EMQ » July–September 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 3
Edited by Dr. Andrea Zaki Stephanous
Zondervan, 2019
544 pages
USD $34.99
Reviewed by Jessica Handy Duisberg, Assistant Director, Innovation for Vocation Project, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
Religion, politics, culture, and gender converge in a heightened and complex way in the Middle East. In this groundbreaking volume of theology, indigenous Arabic Christian leaders tackle these issues from an evangelical perspective. The seven male and female authors from Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt bring an impressive array of expertise and experience. All are scholars. Most are also organizational executives, pastors, or translators, spanning a wide range of academic and ministry contexts. Drawing substantively from biblical texts as well as from credible Arab and the Western sources, they address challenging questions relevant to those doing evangelism and discipleship in the Arab world: Does the God of the Old Testament endorse violence? What does Jesus’ Jewishness mean for Arab Christians? What is a Christian woman’s role in the midst of Islamic culture? How do the scriptures address the use of political power?
Several themes run through the book. First is an emphasis on the Bible as an authoritative text by which to interpret current social and political crises (e.g., 253). Multiple authors offer specific guidance for interpreting the Bible, such as “understand these passages … in light of the entire Bible” (32) and interpret “in accordance with the rules governing the genre” (250). Second is the recognition that the scriptures have been used to endorse mistreatment of groups such as Arabs (215), women (319), and youth (376), and that this misuse of the Bible makes it hard for some people to read it or trust its message. Third, as one might expect, there is a distinct repudiation of dispensational theology and Zionism (79, 190, 219, etc.). Finally, servant leadership is offered as a corrective to the misuse of power in arenas of politics, religion, gender, and culture (142, 351, 400).
One of the book’s main contributions is its very existence as a model of indigenous Arabic Christian theology. Another is its concluding chapter by editor Andrea Zaki Stephanous. In it, Stephanous offers a proposal for a reconceived Arab nationalism in place of political Islam. Instead of using power to enforce a religious and political identity, a new form of Arab nationalism would protect minorities, providing space for the religious, cultural, and political plurality of the Middle East (424, 436).
In spite of themes that carry through multiple chapters, Stephanous reminds readers that the seven authors do not carry a single perspective on all the topics addressed in this volume. Nor are the chapters uniform in their complexity or audience. Early chapters are easier to read and would provide helpful introductions for those new to reading the Bible or considering its implications for social and political life. Later chapters are longer, more nuanced, and more complex in their sentence structure and thought development.
In sum, Arabic Christian Theology provides a valuable, scaffolded resource for individuals, classrooms, and congregations that desire to think carefully about the current politics of the Middle East, specifically, or the question of power, more broadly. While making indigenous Arabic voices accessible to a Western audience, it also models a globally informed contextual theology which, by example, invites other indigenous theologies from around the world.
For Further Reading
Arteen, Grace Al-Zoughbi, and Graham Joseph Hill. “18 Arab Female Theologians and Christian Leaders You Should Know About.” The Global Church Project. Oct 8, 2019. https://theglobalchurchproject.com/arab-female-leaders/.
Raheb, Mitri. Sailing through Troubled Waters: Christians in the Middle East. Diyar Publishing, 2013.
