Saving Christians: The gift of a multifaith world
What if the religious diversity isn't a threat to Christian faith, but a gift?
Saving Christians: The Gift of a Multifaith World invites Christians to discover how other religions can deepen their own Christian faith.
This book is not about other religions rescuing Christianity.
And it is not about Christians abandoning their own faith tradition.
Instead, Saving Christians asks what might happen if Christians approach other faiths with curiosity, humility and a willingness to learn.
Joel Simpson explores what Christians can learn from other religious traditions, and how those relationships can strengthen a life of love, justice, and faithful action.
What Can Christians Learn from Other Religions?
Christians have much to learn from other religious traditions. Encounters with Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religious traditions can invite Christians to see their own tradition in a whole new way; a way that calls us deeper and more fully into the best of our Christian faith and our call to love, compassion, hospitality, justice, and faithfulness.
Learning from another religion does not require abandoning Christianity. Instead, it can help Christians see familiar aspects of their own tradition with new eyes.
Saving Christians explores what can happen when Christians approach people of other faiths not as competitors or threats, but as neighbors, friends, teachers, and partners in the work of building a more just and loving world.
A Multifaith World Can Be a Gift
The book's central argument is simple:
Other religious traditions do not have to be competitors to Christianity. They can become partners in helping us live more faithfully.
Encountering another tradition can challenge our assumptions, broaden our understanding, expose us to practices of faith we might otherwise overlook, and invite us to take our own commitments more seriously.
The goal is not to erase religious differences.
The goal is to recognize the gift of religious traditions even among the differences.
Interfaith Relationships Can Deepen Christian Faith
Much of what I have learned about religious diversity has come not simply from studying other religions, but from relationships with people who practice them.
Friendship across religious differences can challenge assumptions, expand our understanding of God and faith, and teach us to listen with greater humility. These relationships can also reveal shared commitments to compassion, justice, human dignity, and the flourishing of our communities.
For Christians, interfaith relationships can become an opportunity for deeper discipleship—not because every religion is the same, but because encountering people whose faith differs from our own can help us understand both our neighbors and our own tradition more faithfully.
Love, Justice & Faithful Action
At the heart of Saving Christians is an invitation to love more fully.
Our faith calls us to love God and love our neighbors, what does that look like in a religiously diverse world?
Can other religious traditions help us become more loving, more humble, and more committed to justice?
Saving Christians argues that they can.
For Churches & Small Groups
This book can be read on its own. It’s also designed to be explored in community.
Each chapter includes discussion questions, making the book suitable for church groups, small groups, classes, and other communities interested in exploring Christian faith and religious diversity.
A six-week discussion guide will also be available for groups that want to read and discuss the book together.
Who is this book for?
Saving Christians is for Christians who:
want to better understand people of other faiths
want to think more deeply about Christian identity
care about love, justice, and faithful action
are interested in interfaith relationships
have friends, neighbors, or colleagues from other religious traditions
or simply wonder what Christians might learn from the religious diversity around them
It is also designed for pastors, church leaders, educators, small groups, and communities looking for a way to begin meaningful conversations about religious difference.
About the Author
Joel Simpson is a pastor, author, speaker, and Christian leader whose work explores Christian faith, religious diversity, interfaith relationships, and social justice.
He is a United Methodist pastor and has worked with people across religious and cultural differences to build more loving and just communities.
Saving Christians: The Gift of a Multifaith World grows out of his experiences building relationships with people of different faiths and asking what Christians can learn from those encounters.
Get the Book
Saving Christians: The Gift of a Multifaith World is forthcoming February 24, 2027.
Bring Saving Christians to your church or group
Are you looking for a book that can help your church or small group explore Christian faith in a religiously diverse world?
Saving Christians offers a framework for thoughtful conversation about religious difference, interfaith relationships, Christian discipleship, love, justice, and faithful action.