Middle Eastern Christians Research Articles

Muslims, Jews, and Christians: How the Bible Was Translated into Arabic

Sidney H. Griffith’s recent book, The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the “People of the Book” in the Language of Islam, discusses how the Bible was translated into Arabic, the language of Islam, but increasingly the vernacular of Jewish and Christian communities in the Middle East: When, where, and by whom was the Bible translated partially or fully into Arabic? Were such translations made from the original Hebrew and Greek, or from the Septuagint or the Syriac versions? Why did Christians, Jews, and Muslims make translations? For what purposes did they use them? How did these translations reflect the religious and intellectual life of their communities? Griffith draws carefully supported conclusions on these subjects based on his expertise as a historian of Middle Eastern Christian communities before and after the spread of Islam.

The turn to the Other: Reflections on contemporary Middle Eastern theological contributions to Christian–Muslim dialogue

This article responds to Middle Eastern Christian positions concerning the Other, which have been dominant in most Christian–Muslim relations in the past, through the centuries, and is still prevailing in the Middle East through several Christian voices. As these positions, directly or indirectly, endeavor to appropriate the tradition of the Other and make it fit within the boundaries of one’s own theological heritage, the present article suggests the need for a genuine turn to the Other, in order to make the true perception and the understanding of the tradition of the Other possible. Hence, a method of rejuvenation is proposed, which implies first a critical consideration of one’s own tradition and then a genuine turn to the Other, making the meeting and the reading of the holy texts together possible with the Other in terms clarified through the post-critical method of scriptural reasoning.

“ELIAS GEVERI OF DAMASCUS” IN RUSSIAN STUDIES OF CHURCH HISTORY: A WITNESS TO THE TWO-FINGER SIGN OF THE CROSS IN A MEDIEVAL TREATISE ON DENOMINATIONS OF SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY

The cultural heritage of Middle-Eastern Christianity was so influential in the rest of the Christian world that it frequently att racted the attention of scholars studying particular church traditions. It is not surprising, therefore, that Middle-Eastern Christian practices became an intriguing subject for historians of the origins of the Russian “Old Believers,” a movement which itself frequently referred to some MiddleEastern Christian practices as proofs of the truthfulness of its own tradition. One such episode invoking early Middle-Eastern evidence for making the sign of the cross deserves a special inquiry. In 1847, in the Colloquia of the Imperial Society for Russian History and Antiquities at the University of Moscow, Philaret Gumilevskiy (1805– 1866), who was then the bishop of Riga, published his study The Worship of the Russian Church in the Pre-Mongolian Period.1 Concerning the various ways of making the sign of the cross, bishop Philaret cited a Middle-Eastern Christian author who had touched on the subject in his treatise: “The Nestorian author Elias of Damascus who lived in the late ninth century, intending to reconcile the Syrian Monophysites with the Orthodox and the Nestorians, wrote as follows: ‘As to the fact that they do not agree with each other in making the sign of the cross, this is not an obstacle at all. Some of them, for instance, make the sign of the cross with one finger and move the hand from the left side of the body to the right. Others do it with two fingers, and do so from the right side to the

Dialogue between Christians and Muslims: the position of the Patriarchate of Antioch

Middle Eastern Christians have been living in Muslim environment for centuries thus their contacts with the Muslim majority initiated in the second half of XIX century a creating of a model of coexistence with their Muslim neighbors. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch which presents the Asian part of the Arab world have made a significant contribution to shaping the ideas of secular Arab nationalism and have played prominent role in this process. Antioch Church confirms its pro-Arab and national positions and calls to find common ground between Christians and Muslims in the field of moral and mental outlook along with the strengthening of the foundations of coexistence in practical life without going into doctrinal issues . The rhetoric of the Church seeks to reaffirm the Arab character of its flock, its overall fate of the Muslims and their commitment to "the spiritual values of the East." However, the same official church position emphasizes that the Orthodox are the indigenous population of the region, which played a significant role in all positive processes within "historical Syria". The secular elite of the Orthodox community uses the same arguments in an attempt to strengthen its position in the political and economic life in Syria and Lebanon and to confirm their right to participate in public life.

Women & Christianity. Edited by Cheryl A.Kirk-Duggan and Karen Jo Torjesen

As one volume in a series on Women and Religion in the World, Women & Christianity historically contextualizes and compellingly critiques contemporary issues challenging Christian communities worldwide. Premising that a core and anchoring theme in Christianity is the quest for social justice through personal engagement and praxis theology, editors Kirk-Duggan and Torjesen selected fourteen essays and divided them thematically into five sections: Women, Family, Environment; Socioeconomics, Politics, Authority; Body, Mind, Spirit; Sex, Power, Vulnerability; and Women, Worldview, Religious Practice. The book engages the textual, the historical, and the personal narrative to give a sense of the roots in Christian Scripture. The result is an analytic mapping of what has denied women's full agency and autonomy as well as what has inspired feminists in Christianity. This is a diverse collection of the committed but critical voices of theologians, pastors, and activists working within a liberative faith paradigm. Those unfamiliar with feminist studies in Christianity may be surprised at the richness of the discussion, ranging from textual analyses of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scripture to a historical rendering of the medieval church and colonialist expansionism through to contemporary reflections on sexual violence, queer theory, poverty, illness, and Black women's activism in the environmental justice movement. Not only is a wide range of issues covered in this book, but some attention is given to representation as well. For instance, feminist critiques on the Korean and Caribbean cultures are refreshing in what is predominantly a North American rendering of Christian feminism. If any perspectives or examples could be added, it might be more from those who speak from a colonized perspective, such as Christian Aboriginal or Middle Eastern Christian communities. As each are examples of cultures that were colonized by Christendom, such narratives could provide an even wider range of considerations, such as how women negotiate between competing familial, religious, nationalist, and classist identities and loyalties. More examples of this nature would underscore the far-reaching extent of Christian feminism as well as highlight the need for postcolonial considerations of the intersections of race, gender, and religion.

Ethno-Cultural and Religious Identity of Syrian Orthodox Christians

Many Middle Eastern Christian groups identify or have been identified with pre-Islamic peoples in the Middle East: the Copts with Ancient Egypt, the Nestorians with Assyria, the Maronites with Phoenicians and some Rum Orthodox and other Christians with pre-Islamic Arab tribes. The concern of this study is the Syrian Orthodox Christians or Jacobite(s) (named after the 6th century Monophysite Christian bishop Yacoub Burd‘ono or Jacob Baradaeus of Urfa/Osrohene/Edessa), specifically those whose ancestry stems from the Tur Abdin region of Turkey, Diyarbekir, Mardin, Urfa, and Harput/Elazig.

The Middle Eastern Christian as Agent

The greatest accomplishment of the past ten to twenty years of scholarship on Christian groups in Middle Eastern states is the way scholars have recognized the agency of a population long objectified in both academic and polemical circles. Christians have long been viewed as the object of other actors. For some, they were mere products of Muslim societies that imposed upon them the debatably restricted or protected status ofahl al-dhimma. For others, they were the appendages of external forces determined to use them as devices of their interests. The concerns of such external forces only contributed to Christians' portrayal as vehicles of imperialism. Although these tropes persist, over the last several years many scholars have begun to explore the ways in which Arab and other Middle Eastern Christians operate as subjects in their own right.

Middle Eastern Christians and Migration

Middle Eastern Christians and Migration

Migration of Middle Eastern Christians to Western Countries and Protestant Missionary Activities in the Middle East

Migration of Middle Eastern Christians to Western Countries and Protestant Missionary Activities in the Middle East

CHRISTIAN PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

PETER E. MAKARI [*] At the close of the second millennium since the birth of our Lord, much attention around the world is focussed on the Middle East, and particularly on the historic land of Jesus Christ's life and resurrection, the land of Palestine and Israel. Pilgrims have for centuries come to the so-called Holy Land to visit the places where the events of the scriptures took place. The biblical lands are indeed special. They offer the Christian visitor a spiritual journey endowed with many meanings and a sense of immediate connectivity with our faith history. It is to this context that so many have come and this that so many have sought. The number of pilgrims expected to come to the Middle East, and particularly Palestine and Israel, during the Great Jubilee year 2000 is staggering. They will visit the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; they will go to Egypt, where the holy family sought refuge from King Herod; they will wet themselves along the Jordan river banks in which Christ was baptized; they will retrace Christ's steps on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem as he carried his cross; and they will look inside the tomb from which Christ emerged, resurrected in full glory. They will never forget the experience, or the place; but will they have encountered any of their Middle Eastern Christian sisters and brothers who are struggling to maintain their lives and livelihoods in the land of Christ? The Christian population of the Middle East is often overlooked, forgotten, or simply unknown. Those not familiar with today's Middle East correctly associate Islam with it. Islam is the overwhelming majority religion throughout the Middle East and North Africa's twenty-two nations. From Morocco to Iraq and Iran, Islam is the numerical majority. It is interesting to note, though, that the highest concentration of Muslims is not in the Middle East, but rather in South and Southeast Asia, in Indonesia and Malaysia. As for Christians in the Middle East, we have inhabited the lands of the region continuously since the days of Christ himself. The first people to be called Christians lived in Antioch. The first church, established by the apostle James, was in Jerusalem. This is our heritage. This is our history. Our roots are here. The numerical presence of Christians in the Middle East is proportionately low. The percentages vary from country to country, and estimates vary from source to source. There is no accurate and reliable census or study that offers statistics. We can say that the number of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, the geographical distribution of churches that are members in the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), is approximately fifteen million. Percentages of Christians vary from less than 2% in Iran, to about 10% in Egypt, to more than 40% in Lebanon. Virtually all of these Christians belong to one of the four ecclesiastical families represented in the MECC: Oriental Orthodox, Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical (including Anglican and Protestant churches). The Environment of the Middle East As we have already mentioned, the prevailing culture and environment in the region is Islamic. That has not always been the case, however. It is imperative that we call to mind that Islam was introduced just less than 1,400 years ago, in the early 7th century. Before that time, Christianity was the main religion of the Middle East. Even on the Arab peninsula Christianity was present and significant. As the Arab armies moved north and west, they conquered much land and important capitals for Islam before the end of the 7th century. Islamic rule was the political norm throughout, but did not immediately become a majority religion throughout the land of political rule. Christianity remained the majority for some decades and even centuries in some places. The fact that Islam eventually became the majority religion can no doubt be attributed to its appeal as a liberating political force from the oppressive Byzantine empire. …

Listening to Middle Eastern Christians

Through television Western Christians have recently been exposed to vivid images of the violent repression of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. With live ammunition, three-foot clubs and cyanide tear gas, courtesy of the United States, the Palestinian protest of the occupation is being hammered into silence. Once it is silenced, it is hard to know whether Western people will continue to wonder about what is happening to those who are suffering under this occupation.The World Council of Churches, the Vatican and fundamentalist Christians have long since assumed their stances on the question of Israel and the Palestinians. For the World Council and the Vatican, relationships to Judaism and relationship to the state of Israel are separate questions, the one theological, the other political. Generally, both have supported the two-state solution, or the granting of a mini-Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Fundamentalists, by contrast, are militant supporters of an expanded Israel, based on their reading of Biblical prophecy.The voices which are largely unheard in western Christian circles are those of Middle Eastern Christians themselves. Unlike Western liberal Christians, they generally understand that, because the state of Israel implicitly makes claims based on Hebrew Scripture, these claims must be confronted theologically.One such statement was put together as long ago as 1967 by a group of Middle Eastern Christian theologians, headed by George Khodr, present bishop of Mount Lebanon in the Orthodox Church of Antioch. Entitled What is Required of the Christian Faith Concerning the Palestinian Problem, it lay major emphasis on the spiritual and universal meaning of Christian faith.

The Bahā'īs of Iran: the roots of controversy

IN AN interview given shortly before his return to Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini was asked about the position of religious minorities in a future Islamic republic. In his reply, he guaranteed protection and respect for such groups, but, when asked specifically about the largest of the minorities-the Bahi'as-he asserted that 'they are a political faction; they are harmful; they will not be accepted' (Seven Days 1979, pp.19-20; cf. Nash 1982, pp.77-78). That verdict has been matched during the past seven years by both organized and random campaigns against the Bah'is within Iran, which at times have reached the proportions of a full-scale pogrom but not, so far, those of the holocaust some writers have predicted (e.g. Nash 1982, pp.132, 136).1 Well over 100 Bah'as, including national and local leaders, have been put to death, both by execution and mob violence; hundreds of others have been imprisoned and, it is alleged, tortured; Bahai property has been seized, looted, and destroyed; the assets of Baha'l companies have been confiscated; and large numbers of adherents have been dismissed from private and public employment. According to a Minority Rights Group report: 'There is clear evidence that the authorities are condoning and in some cases initiating the terror and repression against Baha'is' (Cooper 1982, p.1 1). International opinion has been galvanized in support of the Baha'is to an unusual degree. Resolutions condemning the treatment of the minority have been passed by the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission and the SubCommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the European Parliament, Amnesty International, and several national parliaments. Newspaper, radio, and even television publicity has been extensive, particularly at the local level, to the extent that, for many Westerners, the Iranian Baha'is may be the only Middle Eastern religious minority, besides Jews and Christians, of whose existence they are aware. There is, of course, a simple explanation for this unprecedented interest in the plight of a single minority. Outside Iran, the Baha'i community is sizeable and widely distributed, with perhaps 3,000,000 members worldwide (see Hampson 1980; MacEoin 1985b, pp.492-3). This international community possesses a highly organized and efficient bureaucratic structure that enables it to respond effectively to situations like the one in Iran. It is represented as a non-governmental body at the UN, with an office in New York, while national Baha'i organizations often have good relations with influential institutions and individuals in their countries. Baha' attitudes toward the current persecutions in Iran range from genuine concern for the plight of their co-religionists there to what seems uncomfortably like self-interested exploitation of the pogrom's publicity potential (as expressed, for example, in official statements to the effect that the Iranian situation offers 'golden opportunities' that may lead to 'large-scale conversion and an increasing prestige' (Universal House of Justice 1982; see also MacEoin 1983, f.n. 164)).

Problematizing "minorities" in the Middle East

Using a case study of the Palestinian Christians, this article explores the relationship of Middle Eastern Christian communities to “minority status” in light of the realities of citizenship, state building and nationalism in the Middle East.