This book presents the various Churches and ecclesial communities in the Middle East, focusing on the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox and the Oriental Catholic Churches, the spiritual heritage of the Coptic, Syriac and Armenian traditions. The Christians in the Middle East can be called a Church of martyrs. Listening to witnesses of faith in the first centuries, as well as to the martyrs of our time, this book reveals the cruel reality of the ‘forgotten genocides’ at the beginning of the twentieth century. The author discusses the role of Christians in the Middle East as bridge builders, and emphasizes the importance of a historical perspective in order to understand better the crisis in the Middle East, the search for the underlying cause of terrorist attacks, a plea for a spirituality of encounter: a growth in openness and a deepening of Christian identity. Finally, he reflects on the responsibility of the West and expresses the firm hope and expectation that there is still a future for the Christians in the Middle East, a new dawn.

Christianity.

Offering an authoritative study of the plural religious landscape in modern Syria and of the diverse Christian and Muslim communities that have cohabited the country for centuries, this volume considers a wide range of cultural, religious and political issues that have impacted the interreligious dynamic, putting them in their local and wider context. Combining fieldwork undertaken within government-held areas during the Syrian conflict with critical historical and Christian theological reflection, this research makes a significant contribution to understanding Syria’s diverse religious landscape and the multi-layered expressions of Christian-Muslim relations. It discusses the concept of sectarianism and how communal dynamics are crucial to understanding Syrian society. The complex wider issues that underlie the relationship are examined, including the roles of culture and religious leadership; and it questions whether the analytical concept of sectarianism is adequate to describe the complex communal frameworks in the Middle Eastern context. Finally, the study examines the contributions of contemporary Eastern Christian leaders to interreligious discourse, concluding that the theology and spirituality of Eastern Christianity, inhabiting the same cultural environment as Islam, is uniquely placed to play a major role in interreligious dialogue and in peace-making. The book offers an original contribution to knowledge and understanding of the changing Christian-Muslim dynamic in Syria and the region. It should be a key resource to students, scholars and readers interested in religion, current affairs and the Middle East.

The writings of Pseudo-Macarius, a Syrian monk of the 4th century, bring to Western Christianity a holistic "heart" spirituality that offers a necessary complementarity to the "head" spirituality of the West. The homilies reveal the typical traits of Eastern Christian asceticism and The Great Letter instructs the monastic community.

This book examines how Christian-Muslim dialogue is envisioned by four present-day Lebanese thinkers: Great Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, Doctor Mahmoud Ayoub, Metropolitan Georges Khodr and Doctor, Father Mouchir Basile Aoun.

This accessible textbook describes Christianity, the world’s largest religion, in all of its historical and contemporary diversity. No other publication includes so much information or presents it so clearly and winsomely. This volume employs a “religious studies” approach that is neutral in tone yet accommodates the lived experiences of Christians in different traditions and from all regions of the globe. The World’s Christians is a perfect textbook for either public university classrooms or liberal arts campuses. Divided into three parts, the text first describes the world’s four largest Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal) which together account for roughly 98 percent of all Christians worldwide. A second section focuses on Christian history, explaining the movement’s developing ideas and practices and examining Christianity’s engagement with people and cultures around the world. The third and longest portion of the text details the distinctive experiences, contemporary challenges, and demographics of Christians in nine geographic regions, including the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, South Asia, North America, East Asia, and Oceania. The second edition of this popular text has been thoroughly rewritten to take recent developments into account, and each chapter now includes two primary source readings, highlighting the diversity of voices that exist within the world Christian movement. Like the first edition, the revised text is enhanced with easily understandable maps, charts, tables and illustrative photographs. In summary, this new and improved second edition of The World’s Christians is: div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"

In two previous books, Neil Douglas-Klotz pioneered a radical new way of translating the words of Jesus---filtering them through the imagistic worldview of the Aramaic language which Jesus himself spoke. Seen through this lens, familiar sayings such as "Blessed are the meek" come into vibrant contemporary focus as "Healthy are those who have softened what is rigid within." In The Hidden Gospel, Douglas-Klotz employs this approach to decode the spiritual and prophetic messages hidden within key words and concepts in the sayings and stories of Jesus. We learn to our delight, for instance, that when Jesus spoke of "goodness" he used a word which in Aramaic means "ripe" and refers to actions which are in time and tune with the Sacred Unity of all life. The Hidden Gospel aims to bridge the gap between the historical Jesus of the scholar and the Jesus of faith of Christian believers. It will appeal to everyone looking for an alternative spiritual vision of Jesus and his message.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Pentecostal scholars from four continents here offer constructive theological proposals focusing on the role of the Holy Spirit in diverse cultural and religious contexts. Typical Pentecostal topics Spirit-baptism, healing, and other charisms are interwoven with such themes as post-colonialism, religious plurality, racial diversity, and cultural heritage.