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Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, with Stacy Mattingly, Doubleday, New York, 2002, 309 pages, US$19.95, hardcover. Reviewed by Gary Krause, communication director for the Office of Global Mission at the General Conference.

risoners of Hope is a modern-day story loosely within the "innocents abroad" genre. It's a fascinating story of how two young, idealistic American Christians faced the most fundamentalist Islamic regime in the world. The book directly and indirectly raises many questions about the place of religion in personal life and in politics. Unfortunately, the book doesn't explore these questions as deeply as it could.

Arrested by the government for preaching Christianity, Heather Mercer (24) and Dayna Curry (30), were detained in Kabul on August 3 and were released on November 15. Volunteers with a Christian international aid agency, Heather and Dayna flouted Afghan law and shared their beliefs using Christian literature and movies, which must have doubly rankled officials since movies of any kind were banned. In their book they describe the critical months of their imprisonment, including the frightening weeks when they realized the bombs falling around them were being dropped by their own government.

Narrative in the book alternates between Heather and Dayna, who convey their experiences with honesty and clarity. The back-and-forth narrative style inserts additional perspectives to the same events.

While sympathizing with their situation and admiring their courage and Christian commitment, I was disappointed that they seemingly ignored the larger context of their imprisonment. At one stage Heather writes: "God was working out a beautiful plan for my life and the nation of Afghanistan, and I was grateful to be a part of it." That statement captures at once both the strength and the weakness of this book.

In what sense was God "working out a beautiful plan" for Afghanistan? Our perception of God's intervention in historical events is problematic at the best of times, but is it true that the bombing raids on Afghanistan were His instruments? This book doesn't explore possible shades of gray.

In fact, there's virtually no historical context in the book, no attempt to understand historical forces that brought the country to the stage where two American women could be imprisoned for sharing Christianity. We learn little of Islam, and we're never even told who the Taliban are, or how they fit into the Afghan scheme of things. You can read the entire book without knowing anything of the Taliban except that they're a nondescript group of heartless, brutal barbarians.

Nowhere do we learn that the Taliban ran religious schools, mosques, and other religious affairs. Neither is it said that the Taliban leaders were not firstly politicians, rather they were religious leaders and teachers, often working in the Muslim equivalent of seminaries. We don't learn that they were widely seen in the 1990s as a reform movement to help and defend the people against corrupt war leaders and Mujahideen groups.

Some sort of fleshing out of the Taliban and the historical context would have added credibility to the story. Adding historical context wouldn't mean defending the regime or overlooking its faults and excesses, it would merely show that simplistic black-and-white equations are not the most helpful way to understand life.

Ironically, the religious commitment of the captives mirrors the religious zeal of the captors. Yet the young women seem unaware that in disobeying the government's laws against proselytizing, they were seen as attacking Islam, a religion that was as precious to the Afghans as Christianity was to them.

During interrogation the young women do wrestle with the ethics of telling lies to protect those with whom they shared Christianity. Also, as the bombs fall they are concerned with the safety of innocent civilians. But the morality of acting under false pretences to share the gospel is not explored in great depth.

Dayna and Heather do a far better job in their compelling account of God's "beautiful plan" for their own lives. The skeptic can always find fault, but in Christian witness there's nothing more convincing than a heartfelt personal testimony. Both young women are candid about their faults and failures, their struggles and their disappointments. They grew up as all-American teenagers, enjoying the material comforts that came with being in the middle class at the end of the twentieth century. But they felt a spiritual void that was filled only when they accepted Jesus. They rejected the materialistic values of their society and joined Shelter Now International (SNI) to help others less fortunate than themselves.

SNI has as its mission to "respond quickly and with compassion to those who as a result of war, persecution, or natural disaster are homeless and in desperate need of shelter, and in doing so to be instruments of God's love for all people and especially the poor." The problem is, Dayna and Heather took that one step further by covertly proselytizing.

In prison they held on to hope through Christian fellowship, Bible verses, and the singing of spiritual songs. At times they went through valleys of discouragement, but always emerged with stronger faith. "I met them and they are two wonderful girls, very spirited, tremendously strong, and they really were quite an inspiration," said Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist who was held briefly in the same prison as the two Americans.

Reading this book I came to exactly the same conclusion.