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Christian Zionism
Enraptured Around a Golden Calf
Non-Fiction
Jewish like Abraham?
There are good people. There are bad people. Good people on all sides can learn to get along. Bad people can’t. Of course, the good can become bad and vice versa because we all have the good, bad and ugly within us. Which we choose defines who we are. Right now, and for too long, the bad people in the region hijack the good people, a minority tyrannizing the scared and silent majority.
Most Israelis and most Palestinians, tired and stressed out, seek a future without war. Both do not support indiscriminate brutality against the other. They desperately want security and peace. The vast majority of the Israeli Jews (73.8%), Israeli Palestinians living inside Israel with Israeli citizenships (97%) and the Palestinians (under enemy control in Gaza and the West bank) (85.7%) want peace, heretofore, either not realized or denied by all sides of the Divide.
Read Chapter 5: ‘Abraham … A Life Without Borders,’ in which I have outlined a 10-Point Initiative that, with God’s help, can transform the land to become an orchard of peace, fueled with healing oils of compassion and mercy; God’s Holy Spirit, His everlasting grace.
The Game Changers …
I couldn’t have written my book without studying the Game Changers below. If it weren’t for these Game Changers, I could not have distilled their nuggets into ‘Christian Zionism Enraptured Around a Golden Calf’. I am grateful and humbled.
How to Heal Our Divides: A Practical Guide
by & 6 more
Our country has become quite polarized – what do we do about it?
Recent times have put a spotlight on the deep divisions in our society. Much has been written that acknowledges and describes racial, political, religious, and other divides, but there is little practical information on what we can do about them. How to Heal Our Divides highlights organizations that are taking real action to address these issues and heal divides in effective and practical ways. See how you can help make the world a better place…
In This Place Together: A Palestinian's Journey to Collective Liberation
by Sulaiman Khatib
A narrative meditation on joint nonviolence, opening a window to the questions of power, multiple narratives, and imagination that touch on struggles for justice everywhere.
As a Palestinian youth, Sulaiman Khatib encountered the occupation in his village and attempted to fight back, stabbing an Israeli. Imprisoned at the age of 14, he began a process of political and spiritual transformation still unfolding today. In a book he asked Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, an American Jew, to write, and based on years of conversation between them, Khatib shares how his activism became deeply rooted in the belief that we must ground all work—from dialogue to direct action to healing—in recognition of the history and humanity of the other. He reveals how he became convinced that Palestinian freedom can flourish alongside Jewish connection to the land where he was born.
In language that is poetic and unflinchingly honest, Eilberg-Schwartz and Khatib chronicle what led him to dedicate his life to joint nonviolence. In his journey, he encountered the deep injustice of torture, witnessed the power of hunger strikes, and studied Jewish history. Ultimately, he came to realize mutual recognition, alongside a transformation of the systems that governed their lives, was necessary for both Palestinians and Israelis to move forward. Still, as he built friendships with Israelis and resisted the occupation alongside them, he could not lose sight of the great power imbalance in the relationship, of all the violence and erasure still present as they dreamt forward together.
Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel: How Should We Interpret the Scriptures?
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How should Christians today understand the many promises and prophecies in the Old Testament about the future of Israel and its land? Are Christian Zionists justified in believing that these have been fulfilled in the return of Jews to their land since the 1880s and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948? This book discusses all the key texts about the restoration of Israel that are quoted in these debates, questioning the Christian Zionist interpretation and offering an alternative. This is followed by a detailed study of two important Old Testament texts dealing with the future of Israel, Ezekiel 33–47 and Zechariah 9–13, understanding them in their original context and exploring how they are interpreted in the New Testament. This is no theoretical, ivory-tower debate. We are dealing here with the most bitter and protracted conflict of the last 150 years; and the way we interpret the Bible has profound political consequences.
The Religious Other A Biblical Understanding of Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad
Edited By
Martin Accad and Jonathan Andrews
We live at a time when religious diversity has become a fact of life in our globalized societies. Yet Christian engagement with Muslims remains complex, complicated by fear, misunderstanding and a history fraught with political and cultural tensions. These essays, drawn from the 2018 and 2019 Middle East Consultations hosted by the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary’s Institute of Middle East Studies, engage the need for a carefully developed theological understanding of Islam, its origins and its sacred text. Weaving together the work of christian scholars of Islam, the Bible, theology and missiology, along with the insights of ministry practitioners, this book combines scholarly exploration with pertinent ministry practice, offering a rich framework for the church to continue its conversation about its engagement with Muslim communities and its proclamation of Christ worldwide.
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
by Rashid Khalidi
n 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members―mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists―The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope
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Christians have lived in Palestine since the earliest days of the Jesus movement. The Palestinian church predates Islam. Yet Palestinian Christians find themselves marginalized and ostracized. In the heated tensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the voices of Palestinian Christians are often unheard and ignored. This book provides an opportunity to hear the realities of life on the ground from a leading Palestinian pastor and theologian. Munther Isaac gives the perspective of Palestinian Christians on the other side of the separation wall surrounding most Palestinian West Bank cities today. Isaac laments the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people but holds out hope for a just peace and ways to befriend and love his Jewish and Muslim neighbors. In contrast to the dominant religious and nationalistic ideologies and agendas for the region, he offers a theology of the land and a vision for a shared land that belongs to God, where there are no second-class citizens of any kind. “This book is my invitation to you,” Isaac writes, “to step into the other side of the wall and listen to our stories and perspective. It is my humble request to you to allow me to share how Palestinians experience God, read the Bible, and have been touched and liberated by Jesus―a fellow Bethlehemite who has challenged us to see others as neighbors and love them as ourselves. . . . This book paints a picture of our story of faith, lament, and hope. And I invite you to join and listen, on our side of the wall.”
Challenging Western Christians and Their Neighbours: Be Participants in the Mission of Jesus, At Home and Abroad
by Steven Paas
This concise study searches for what is needed to awaken or strengthen the faltering missionary consciousness of Western Christians with regard to their own environment. In Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit, the whole missionary enterprise of God, the missio Dei, started and continues; by him and his Holy Spirit it will also be accomplished and finished. All Christians are meant by Jesus to be participants in his mission. The apostles had to start at home, in Jerusalem, Judea, and Galilee. Consequently, for today’s Christians participation in the mission of Jesus expresses itself in their relationship with people next door, those who are not religious, and those who are of other religions and cultures. The mission field is in our direct vicinity, where we daily meet the people we may know.
What is Modern Israel?
by Yakov M. Rabkin
Few countries provoke as much passion and controversy as Israel. What is Modern Israel? convincingly demonstrates that its founding ideology – Zionism – is anything but a simple reaction to antisemitism. Dispelling the notion that every Jew is a Zionist and therefore a natural advocate for the state of Israel, Yakov Rabkin points to the Protestant roots of Zionism, in order to explain the particular support Israel musters in the United States.
Drawing on many overlooked pages of history, including English, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian sources, Yakov Rabkin shows that Zionism was conceived as a sharp break with Judaism and Jewish continuity. Israel’s past and present must be seen in the context of European ethnic nationalism, colonial expansion and geopolitical interests, rather than as an incarnation of Biblical prophecies or a culmination of Jewish history.
Reconcile: Conflict Transformation for Ordinary Christians
by John Paul Lederach
What if reconciliation is central to the biblical message?
And what if Christians, who have been missing the mark for millennia, are waking up to the reconciling mission of God?
Reconcile: Conflict Transformation for Ordinary Christians,by international mediator John Paul Lederach and with a foreword by Bill and Lynne Hybels, serves as a guidebook for Christians seeking a scriptural view of reconciliation and practical steps for transforming conflict.
Originally published as The Journey Toward Reconciliation and based on Lederach’s work in war zones on five continents, this revised and updated book tells dramatic stories of what works—and what doesn’t—in entrenched conflicts between individuals and groups. Lederach leads readers through stories of conflict and reconciliation in Scripture, using these stories as anchors for peacemaking strategies that Christians can put into practice in families and churches.
Lederach, who has written twenty-two books and whose work has been translated into more than twelve languages, also offers new lenses through which to view conflict, whether congregational conflicts or global terrorism. A new section of resources, created by mediation professionals, professors, and pastors, offers tools for understanding interpersonal, church, and global conflict, worship resources, books and websites for further study, and invitations to action in everyday life.
No Country for Jewish Liberals
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Larry’s book keeps me in balance. Writing about Israel – Palestine is a temptation to descend on the slippery slope toward one side at best, extremism at worst. Once he has called me “brother,” to which I respond: “I love you man”. I mean it. He writes about Israel with no stones unturned. But Larry expresses hope, how Israel can still become a nation of his dreams. Despite the bad and ugly, he reports on the good, too. He feels and is part of it. From the inside he’s doing what he can to effectuate change. Some call him “Judenrat.” So, what! Israel is home.
Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
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Both immediate and timeless, Abraham tells the powerful story of one man’s search for the shared ancestor of Judaism, Christianity, andIslam. Traveling through war zones, braving violence at religious sites, andseeking out faith leaders, Bruce Feiler uncovers the defining yet divisive role that Abraham plays for half the world’s believers. Provocative anduplifting, Abraham offers a thoughtful and inspiring vision of unity that redefines what we think about our neighbors, our future, and ourselves.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Not too often do I read the same book more than once, let alone, five times. I am
looking for answers. I get more questions. Feiler has inspired me to write Chapter 5,
‘Abraham … A life Without Borders.’
A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978
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One of my prized trophies. Inciteful and insightful! It goes with me wherever I go. I treat it with kid gloves. Travel documents are replaceable. Solzhenitsyn’s wisdom is not.
The New Testament Case Against Christian Zionism: A Christian View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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The New Testament Case Against Christian Zionism: A Christian View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict uses the analogy of a trial in an American courtroom. As the book title indicates, Christian Zionism and its dispensational theology are in the dock and are indicted and proven to be guilty of perverting the gospel and Jesus Christ’s central role in salvation history. Although the book gives an historical and theological analysis of Christian Zionism in Britain and America, its main feature is the presentation of New Testament evidence from the ministry of Jesus and apostolic evidence from Luke’s Gospel-Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s Romans-Galatians letters, the Hebrews Exhortation and John’s Gospel. In the light of this NT evidence, the existence today of pseudo-Christian Zionism with its new unorthodox…
Had Paul Pomerville not written his book, I couldn’t have written mine. The New Testament was hard for me to decipher until I arrived at a ‘clear moment,’ something like an ‘ah-ha’ experience when all the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. It’s so
simple, so obvious, so graceful. Paul Pomerville inspired me to write Chapter 1, ‘A Divine Surprise.’ He lives on Bali and writes about heaven on earth. Makes perfect sense to me.
Through My Enemy's Eyes: Envisioning Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine
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This book addresses the universal theological dimension of reconciliation in the context of the Israeli Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian divide. Palestinian Christians and Israeli Messianic Jews share a belief in Jesus as the son of God and Messiah. Often, though, that is all they have in common. This remarkable book, written in collaboration by a local Palestinian Christian and an Israeli Messianic Jew, seeks to bridge this gap by addressing head on, divisive theological issues (as well as their political …
What a story. Christians from opposing sides yearning to become One in the Spirit. God’s spirit commands ‘yes,’ their spirit often say ‘no.’ Of course, God prevails. It’s not just about enemies, who happen to be Christians, seeking common ground. It’s about convergence accepting divergence; a diverse community of men and women who combine conflicting contradictions creatively to reconcile, not just to forgive and forget. Their book paints the backdrop to mine.
Zionism and Judaism: A New Theory
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Why should anyone be a Zionist, a supporter of a Jewish state in the land of Israel? Why should there be a Jewish state in the land of Israel? This book seeks to provide a philosophical answer to these questions. Although a Zionist need not be Jewish, nonetheless this book argues that Zionism is only a coherent political stance when it is intelligently rooted in Judaism, especially in the classical Jewish doctrine of God’s election of the people of Israel and the commandment to them to settle the land of Israel. The religious Zionism advocated here is contrasted with secular versions of Zionism that take Zionism to be a replacement of Judaism. It is also contrasted with versions of religious Zionism that ascribe messianic significance to the State of Israel, or which see the main task of religious Zionism to be the establishment of an Israeli theocracy.
Any student of Abraham Joshua Heschel is a classmate of mine. Theologian David Novak explains the story of Judaism and why Israel should be a Jewish state. I can’t say I agree, not in this day and age. But I relish learning more about my Jewish roots by studying his masterpiece; and, it’s so easy to read and follow.
Zionism the Real Enemy of the Jews Vol. 1: The False Messiah Vol. 2: David Becomes Goliath Vol. 3: Conflict without End?
by Alan Hart
The False Messiah is Volume I of a monumental history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, by a seasoned reporter with a vast first-hand knowledge of the Middle East. It is the first book to put the struggle for Palestine into its global context—to show how all the pieces of a complicated jig-saw puzzle fit together. It’s also the first ever account of events to address the motives, needs, and dilemmas faced by all sides: diaspora Jews’ real fear of Holocaust II; the Palestinian right to justice and self-determination; the legitimate…
Another Wow! The world will miss Alan Hart. Someday, Israel will appreciate, respect and honor him. He writes like an anchor covering the news on television, reporting his eyewitness accounts from the sixties to recent times. When one starts with Volume 1, you won’t stop until you’ve gone through Volume 3. I read all three volumes, almost 1,000 pages, in less time than the less-voluminous labor of love written by Paul Pomerville. And, yes, I will refer to Hart’s books again and again.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
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PRESIDENT CARTER’S COURAGEOUS ASSESSMENT OF WHAT MUST BE DONE TO BRING PERMANENT PEACE TO ISRAEL WITH DIGNITY AND JUSTICE TO PALESTINE
I have become the wiser by having read many books penned by President Carter. For me, President Carter is sunshine breaking through the clouds.
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work
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In this urgent, timely, and passionate book, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Jimmy Carter argues that the present moment is a unique time for achieving peace in the Middle East—and he offers a bold and comprehensive plan to do just that.
Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel
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2014 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award
In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens.”
Akiva Eldar says it so succinctly: “Exposure to the impressions of his journey through the land of Israel – Palestine might be outrageous, unsettling, heart wrenching. But those who fear for the image of this land would be well advised to respond to the challenge …”
The Meeting of Civilizations: Muslim, Christian, and Jewish
The horrific acts of anti-Western and anti-Jewish terrorism, carried out by Muslim fanatics during the last decades, have been labeled by politicians, religious leaders, and scholars as a “Clash of Civilizations.” However, as the contributors to this book explain, these acts cannot be considered an Islamic onslaught on Judeo-Christian civilization. While the hostile ideas, words, and deeds perpetrated by supporters among the three monotheistic civilizations cannot be ignored, history has demonstrated a more positive, constructive – albeit complex – relationship among Muslim, Christians, and Jews during medieval and modern times. For long periods of time, they shared divine and human values; cooperated in cultural, economic, and political fields; and influenced one another’s thinking…
Ma’oz compendium of convergence of the three divergent Abrahamic faiths has opened my door to interfaith dialogue. Phenomenal! The thoughtform expressed in ‘The Meeting of Civilizations …” has influenced the mindset of many.
The Voice, the Word, the Books: The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims
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Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe that their Scriptures preserve God’s words to humanity, and that those words were spoken uniquely to them. In The Voice, the Word, the Books, F. E. Peters leads readers on an extraordinary journey through centuries of written tradition to uncover the human fingerprints on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran, sacred texts that have enriched millions of lives. Bringing the latest Biblical and Quranic scholarship to a general audience, Peters explains how these three powerfully influential books passed from God’s mouth, so to speak, to become the Scriptures that we possess today. He reveals new insights into their origins, contents, canonization, and the important roles they have played in the lives of their communities. He explores how they evolved …
I like what Mark R. Cohen from Princeton University has stated: “This is a thorough and rich book, the remarkable work by one of the great authorities of our time on the three Abrahamic monotheistic religions. It examines scripture – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim – from every conceivable angle. It is written in Peter’s engaging prose and accessible to any intelligent reader.”
Obstacle to Peace: The US Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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Why has peace in the Middle East remained so elusive?
Obstacle to Peace not only provides the answer, but also explains why you won’t hear it from U.S. government officials or the mainstream media…
This is another must read. Noam Chomsky describes Hammond’s book as “carefully documented and highly informative.” Hammond has driven me deeper into the abyss and then shows a practical way out by considering a paradigm shift.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
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Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking book revisits the formation of the State of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint.
Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called “ethnic cleansing”. Decisively…
I love Ilan Pappe. He’s helped deconstruct my views on Zionism. What more can I say.
Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation
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A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of fifty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today’s most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there—and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories...
I carry this compendium of essays inside the plane because I usually will finish one or two essays before falling asleep and be enriched by those who reinforce my thoughts on the subject.
Industry of Lies: Media, Academia, and the Israeli-Arab Conflict
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The Industry of Lies is one of the greatest frauds of recent decades – a fraud of historic, even epic, proportions. When almost half of all Europeans believe that Israel treats the Palestinians just like the Nazis treated the Jews, when leading politicians assert that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the central cause of violence in the world, and when prominent intellectuals argue that Israel is an apartheid state, the unfortunate reality is that the lies are winning.
As a result, Israel has become the devil incarnate in the eyes of many otherwise good and reasonable people – people who genuinely want to see peace but inadvertently contribute to the continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The tragedy is that they are neither helping the Palestinians...
I need to know how one side responds to the insights that incites the other. Frankly, I have read Yemini’s book with scrutiny and console myself with “all truth is God’s truth” and for us mere mortals it is a challenge to discern God’s truths.
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
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Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,challenges the Christian Right’s religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society....
I read ‘American Fascists …’ only once but I couldn’t put it down until I read it from start to finish. Daring! Audacious! Bold! Intrepid! Heroic! “America has found a mask for fascism in patriotism and the pages of the Bible.” Profound! Scary!
Sharing The Land Of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle
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There is no more compelling and dramatic unfolding story, with more profound international ramifications, than the conflict in the Middle East.
Sharing the Land of Canaan is a critical examination of the core issues of the conflict that dares to put forward a radical but logical solution: that a shared state is the best way to achieve justice and peace for Israelis and ....
A few years ago, I asked Dr. Qumsiyet, “What do you think of our website, www.buildingthebridge.eu.” He responded with: “Read my book,” and I did. This started my journey exploring and then discovering Palestine, the region where I was born and, since reading his book, reborn. You don’t have to go far to search for his book, just click on http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/.
These Brothers of Mine: A Biblical Theology of Land and Family and a Response to Christian Zionism
by Rob Dalrymple
Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon?
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The term “Zionism” was first coined in the late nineteenth century, and referred to the movement for the return of the Jewish people to an assured and secure homeland in Palestine. Ironically, this vision was largely nurtured and shaped by Christians long before it received widespread Jewish support. The origins of “Christian Zionism” lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the “Six Day War” in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic. In this book Stephen Sizer provides a thorough examination of the historical development, variant forms, theological emphases and political implications of Christian Zionism. His excellent and informative survey is interwoven with critical assessment that repudiates both nationalistic Zionism and anti-Semitism.
From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth: A Christ-Centred Biblical Theology of the Promised Land
by Munther Isaac
The land is an important theme in the Bible. It is a theme through which the whole biblical history found in the Old and New Testaments can be studied and analyzed. Looking at the land in the Bible from its beginnings in the garden of Eden this publication approaches the theme from three distinct perspectives – holiness, the convenant, and the kingdom. Through careful analysis the author recognises that the land has been universalized in Christ, as anticipated in the Old Testament, and as a result promotes a missional theology of the land that underlines the social and territorial dimensions of redemption.
A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land
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A Land Full of God gives American Christians an opportunity to promote peace and justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It shows them how to understand the enmity with brief, digestible, and comprehensive essays about the historical, political, religious, and geographical tensions that have led to many of the dynamics we see today. All the while, A Land Full of God walks readers through a biblical perspective of God’s heart for Israel and the historic suffering of the Jewish people, while also remaining sensitive to the experience and suffering of Palestinians. The prevailing wave of Christian voices are seeking a pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace, pro-justice, pro-poor, and ultimately pro-Jesus approach to bring resolution to the conflict.
A Palestinian Theology of Liberation: The Bible, Justice, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict
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Addressing what many consider the world’s most intractable conflict, Naim Ateek offers a succinct primer on the theology of liberation in the context of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. From the historical roots of this struggle, Ateek shows how the memory of the Holocaust has served to trump the claims and aspirations of the native inhabitants, and how later Israeli occupation and settlement sin the West Bank have contributed to their suffering and oppression….
The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
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What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries…..
A Wall in Jerusalem: Hope, Healing, and the Struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine
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Violence in Israel and Palestine has become the norm.
Do we even understand this conflict? Do we know where it comes from?
Why can’t the two sides reach agreement? Can Jews and Palestinians find a way to coexist?
The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
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The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was ‘the clash of civilizations.’ The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a force for peace?
The Dignity of Difference is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s radical proposal for reconciling hatreds. The first major statement by a Jewish leader on the ethics of globalization, it also marks a paradigm shift in the…
Whose Land? Whose Promise?: What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians
by Gary M. Burge
Because events in the Middle East continue to escalate in tragic complexity, Christians still struggle with making sense of it all. In this updated version of Whose Land? Whose Promise?, Burge further explores the personal emotions and opinions; and sharpens his theological argument in the context of the new developments surrounding the crisis in the Middle East. Whose Land? Whose Promise? offers insight for the thoughtful reader on an explosive topic and challenges personal truths on peace.
The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace
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John Paul Lederach’s work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past...
Professor Lederach has taught me the essence of conflict resolution: “Where did we nourish and foster the creative imagination that permits you to bring into the world something that does not now exist? … That’s the creative act … And so how do you find that meaningful “we” that is expansive? And that’s sometimes understood, and sometimes not well understood, by those who find more meaning in keeping the gates a bit more closed.”
God Is One A Christian Defence of Divine Unity in the Muslim Golden Age
by Michael F. Kuhn
Since the first interactions between Christians and Muslims, a central point of contention has been the nature of God in relation to the doctrine of the trinity and divine oneness. Yet the belief that God is one is vociferously upheld by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.
In this detailed historical study and subsequent analysis, Dr Michael F. Kuhn explores the teaching of two Arab Christian theologians from the Abbasid Era (750–1250), ‘Abd Allāh Ibn al-Ṭayyib and Iliyyā of Nisibis, and how they defended the Christian view of God as three-in-one in the Muslim milieu and in reference to the Islamic concept of tawḥīd, God’s absolute unity. The intellectual contribution of these two Christian thinkers can be seen in fact that the concepts they articulated continue to feature in Muslim–Christian dialogue to this day. Dr Kuhn shows the great lengths that Middle Eastern Christians went to explain their view of God’s oneness in the Trinity and the divinity of Christ to their fellow Christians and to commend it to their Muslim counterparts. There is much to learn from the historical debates investigated in this book to help Christians today to uphold the truth of the Christian scriptures, both in the Muslim context and beyond. Readers will appreciate the review of Nestorian Christology in light of recent studies and the important theological background to contemporary Muslim–Christian engagement that is provided.
Christian Zionism Examined, Second Edition
by Steven Paas
This book deals with Christian Zionism, and in a wider sense with the phenomenon of Israelism. By Israelism, I mean a certain kind of literal reading of the Scriptures. God’s revealed plan for Israel and the Jewish people are construed by many in such a way that Jews are to receive a higher status or a lower place than all other nations. These two opposite positions have many gradations, from moderate to extreme. The most extreme consequences are glorification and degradation, idolization and hatred, Philo-Semitism and Anti-Semitism. Christian Zionism Examined emphatically asserts that the Bible provides absolutely no basis for this literal way of reading and understanding the prophetic word in the Holy Scriptures. God’s promises of redemption and judgment to Old Testament Israel have never meant to be solely fulfilled to one particular ethnic people and geographical area; i.e., only modern Israel or only the Jewish people. Redemption and judgment are fulfilled in Christ. In him, those promises (or predictions) have received a final meaning for all nations, essentially for all creation. The completion of that fulfillment will take place upon his return; in the perfection of his kingdom or his universal rule; and in the final judgment.
The Battle for Justice in Palestine
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What an eye opener. Much of what Ali Abunimah writes, I’ve already heard or seen. But Abunimah comes with the hardnosed facts. Numbers don’t lie. Neither does an eyewitness account of how the People of Palestine are winning the war, despite losing the battles. Abunimah convinces us that 1) there is no turning back; 2) Palestinians won’t give up; and, 3) they’re not going to be second fiddle to the Jews. The Palestinians demand fairness and equitability; justice and equal rights; and, they won’t stop until they succeed.
Ten Myths About Israel
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In this groundbreaking book, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the Occupation, the outspoken and radical Israeli historian Ilan Pappe examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel.
The “ten myths” that Pappe explores—repeated endlessly in the media, enforced by the military, accepted without question by the world’s governments—reinforce the regional status quo. He explores the claim that Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration, as well as the formation of Zionism and its role in the early decades of nation building. He asks whether the Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, and whether June 1967 was a war of “no choice.” Turning to the myths surrounding the failures of the Camp David Accords and the official reasons for the attacks on Gaza, Pappe explains why the two-state solution is no longer viable.
Nothing shocking. Nothing earthshattering. Pappe reports what most people sense as
common knowledge. Simply, the truth.
"Not by Might, Nor by Power": The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism
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Born in 1893, Moshe Menuhin was part of the inaugural class to attend the first Zionist high school in Palestine, the Herzliya gymnasium in Tel Aviv. He had grown up in a Hasidic home, but eventually rejected orthodoxy while remaining dedicated to Judaism.
As a witness to the evolution of Israel, Menuhin grew disaffected with what he saw as a betrayal of the Jews’ spiritual principles. This memoir, written in 1965, is considered the first revisionist history of Zionism. A groundbreaking document, it discusses the treatment of the Palestinians, the effects of the Holocaust, the exploitation of the Mizrahi Jewish immigrants, and the use of propaganda to win over public opinion in America and among American Jews. In a postscript added after the Six-Day War, Menuhin also addresses the question of occupation. This new edition is updated with an introduction by Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir, putting Menuhin’s work into a contemporary historical context.
Passionate and sometimes inflammatory in its prose, and met with controversy and anger upon its original publication under the title The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time, Menuhin’s polemic remains both a thought-provoking reassessment of Zionist history and a fascinating look at one observer’s experience of this embattled corner of the world over the course of several tumultuous decades.
Had Menuhin’s book not been suppressed in the 1960’s, it could have been the gamechanger, then. To quote Menuhin, “the millstone of God grinds slowly.” ‘“Not by Might, Nor by Power”: The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism’ is a gamechanger now.
The Invention of the Jewish People
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A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd’hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future.
Sand’s conclusions torpedo a Sacred Cow. If Modern Israel is not Ancient Israel and if many indigenous Palestinians are genetically connected to the Ancient Israelites; and, if most Jews who wandered in from Eastern Europe descend from converted Jews, who then carry the seeds of the biblical Abraham? Can ‘A Shared Identity,’ (Chapter 3) bring them closer to share the land?
How I Stopped Being a Jew
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Shlomo Sand was born in 1946, in a displaced person’s camp in Austria, to Jewish parents; the family later migrated to Palestine. As a young man, Sand came to question his Jewish identity, even that of a “secular Jew.” With this meditative and thoughtful mixture of essay and personal recollection, he articulates the problems at the center of modern Jewish identity.
How I Stopped Being a Jew discusses the negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the “chosen people” myth and its “holocaust industry.” Sand criticizes the fact that, in the current context, what “Jewish” means is, above all, not being Arab and reflects on the possibility of a secular, non-exclusive Israeli identity, beyond the legends of Zionism.
Sand simply wants to flaunt his non-existent Israeli nationality. So, in the Land of the Jews, for the Jews, and by the Jews, Sand can only fantasize having an Israeli nationality.There is no such thing as an Israeli nationality. Let me make it mo re complicated. Is there such a thing as a Jewish nationality? Israel profiles itself as a supra-national state for all Jews, not just the Israelis who are now rooted in Israel. But just about all Jews are nationals in other countries. Should Jews have dual loyalties, like Senator Chuck Schumer (D) of New York; or, those being investigated for US-Russian roulette?
The Unmaking of Israel
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Prominent Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg offers a penetrating and provocative look at how the balance of power in Israel has shifted toward extremism,threatening the prospects for peace and democracy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intensifies. Informing his examination using interviews in Israel and the West Bank and with access to previously classified Israeli documents, Gorenberg delivers an incisive discussion of the causes and trends of extremism in Israel’s government and society. Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, writes, “until I read The Unmaking of Israel, I didn’t think it could be possible to feel more despairing, and then more terribly hopeful, about Israel,a place that I began at last, under the spell of Gershom Gorenberg’s lucid and dispassionate yet intensely personal writing, to understand.”
Wow! Israeli Journalist and Historian, Gershom Gorenberg pens with a broad brush claiming Israel’s immense strength can be its downfall, its Achilles heel. And then he rivets into specifics, keeping me spellbound.
Embracing Israel/Palestine: A Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle East
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A major modern conundrum is how the Arab/Israel conflict remains unresolved and, seemingly, unresolvable. In this inspirational book, Rabbi Michael Lerner suggests that a change in consciousness is crucial. With clarity and honesty, he examines how the mutual demonization and discounting of each sides’ legitimate needs drive the debate, and he points to new ways of thinking that can lead to a solution.
Lerner emphasizes that this new approach to the issue requires giving primacy to love, kindness, and generosity. It calls for challenging the master narratives in both Israel and Palestine as well as the false idea that “homeland security” can be achieved through military, political, economic, or media domination. Lerner makes the case that a lasting peace must prioritize helping people on all sides (including Europe and the U.S.) and that real security is best achieved through an ethos of caring and generosity toward “the other.” As many spiritual leaders have taught, problems like these cannot be solved at the same level at which they originated—one must seek higher ground, and that becomes a central task for anyone who wants a sustainable peace. Embracing Israel/Palestine is written for those looking for positive, practical solutions to this ongoing dilemma.
Each word in his title is worth a thousand pictures. I quote Rabbi Lerner every time I give a talk on the subject. I’ve also quoted him directly in my book. What the Rabbi professes, I totally support.
Faith: A Journey For All
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In this powerful reflection, President Jimmy Carter contemplates how faith has sustained him in happiness and disappointment. He considers how we may find it in our own lives.
All his life, President Jimmy Carter has been a courageous exemplar of faith. Now he shares the lessons he learned. He writes, “The issue of faith arises in almost every area of human existence, so it is important to understand its multiple meanings. In this book, my primary goal is to explore the broader meaning of faith, its far-reaching effect on our lives, and its relationship to past, present, and future events in America and around the world. The religious aspects of faith are also covered, since this is how the word is most often used, and I have included a description of the ways my faith has guided and sustained me, as well as how it has challenged and driven me to seek a closer and better relationship with people and with God.”
As President Carter examines faith’s many meanings, he describes how to accept it, live it, how to doubt and find faith again. A serious and moving reflection from one of America’s most admired and respected citizens.
Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel
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“Prodigiously documented… Alison Weir must be highly commended for throwing such a brilliantly hard light on the relationship between the United States and Israel. I hope this marvelous book gets all the attention it deserves.” – Ambassador Andrew Killgore, Publisher, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.…
Christian. Muslim. Friend: Twelve Paths to Real Relationship
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Can Christians and Muslims be friends? Real friends?
Even in a post-September 11 era of alienation and religious violence, David Shenk says yes.
In Christian. Muslim. Friend., Shenk lays out twelve ways that Christians can form authentic relationships with Muslims, characterized by respect, hospitality, and candid dialogue.
Rooted in his fifty years of friendship with Muslims in Somalia, Kenya, and the United States, Shenk invites Christian readers to be clear about their identity, develop trust, practice hospitality, confront …
A Mennonite Missionary, David Shenk, shares the realities of living and working among his students, parishioners, and workers, most of whom are Muslims, others a combination Muslim-Christians and some a handful of converts to Christianity. I’ve highlighted each page with three colors: yellow for Christians, pink for Muslims and orange where there is convergence between Christians and Muslims; and, there’s lots of orange. Evangelicals should invite Christian missionaries, those who come from the field, to share how they shine the love of God amidst their Muslim brothers and sisters.
Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty
by Mustafa Akyol
Can Christians and Muslims be friends? Real friends?
Even in a post-September 11 era of alienation and religious violence, David Shenk says yes.
In Christian. Muslim. Friend., Shenk lays out twelve ways that Christians can form authentic relationships with Muslims, characterized by respect, hospitality, and candid dialogue.
Rooted in his fifty years of friendship with Muslims in Somalia, Kenya, and the United States, Shenk invites Christian readers to be clear about their identity, develop trust, practice hospitality, confront …
Graham Fuller, author of ‘A World Without Islam’ states: Akyol cites major events, movements, and ideas in Islam little known to non-Muslims and even to many Muslims – who just assume that the authoritarian and inflexible interpretations of Islam are the ‘real Islam.’ Akyol passionately argues why this isn’t so and raises great hopes for the future evolution of liberal and democratic thought and practice within Muslim society.
Rabbi Outcast: Elmer Berger and American Jewish Anti-Zionism
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Dramatic changes have taken place in the last decade with respect to the views of the American Jewish community toward Israel and Zionism. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, the involvement of the Israel lobby…
If I didn’t read Moshe Menuhin’s true classic, I would not have known about Rabbi Elmer Berger and that, from the beginning to today, most American Jewry did not worship Zionism as the New Religion. Anna Baltzer, author of ‘Witness in Palestine’ says it so well: “As Jews of conscience continue to speak out today against Israeli atrocities in Palestine, Israel’s claim to represent world Jewry has lost all credibility (a view Moshe Minuhin hammers on). As this book [‘Rabbi Outcast …’] will show you, there is not and
has never been consensus among Jews on the Zionist project.”
The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories
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Israeli expat historian Pappe … boldly and persuasively argues for understanding the occupied territories as the world’s ‘largest ever mega-prison….. Pappe’s conclusions won’t be welcome in all quarters but this detailed history is rigorously supported by primary sources.”
―★ Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951
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Arabs and Jews describe the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 in completely different ways. Among Arabs, and especially Palestinians, the events of that year are known as the nakba – the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster. For Jews, and in particular for Israelis, their victory in the war of 1948 is a veritable miracle in which, against tremendous odds and through heroic military effort, the Jewish community succeeded in thwarting attempts by the Arab states to destroy it...
Is This the End?: Signs of God's Providence in a Disturbing New World
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The world seems more fractured each day. People are asking, “Is this the end?”
Never have the headlines been this jarring, the cultural changes this rapid, or the moral decay this pronounced. What on earth is happening? After each new occurrence, the most oft-heard questions are “will the world ever be the same again?” and “where is God in all of this?”...
Has God created us to trust and love or to fear and hate? It seems Pastor Jeremiah pontificates fear, writing with a persecution complex, preparing for the Apocalypse. But the Sacred Texts of our Abrahamic Faiths commands us to “Fear Not.” Pastor Jeremiah is neither a historian nor a journalist. He cannot report on the good, bad and ugly of ISIS or Israel. He depicts Israel as only good, the underdog in the Middle East; and, ISIS as scum.
I’ve met the good of ISIS but also the ugly of ISIS during my stay in Iraq. That’s another story beyond the scope of this book. But I have shared a ‘mouthful’ with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
The Qur'an - with References to the Bible: A Contemporary Understanding
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Drs. Kaskas’ and Hungerford’s underlying motivation for the translation and inclusion of the extensive footnotes are not intended to promote a particular school of Islam or Christian apologetics. These exist in abundance. Their goal is to build bridges of better understanding, undermine radicalism and enlighten ignorance. This powerful instrument offers Muslims and Christians a fresh insight on the “straight path” to reconciling with God and man; sorely needed and missing from other translations.
Dedicated “to our grandchildren”, this is a labor of love, devotion and dedication bridging convergence and divergence in our Abrahamic Views. Dr. Kaskas and I are friends. We’re on the same wavelength when it comes to honoring, respecting and dignifying
convergence; and, to file away divergence in the ‘mental pending file’ of ‘mysteries to be (re)discovered, not to be prejudged’. No, I have not yet read Kaskas’ and Hungerford’s work from cover to cover. But I will as I also intend to re-read the Old and New Testament and a number of passages in the Talmud.
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
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The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people – one Israeli, one Palestinian – that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East.
In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly twenty years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house…
This is the book that got me enraptured in the Israeli-Palestinian Quest to Co-Exist, despite the present struggles to reach that noble goal. Tom Segev says: “This truly remarkable book presents a powerful account of Palestinians and Israelis who try to break the seemingly endless chain of hatred and violence. Capturing the human dimension of the conflict so vividly and admirably, Sandy Tolan offers something both Israelis and Palestinians all too often tend to ignore: a ray of hope.” —Tom Segev, author of One Palestine, Complete. Goosebumps!
Zion's Christian Soldiers?: The Bible, Israel and the Church
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This book contains an assessment of Christian Zionism, particularly in its post-holocaust appearance of sympathetic Israel-fascination. Misguided by an extremely literalist approach of Scripture Christian Zionism has given today’s physical and ethnical Israel a key role in the history and the order of salvation. Consequently Christian Zionist theology has decentralized Christ and decreased his uniqueness, thus undermining the Church’s foundation and its universal mission among Jews and Gentiles. Moreover, it has distorted Christian-Jewish relationships, and it has failed to find a safe sailing route between the dangerous cliffs of antisemitism and philosemitism, despite its claim of …
The Last Days of Dispensationalism: A Scholarly Critique of Popular Misconceptions
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How we understand God’s future purposes for the world must shape, to a significant degree, how Christians live life in the present. The decades since the publication of Hal Lindsey’s, The Late Great Planet Earth, have seen a great deal of “end-times” speculation. Signs of the end-time apocalypse occurring soon have been heralded across our radios, televisions, the internet, and through written forms of media, urging people to either be ready for the rapture or be left behind to endure the horrific suffering …
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
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One of the most respected religious thinkers of our time makes an impassioned plea for the return of religion to its true purpose—as a partnership with God in the work of ethical and moral living.
What are our duties to others, to society, and to humanity? How do we live a meaningful life in an age of global uncertainty and instability? In To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers answers to …
Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel
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As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. When tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps in 1948, Elias began a long struggle with how to respond. In Blood Brothers, he blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict, touching on questions such as: …
Christ at the Checkpoint: Blessed are the Peacemakers
by Munther Isaac
This book contains the most important papers from the second, third, and fourth Christ at the Checkpoint conferences that took place in Bethlehem. The themes of these conferences were: “Hope in the Midst of Conflict” (2012), “Your Kingdom Come” (2014), and “The Gospel in the Face of Religious Extremism” (2016).
Christ at the Checkpoint: Blessed are the Peacemakers
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For many evangelicals, liberation theology seems a distant notion. Some might think it is antithetical to evangelicalism, while others simply may be unfamiliar with the role evangelicals have played in the development of liberation theologies and their profound effect on Latin American, African American, and other global subaltern Christian communities. Despite the current rise in evangelicals focusing on justice work as an element of their faith, evangelical theologians have not adequately developed a theological foundation for this kind of activism. Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice fills this gap by…
Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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For many evangelicals, liberation theology seems a distant notion. Some might think it is antithetical to evangelicalism, while others simply may be unfamiliar with the role evangelicals have played in the development of liberation theologies and their profound effect on Latin American, African American, and other global subaltern Christian communities. Despite the current rise in evangelicals focusing on justice work as an element of their faith, evangelical theologians have not adequately developed a theological foundation for this kind of activism. Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice fills this gap by…
The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine
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Why did Jesus die? And in what ways did his crucifixion offer redemption to the world?
Those questions, which lie at the heart of Christian faith, remain a pressing concern for theological reflection. What sets this work apart is that the authors — a Palestinian theologian from Bethlehem and a New Testament scholar from the United States — explore the meaning of the cross in light of both first…