Christians and the Middle East Conflict - Two Reviews by Ron Dart

Challenging Christian Zionism: Conferences and Book Reviews

Donald Wagner & Walter T. Davis (Editors), Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (Wipf and Stock Publishers: Eugene, 2014).

Paul S. Rowe, John H.A. Dyck, Jens Zimmerman (Editors), Christians and the Middle East Conflict (Routledge: London, 2014).

The Canadian Friends of Sabeel (CFOS) and University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) co-sponsered a mini-conference October 24-25 called “Challenging Christian Zionism: Canadian Roots and Responses”. The October 24^th event was a packed evening with about 250 in attendance at University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The follow up event on October 25^th was held at St. Mary’s Anglican parish in Vancouver and about 80 attended the event. Gary Burge from Wheaton College was a key note speaker at both events and he lectured on “Israel/Palestine: Theological Questions”--I lectured on “Canadian Christian Zionism: A Tangled Tale”. The Canadian tradition of Christian Zionism has a complex history and it is often ignored in the larger discussions about Christian Zionism. The fact the ruling Conservative Party in Canada is the most pro-Israeli in Canadian history does mean the roots of such a foreign policy do need to be probed and examined. The “Challenging Christian Zionism” mini-conference was also the formal book launch for my book, Canadian Christian Zionism: A Tangled Tale (2014) and the recently released book, edited by Donald Wagner and Walter T. Davis, Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land (2014).

Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land is a timely and much needed addition to the growing literature on the way the ideology of Zionism (Jewish and Christian) leads to injustice in the Holy Land. Each of the chapters in this informative book, unpack and unravel the historic, religious and political reasons for the obvious and not to be ignored injustices in the Holy Land. The titles of the nine chapters speak for themselves: 1) Political Zionism from Herzl (1890s) to Ben Gurion (1960s), 2) From 1967 to the Present---The Triumph of Revisionist Zionism, 3) Rising to the Challenge: A Jewish Theology of Liberation, 4) Eastern Orthodox Perspectives and Christian Zionism: Voices from the Ancient Church, from Modern America, and from the Middle East Today, 5) The Vatican, Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 6) The Mainline Protestant Churches and the Holy Land, 7) Evangelicals and Christian Zionism, 8) Zionism: A Different Memory and 9) A Concluding Theological Postscript. The Kairos Palestine: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love document hovers over this comprehensive, ecumenical and ably written interfaith book. Appendix Two, rightly so, raises the needful challenge to the church: “After Zionism: Claiming the Heart of the Church” is a must read and finale to a theme that must be faced and thought through wisely and well.

The obvious strength and appeal of Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land is the way Wagner and Davis have brought the core issue to front stage---graphic injustice in the Holy Land. The book does, gratefully so,  break new and needed ground in the Christian Zionist debate----often, Christian Zionism has been viewed as something that is found within the conservative evangelical tribe. But, Wagner, for example, has highlighted how, in fact, many of the mainstream theologians such as Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr (Niebuhr more than Tillich) had Zionist leanings and commitments. The much respected and well known Biblical exegete, Krister Stendahl, cannot be missed in this obvious and worrisome revisionist read and application of Pauline scholarship to modern Israel. The bringing together of Jewish and Muslim thinkers in Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land enriches and enhances the ample insights of this prophetic and must read book.

The bringing together of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Mainline Protestant Churches in this up to date approach to the dire and tragic reality of the situation (and reasons for it) in the Holy Land is much needed—the editors have done a superb and A++ job of telling the tale in frank and forthright way and doing so in a most readable and accessible manner.  I often lament the way the Canadian context is ignored, and this is a minor fault and failing in this otherwise well researched and written book---perhaps, in time, the Canadian perspective will be documented, also, rather than the ongoing dominance of the Anglo-American tradition and Christian Zionism.

It seems, at times, as if Canada does not even exist in the discussions and analysis of Zionism (Christian and Jewish)---the reasons for this do need to be pondered and corrected. 

Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land has definitely furthered and deepened the way future discussions will unfold—those who ignore the contributions of the various and varied authors in this book will be lacking in their understanding of the multilayered approach to Zionism and how to break the spell it holds on so many.

If Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land focusses, exclusively so, on the Holy Land and the impact of Zionism as a means of perpetuating in justice in the area, Christians and the Middle East Conflict has a broader agenda----the focus, as the title suggests, is about the Middle East and Christians in the area----in short, the missive, lacks the depth of Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land, but the suggestive comprehensiveness has a certain appeal.

Christians and the Middle East Conflict is edited by Paul Rowe, John Dyck and Jens Zimmerman—all three teach at Trinity Western University on the West Coast of Canada (Christian Liberal Arts University) and “all three are senior research fellows in the Religion, Culture, and Conflict Research Group based at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia”. 

Christians in the Middle East Conflict has a nicely nuanced and finely textured historic and interdisciplinary approach to it. The book is neatly divided into three parts: 1) Theological perspectives, 2) Historical perspectives and 3) Contemporary perspectives.  The “Introduction” by Rowe, Dyck and Zimmermann provide a thoughtful overview and entrée to the book. Needless to say, the Zionist theme cannot be missed in Christians and the Middle East Conflict but it does not dominate.

Part 1, Theological perspectives, covers such needful themes, as “Reconciliation as a Christian response to the Israel-Palestine Conflict” (Salim Munayer), “The New Testament and the land” (Gary Burge) and “Orientalism in Christian Theology” (Magi Abdul-Masih). It was quite valuable to ponder how Edward Said’s “Orientalist” thesis can be applied to how theology is done--more work can yet be done on this.

We could also ponder further the validity and limitation of Said’s Orientalist thesis.

Part II, Historical perspectives, is wide ranging, also: “Christian reactions to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, 637 CE” (Maher Abu-Munshar), “Albert Hourani, Arab Christian minorities and the spiritual dimension of Britain’s problem in Palestine, 1938-1947” (Todd Thompson) and “The beginnings of a new co-existence: a case study of the veneration of the Prophet Elijah ( Mar Ilyas) among Christians, Muslims and Jews in Haifa after 1948” (Akiko Sugase). There are many marking and pointers in these essays, if followed further, reveal much.

Part III, Contemporary perspectives, brings the theological and historic tale into the needful present tense: “In this world you will have trouble: Christians living amid conflict in the  Middle East” (Paul Rowe), “Christians working for peace in the Middle East” (Peter Makari), “The crescent and the cross are the marks on my hands: the performance of Palestinian unity amid political fragmentation” (Alain Weaver) and “Researching Palestinian Christian uses of the Bible: Israeli and Israelite violence as a canonical problem? (Mark Calder). Each of these well massaged articles walk the curious reader to places few dare go.

The title of the book is Christians in the Middle East Conflict, but of the nine informative essays that reflect on the topic of the Middle East, more than 60% of them deal with the Jewish, Christian and Palestinian conflict. This pronounced and overriding emphasis means that Christians in the Middle East is a fine and fit companion read to Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land----both books should be read together-- the fact both texts were published in 2014 means our understanding of the issues are brought into the stark reality of the multiple conflicts and obvious injustices in both the Middle East and the Holy Land in an urgent way. 

I was somewhat disappointed after reading Christians in the Middle East Conflict (given the fact that the book was edited by three Canadians in the West Coast) that so little attention was on Canada. The Middle East and Holy Land do not exist, in our global village, in isolation from the rest of the world. Both Canadian foreign policy and a voting pattern in Canada in the last decade plus have favoured a certain read and interpretation of the Bible, Holy Land and Middle East. There are many direct and indirect pathways between Canada and the Middle East/Holy Land that need to be explored and Christians in the Middle East Conflict never did this---this is a fault and failing in a book that did cover other significant and oft ignored issues.

The Canadian Friends of Sabeel (CFOS)-University of the Fraser Valley mini-conference of October 24-25 2014 was but a primer and key in the ignition for the much larger Canadian Friends of Sabeel 3-day conference to be held on the West Coast of Canada (Vancouver) the last weekend of April 2015. The title of this larger event, “Facing the New Jerusalem”, will draw many from the West Coast of Canada, USA and beyond.  It will be a packed three days in which the ideology of Zionism (crude and subtle) in the churches, society and politics will be discussed in an ecumenical and interfaith context. 2015 is the next Federal election in Canada so the focus on Zionism and Canadian foreign policy is most apt, timely and pertinent for the future of Canada, Israel and the Palestinians.

Ron Dart

Department of Political Science/Philosophy/Religious Studies

University of the Fraser Valley

Abbotsford British Columbia

Canada