inspire readers looking to expand their own horizons. - Publishers Weekly, starred review As committed Christians and American expatriates living in East Africa, Jones and her family have built a life on the borders of one of the most fractious relationships in human history: Islam and Christianity. . . She relates her story without universalizing her experience, but we can learn much from her example. - Christianity Today An inherently fascinating, informative and inspiring read from cover to cover, Pillars is an extraordinary life story, unreservedly recommended for all members of the Christian community regardless of denominational affiliations. -Midwest Book Review In four decades of covering religion in America, I cannot recall a book by a Christian author that so eloquently explains the close parallels between the Muslim faith and Christianity. -ReadTheSpirit magazine This is not a book for those interested in polemics against Islam. Jones takes us into the lived experience of Muslims in the Horn of Africa and what a real engagement with them can be like with risk, affection, difference, and real learning. We also should remember her learning journey began with the Somali refugees in Minnesota. Many of us have Muslim neighbors or work colleagues or health care providers. This is a valuable book both for its exploration of Islam, but also for its model of humble, open dialogue, willing to make mistakes and take risks, to welcome and be welcomed. And it points to what can happen as we engage those of another faith. We not only learn about their faith; we rediscover our own. -Bob Trube Besides being an enjoyable read, it is a timely reminder for all of us to do all we can to remove prejudicial barriers and build bridges between different faiths. - Dr. Simon Ross Valentine, Church Times, UK