About the Contributor(s): Anton Wessels is Professor Emeritus of Missiology and Religious Studies at VU University Amsterdam, where he taught for twenty-four years. His most important works in English include "A Kind of Bible" Vincent van Gogh as Evangelist; Europe: Has It Ever Been Really Christian?; and Muslims and the West: Can They Ever Be Integrated?

The decline of Christian beliefs and Christian practice in modern Europe has often been commented on, and there have been calls for a 're-evangelization' of Europe. But how far has Europe really been Christian? That is the fascinating issue explored in this book. In a historical survey of the Graeco-Roman, Celtic and Germanic backgrounds against which the gospel was first preached, Anton Wessels asks how Christianity came to be related to pre-Christian cultures. Were these swept away or just given a new significance? Which elements of them were abolished and which Christianized? Did Christianity prevail only by incorporating much of what had previously existed? These questions are not just asked out of curiosity. What has long fascinated the author is whether an insight into the spread of Christianity through Europe can be of any help in presenting the gospel in today's secularized world. There is much talk of the cinculturation' of the gospel in other cultures: African, Asian and Latin American; but Europe can be no exception here and the inculturation of the gospel in European countries is something of which Europeans should be far more aware. Here is a wealth of fascinating information, from the Graeco-Roman mystery religions through the Arthurian legends to the German festivals. And here is an area of exploration which is likely to prove increasingly important.

Discussing the Bible and the Qur'an in one breath will surprise some Jews, Christians, and Muslims. But Anton Wessels argues that all three traditions must read the Scriptures "together" and not "against" each other. As his book title suggests, the three books, in the end, are actually one tale.Wessels accepts Muhammad as a prophet and takes the Qur'an seriously as Holy Scripture along with the Old and New Testaments -- without giving up his own Christian convictions. Respectfully reading the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur'an together, he argues, is of crucial importance: our world often sees these religious books as the cause of conflicts rather than the solution to them.

The artist who originally wanted to become a preacher like his father. This book argues that although when he realised his vocation was to become a painter he broke with institutional Christianity, he continued to be an evangelist in his distinctive way.