The Shiraz Controversy: Henry Martyn, Crucicentric Conversionism, and Islam 1811–12

Abstract

While translating the New Testament in Shiraz, Persia, in 1811–12, East India Company chaplain Henry Martyn (1781–1812) also composed three Persian tracts—the Shiraz Controversy—which presented Evangelical Christianity to Muslim scholars. Although contemporary Muslim scholars and the Persian shah read Martyn’s tracts, recent scholarship has neglected the context and content of the Shiraz Controversy. In this early Evangelical encounter with Islam, Martyn drew from the past while contributing to the development of Christian-Muslim dialogue. I argue that in the Shiraz Controversy, Martyn pioneered a shift in Christian-Muslim dialogue by integrating an emphasis on crucicentric and new birth conversionism, even while drawing from arguments reaching back to the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. This thesis is argued across nine chapters. The first chapter identifies the research questions and thesis of this dissertation. Chapters 2–4 set the background for Martyn’s Shiraz Controversy. The second chapter surveys the use of the doctrines of the cross and conversion in Christian dialogue with Muslims prior to Martyn’s ministry. Chapter 3 argues that the doctrines of the cross and conversion played a central role in Martyn’s life, journals, and letters. Chapter 4 evaluates the political, religious, and social context of Shiraz in the early nineteenth century. Chapters 5–7 take up each of Martyn’s three Persian tracts. Here the Persian tracts are outlined and explicated to show the role of crucicentric and new birth conversionism in each. Chapter 8 studies the legacy of Martyn’s Shiraz Controversy and draws implications for the discussion of conversion in missiology today. Chapter 9 summarizes the argument of this dissertation and identifies areas for further study.