A growing number of Christian theologians in the Middle East have deployed liberation theology, contextual theology, and other theologies of liberation as a means of understanding their fraught political, social, and economic contexts across the region. In this panel theologians, including those based in the Middle East, will share their engagements with theology to challenge and reconsider current conditions of oppression and injustice. Panelists will address the strengths and difficulties in such theological engagement and consider the historical development of liberation theologies in the region and contemporary questions, like the possibility of Arab Christian women's ordination.
The Orthodox Youth Movement (OYM) was established in 1942 with the mission of reviving the Orthodox Church of Antioch. Liberation theology and the Medellin 1968 documents on peace and justice found strong echos in the catholic clergy circles in Lebanon. The Document “On the Commitment to the issues of the Earth” was adopted by OYM general convention held 26-29 December, 1970. This paper will argue that liberation theology has resonated strongly in the conscience of the leaders of OYM and was instrumental in shaping the commitment of the movement to social justice, condemning Lebanese confessional political system as well as its views on Palestine. It will highlight also its impact on the internal life of the movement and the broader orthodox church and ecumenical involvement.
After the Six Day War, French Left Christians were many to side with “Arab refugees”, by contrast with the majority of Catholics and Protestants in France. In May 1970, these Christian progressives, either lay or clergy, Western Catholics, Western Protestants and members of Eastern diasporas, represented a third of the 400 attendees to the First World Conference of Christians for Palestine, held in Beirut. The organization committee was even divided between Paris and Beirut, its general secretary being (Roman Catholic) George Montaron, editor-in-chief of Témoignage Chrétien, at odds with the Catholic hierarchy in France. The second conference was equally Western, in London (1972). To what extent can these forgotten French Left Christians really be considered as temporary links and connections in the global, decades-long history of Palestinian Liberation? or were they rather just a local expression of dissent, displaying support for Palestine while addressing mostly national, European-based issues?
Recently, there have been instances of women being appointed as pastors in Evangelical churches in certain Middle Eastern countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan. Although the initial call for women's ordination originated from Egypt, the Synod of the Nile (the Presbyterian Church in Egypt) has decided to postpone the discussion on this matter for a period of 10 years. The debate within the synod and the wider Evangelical community has focused on the issue of women's ordination from both biblical and ecumenical pastoral perspectives. This paper seeks to discern the most significant barrier confronting women in Egypt, which is fundamentally grounded in Islamic principles and the Islamic perception of masculinity. To achieve this goal, the author intends to employ The Gospel of Mark as an indispensable resource for constructing a comprehensive understanding of the historical Jesus and for reinterpreting the meaning of manhood in the region.
In this paper, I bring together the indecent theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid and the annually celebrated story of Saint Barbara in Palestine. In this transformative encounter, I attempt to draw out one possible indecent decolonial option for Palestinian theology, one that is be able to reflect on Palestinian women’s experiences of gender violence sponsored by the state of Israel and by relating the Christian Palestinian tradition. Thus, I argue that the story of Saint Barbara is a story of a Palestinian woman martyr, murdered by her family under the accusation of tainting the family’s honor, carried out hand in hand with the state authorities. Moreover, I challenge the masculine view of martyrdom in Palestinian Liberation Theology as male heroic glorification by indecenting the tradition of Saint Barbara and uncovering female martyrdom as defiant and subversive, hence, confronting the gender and sexual oppression of Israeli society and Palestinian Christianity.