This volume introduces eleven scholars, the majority of whom are young and very promising, and their work on different aspects of Christianity in the contemporary Middle East. Thus, the focus of this volume has been less on dogmatic controversies over late antiquity but rather on the issues facing the Christians of West Asia and North Africa in their own specific context today. Within this contextual approach, it is important to look at the larger regional geopolitical context to understand the status of Middle Eastern Christians.
1 Political Context
Over the last two centuries, the Middle East has experienced 27 wars, an average of one war every eight years. The number of Middle Eastern countries affected by conflict grew from five in 2002 to eleven in 2016. The region never recovered from the neo-colonialism of the first half of the twentieth century, including the implanting of Israel at the heart of the region, nor from the many wars and civil wars that became a marker of the second half of the twentieth century. Nor can we ignore the influence of three regional powers over the past five decades: Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, and their religious affiliations as Jewish, Muslim Sunni, and Shiite states. Within this geopolitical triangle, Christians are not players but are often collateral damage.
The final decade of the twentieth century was a sort of interlude infused with hope. Global and regional optimism was high following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the end of the South African apartheid regime, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. These tectonic global shifts vibrated into the Middle East and resulted in the Arab–Israeli Madrid Peace Conference in 1991, the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO in 1993, and the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in 1994. Peace movements ecstatically celebrated the dawn of a new era in which states could beat their swords into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4).
However, the twenty-first century1 ushered in unprecedented and immense new challenges. Following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction and pressure from the Israel lobby, the US launched war on Iraq on March 20, 2003, under the banner of bringing democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people.
The status of the 1.4 million Iraqi Christians under Saddam Hussein was poor and many Christians fled during the Iran-Iraq war to avoid being drafted into that deadly conflict. Christian migration accelerated after the 1991 conflict, and the sanctions imposed in the 1990s led 30 percent of the population to emigrate. It is estimated that of the two million Iraqis who emigrated between 1980 and 2003, one-eighth (250,000) were Christian.2 However, the largest wave of Christian emigration from Iraq was triggered by the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The dismantling of the Iraqi Baath party and the Iraqi military brought chaos to the country and paved the way for ISIS to take over. Three years after the invasion, al-Qaida and other religious Sunni groups declared the Islamic State of Iraq, taking control of large areas of the country and proclaiming an Islamic Caliphate. This led to the largest displacement and migration of Christians ever seen from the region. Over one million Christians felt defenseless and fled to neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, while many migrated to North America and Australia. It is very sad to see how an ancient and once-thriving Christian community shrank from 1.5 million in 2003 to less than two hundred thousand, many of them internally displaced in Irbil.3
Optimism was also high in Lebanon in 2000. The Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000 was a cause for celebration in a country that had been partly occupied for almost two decades. After the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006, Hezbollah’s strength was celebrated as a force capable of fighting Israel and forcing it to withdraw. The situation in Lebanon deteriorated following the civil war in Syria, which began in 2011 and led to over two million Syrian refugees flooding Lebanon. In 2019, the economic crisis in Lebanon worsened and the accelerated devaluation of the Lebanese lira brought thousands of Lebanese, with visible Christian participation, to the streets calling for a change to the sectarian and corrupt political system. As people felt that their voices were not heard and nothing was changing, those with foreign passports and a good education, among them many Christians, opted to leave Lebanon and look for opportunities abroad. Many migrated to France, Canada, Australia, and the Gulf region with the intention of never returning.4 The hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah since 2023, the destruction of South Lebanon, and the unprecedented Israeli bombardment of many neighborhoods in Beirut and the Beqaa Valley have made the situation much worse, especially in light of the international community’s failure to halt the Israeli aggression. Maronite Christians in particular have felt that they are becoming aliens in their own homeland.
The so-called Arab Spring that began in Tunisia in December 2010 raised expectations of a better future in the Middle East and triggered a ripple effect throughout the Arab world. A revolution began in Egypt on January 25, 2011, and a civil uprising in Syria one day later—two countries that were key locations for the Christian presence in the Middle East. The largest Christian community in the region lives in Egypt. Syria also had a substantial Christian presence, especially in and around Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs. It is important to understand that Christian attitudes towards the Arab Spring ranged from skepticism to strong support. At the beginning of the uprising, traditional Church leaders tended to side with those in power politically (Pope Shenoudah with President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian Church leaders with President Bashar al-Assad), whereas young Christian theologians and more secular Christian activists like George Sabra and Michel Kilo in Syria favored change and supported the uprising. Egyptian Christian youth, both Orthodox such as the Mespiro Youth Union and Protestant like Qasr ad-Dubara, participated actively at Tahrir Square and demonstrated a visible Christian presence in the public realm.5 The rise to power of Islamic parties in Egypt with the electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party on December 3, 2011 provoked fear and concern among both secular Muslims and Christians in the country. Yet, it did not deter the church in Egypt from opening a dialogue with the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. The election of Mohamed Morsi as President of Egypt on June 17, 2012 and his policies of Islamization caused serious disquiet among secular Muslims, Christians, and the military. For this reason, various Coptic religious establishments welcomed the June 30, 2013 counter-revolution as an expression of genuine dissatisfaction by the majority of Egyptians with the ambitious rule of the Muslim Brotherhood rather than viewing it as a coup d’état as perceived in the West.6 Several Christian leaders went on to establish political parties. Nagib Sawiris began the Free Egyptians Party, and Emad Gad and other Christian intellectuals were among the founders of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. Although Egyptian Christians have a sense of security now under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who became president after removing the Muslim Brotherhood from power in 2013, many have doubts about whether the situation is sustainable in the long term.
In Syria, the civil war became militarized and the rise of ISIS and an-Nusra became apparent in attempts to control territory. This new reality represented an existential threat to the Christian presence in the areas controlled by these Islamist groups. Many Christian communities were forced to leave their villages for relatively safe zones such as Damascus. A few Christian groups created quasi-Christian militias to take up arms and defend their villages, as was the case with the Sotoro in Syria. For the thriving Armenian community in cities like Aleppo, the war meant not only a loss of businesses and property, but another wave of displacement and ultimately, a total loss of faith and hope in the region. It is estimated that the percentage of Christians in Syria fell from ten to three percent.
In Israel-Palestine, the optimism of Oslo evaporated in the second Intifada that erupted in September 2000. The invasion by the Israeli military into every Palestinian town in the West Bank, the standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2001, the deterioration of the economic situation, and the siege of Gaza7 led many Palestinian Christian families to emigrate. The twenty-first century has been marked by Israeli military hegemony over the region and by a settler-colonial project in all of historic Palestine based on an apartheid system of Jewish supremacy over and against all non-Jews.8
A major shift occurred in Israeli politics with the first election of President Trump9 in the US, the rise of populism and Christian Zionism worldwide, the re-election of Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister from 2009–2021 and again since 2022, weakened Arab countries, a divided Palestinian territory with political divisions (West Bank versus Gaza), and an Israel-friendlier Gulf region. The first move made by President Trump in December 2017 was to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, followed by the opening of the US Embassy in the city six months later, and a declaration of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. In July 2018, the Israel Knesset passed the so-called Nation State Bill10 that defined Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people exclusively. All these steps transformed de facto status into de jure status by designating illegal situations as legal. This is the reality for Palestinians living inside Israel who comprise over 20 per cent of the population, including over 120,000 Palestinian Christians, and who have been de facto second-class citizens; the new Nation State Law made them second-class citizens legally.
The attack launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023, gave Netanyahu’s right-wing government a carte blanche to ethnically cleanse Gaza by destroying its infrastructure, hospitals, schools, universities, and cultural heritage sites, thus making life unlivable. So far, the genocidal acts of the Israelis have resulted in the murder of four percent of the Palestinian Christian community in Gaza, the destruction of most Christian institutions in the Strip, the displacement of the entire Christian population, half of whom were able to leave Gaza while the other half still shelter at the two main churches: St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church and the Holy Family Latin Church. There is no doubt that Christianity will be uprooted from Gaza and will not survive this decade.
Meanwhile, accelerated settlement expansion in the West Bank is turning Palestinian cities into ghettos with little freedom of movement and is pushing many Palestinian Christian families to seek a dignified life outside Palestine. Although the situation in Jordan11 remains stable, many Christians there are seeking residency elsewhere like Cyprus or Greece as a precautionary measure in case the situation spirals out of control.12
Geopolitically speaking, Christians in the 21st century Middle East are not major players and have seldom been the immediate target of regional politics. Yet, like their Muslim compatriots, they are directly affected by the overall geopolitical context. They face the same challenges as the rest of the population; when faced with highly unstable and volatile socio-economic and political situations, they are fewer in number, more vulnerable, quicker to emigrate, and more liable to lose hope and heart. Without peace, this wound will continue to bleed. Without peace, Christians will continue to leave. Without peace, it will be difficult to keep Christianity alive in the lands of its origin.
2 Socio-Economic Context
To understand the wider context in which Middle Eastern Christians live today, a quick look at the Arab Human Development Report of 202213 is helpful. The Middle East is home to 5.5 percent of the world’s population and yet is home to 25 percent of the world’s conflicts, 58 percent of the world’s refugees, and 45 percent of the world’s displaced people.14 Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, and now Gazan refugees have added to the chronic Palestinian refugee problem. The Middle East is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, next only to Africa. There were over 100 million people living in the region in 1960, a number that has grown today to over 460 million. Neither the number nor the percentage of Christians in the Middle East could keep pace with this demographic explosion. Yet, most Christians of the region refuse to define themselves as a minority. Rather, they see themselves as the indigenous people of the region, as belonging to the first Christian communities worldwide, and as an integral part of their societies.
The Middle East is characterized by a youthful population. Two-thirds of the people in the Middle East are below thirty years of age. Youth (15–29 years) make up more than one third of the population and number over 110 million.15 Older adults (people older than 65 years of age) make up less than 3.5 percent of the population. However, the Middle East Christian age pyramid looks different than the general one with its decreasing birthrate and an increasing number of older people, often left behind by their children who migrated abroad seeking employment opportunities.
Societies in the Middle East continue to be patriarchal in nature. The leadership in most of the churches in the region consists of aging patriarchs; the governance structure of many churches is outdated, and leaves little room for new blood, ideas, and a spirit of togetherness. The churches are not lacking energetic young people but require active involvement by young people in all levels of church leadership.16 A patriarchal masculinized system justified by social customs and traditions has excluded women from almost every level of leadership in the church. However, in the last ten years, a new wind has been felt in this regard. In 2016 the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land adopted a new personal status law based on full gender equality,17 with the Evangelical Churches in Lebanon ordaining four female pastors in the last seven years, the election of a woman as the general secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches in 2018, and the Maronite Church launching its ‘Synod of Women’ in 2022, including a new theological document on The Vocation and Mission of Women in the Economy of God, the Life of the Church, and Society18 as part of the synodal process of the Roman Catholic Church. These are first prophetic and promising steps in an otherwise patriarchal society.
The population explosion constitutes a major challenge for the region as the available resources cannot sustain such numbers and governments are not equipped to face this challenge. Population growth is felt especially in the major regional capitals. The development of infrastructure in urban settings has been unable to keep pace with demographic growth and has resulted in densely populated, polluted, and congested cities surrounded by large slums with inadequate transportation systems, education or health services. Since the majority of Middle Eastern Christians live in urban areas, with many belonging to the middle class, they have seen daily how their quality of life has deteriorated with congested streets, polluted air, sea and land, plus rising violence and social tensions.
The region has a very high unemployment rate (12.5 percent in 2021 compared with 6.2 percent globally) and the highest number of unemployed young people worldwide (28.6 percent). The unemployment rate among young women is the highest in the world at 49.1 percent.19 In 2020 the region lost 10 million jobs. In contrast, many Western industrial countries and Gulf countries have a dire need for skilled labor and educated employees. The brain drain has been a major characteristic of Middle Eastern Christian communities and the majority of Christians with Middle Eastern roots reside today in the diaspora: Palestinians,20 Syrians, and Lebanese21 in Latin and South America; Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Copts in North America; and scattered communities in Europe, Australia, and Africa. Historically, these diasporic communities were looked upon as people who had abandoned their countries and religious communities. The fact that many of these diasporic communities are flourishing—preserving their community rites, ancient languages, and traditions, and contributing financially to the survival of their home communities—is causing previous perceptions to change. The connection between Middle Eastern Christian communities in the region with those in the diaspora is seen increasingly as vital to the survival of these ancient Christian communities.
Churches in the Middle East are dwindling in number but they continue to play an important social and cultural role in their societies that belies their size. It is true that their impact is not what it used to be in the nineteenth-century when pioneering Christian educational institutions, hospitals, and cultural impact were at a peak. This is true for most countries in the region. A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University and the Pontifical Mission on the social and economic impact of Christian organizations in Palestine22 showed that although Christians in Palestine make up less than one percent of the population, they operate 296 church-related organizations that together constitute the third largest employer in 1967 Palestine only after the government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. These organizations inject over 400 million US dollars into the Palestinian economy. They run almost a third of the health services, two universities and two colleges, and sixty-two schools. The fact that 45 percent of the non-governmental organizations were started by Christians shows the important contribution of Christians towards a strong civil society. A continuous Christian presence in the Middle East is crucial to maintain the pluralistic character of the region. Without the Christian presence, the Middle East will become more mono-religious, mono-cultural, and thus poorer in every aspect.
3 Theological Responses
The many challenges outlined above have not deterred Christians from reflecting on their socio-political and economic context but have challenged them to develop adequate contextual responses and theological tools. In their responses, Middle East Christians have refused to define themselves as victims without agency but rather they identify as a community with a socio-religious and political mission. The challenges facing the region have triggered a plethora of new contextual theological approaches that demand a thorough analysis of the context while developing a prophetic theological response. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to speak about a ‘theological revival.’23 Interestingly enough, it was the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in 1987 that prompted Palestinian pastors and theologians to start writing their stories in the form of a narrative theology to educate the ‘Western world’ by asserting their identity as the descendants of the first Christian communities and explaining their plight under Israeli occupation. It was also the first uprising that forced the heads of churches in Jerusalem to come together and to issue the first common statement.24
This was followed in 1991 by the first pastoral letter of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient, a communion of all seven Catholic patriarchs in the Middle East. This letter was preceded by the selection of the Palestinian Christian priest, Michel Sabbah, as the first Palestinian Arab Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem in 1988, and by the Catholic family joining the Middle East Council of Churches in 1989. The first letter titled The Catholic Churches in the East: Past & Present presented a new theological perspective. It warned Christians against retreating from their societies, from abandoning their context, from full assimilation, and from a minority complex. It warned parishioners not to dwell in nostalgia for the past but to pave the way to the future. It encouraged fellow Christians to be a living church that engages with its environment, to have an active presence, to live their calling, to be Christ witnesses “here and now,” and to live their faith in hope and in action.25 This new perspective continued consistently throughout the years (1991–2020) as the different titles show: Christian Presence in the East: Witness & Mission (1992); Together in Front of God in Service of the Human and Society: Coexistence between Christians & Muslims in the Arab World (1994); Together Towards the Future” (1999); The Family: The Responsibility of the Church & State (2005); and The Youth of Today: Tomorrow’s Church (2006) to name a few.
In 2009, under the umbrella of the World Council of Churches, a group of fourteen Christian leaders, both religious and lay leaders, women and men, came together to draft a Palestinian Christian response to the stagnant political situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This document came to be known as Kairos Palestine26 and it warned against weaponizing the Bible, descriptions such as ‘the promised land’ or elections against the Palestinian people. These leaders wrestled to find an appropriate Christian response to the Israel occupation and called for “creative resistance.” They stressed the importance of hope as an active Christian response to the hopeless situation. This document created a global Christian response know as Global Kairos.
Two years later, the Arab Spring highlighted the dire need for a new social contract based on equal citizenship and social cohesion. It also demonstrated the value of freedom, especially for young people. This prompted Dar al-Kalima University to call for a meeting in Beirut of Christian leaders, scholars, and young graduates, supported by Muslim intellectuals, to launch the document From the Nile to the Euphrates: The Call of Faith and Citizenship.27 This document outlined ten key challenges facing the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring that will determine its fate, and ultimately the future of its Christians. These challenges include the relationship between religion and state, the rule of law, human security versus state security, the status of women and youth in the region, equality, human dignity, spirituality, and reason. The document encouraged Christians to be motivated by faith in engaging in a society based on equal citizenship and participation, and to explore what the Christian faith has to offer at such times. The meeting announced the establishment of the Christian Academic Forum for Citizenship in the Arab World (CAFCAW).28
A final noteworthy document of Middle Eastern contextual theology was written by eleven Christian leaders from the region and was launched in Beirut in 2021 under the title: We Choose Abundant Life: Christians in the Middle East: Towards Renewed Theological, Social, and Political Choices.29 The document focuses on synodality and highlights the importance of religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity in the region. With such diversity, walking together becomes crucial: walking together as Christians from diverse church traditions in the region, and walking together as Christians with Muslims and people of other faiths. The document calls for greater participation by women and youth at all levels of church structures, including in decision-making.
These last two documents are evidence that the approach of contextual theology adopted in Palestine during the first uprising has spread to the entire Middle East. Throughout history, many Middle Eastern Christians have understood that they have no option but to engage in the national and regional struggle for social and political transformation. While it is clear that the visibility and vitality of Middle Eastern Christianity in the twenty-first century has waned and the number of Christians has dwindled to a historic low of two to three percent, this has not deterred Christians from contributing to their communities and advocating for neighborly relationships, equal citizenship, and open, tolerant, and pluralistic societies. Despite the challenges, Christians have repeatedly proven themselves to be a resilient community capable of not only surviving but reviving and thriving. This is another story of resilience to celebrate.
Mitri Raheb
November 8, 2024
For more, see: Mitri Raheb, ed., In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in the Twenty-First Century (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2023).
Géraldine Chatelard, “Migration from Iraq between the Gulf and the Iraq Wars (1990–2003): Historical and Sociospacial Dimensions,” https://www.academia.edu/182775/Migration_from_Iraq_between_the_Gulf_and_the_Iraq_Wars_1990-2003_Historical_and_Sociospacial_Dimensions, (accessed 18 July 2020).
Interview with minority expert, Dr. Saad Saaloum, conducted by the author on 22 July 2022.
Antoine Salameh and Roula Talhouk, “Christians in Lebanon,” in In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in the Twenty-First Century, (ed.). Mitri Raheb (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2023), 101–33.
See chapter 2 in this volume: Rebecca Skreslet Hernandez, “At the Borders of Identity: Reflections on Egyptian Protestant Public Theology in the Wake of the Arab Spring.”
Miray Philips, “Christians in Egypt: Transformations in Representational Authority and Narratives of Belonging,” in In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in the Twenty-First Century (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2023), 13–37.
See chapter 11 in this volume: Kenny Schmitt, “Gazan Christians: Pilgrimage Permits, Migration, and the Exchange of Precarity.”
For more on this, see: Mitri Raheb, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2023).
Mitri Raheb, “Jerusalem in the Age of Trump,” in Jerusalem: Religious, National and International Dimensions, (ed.). Mitri Raheb (Bethlehem: Diyar, 2019), 23–34.
Raoul Wootliff, “Final Text of Jewish Nation-State Law, Approved by the Knesset Early on July 19,” The Times of Israel, 19 July 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/final-text-of-jewish-nation-state-bill-set-to-become-law (accessed 31 October 2024).
For more on Christians in Jordan, see: Paolo Maggiolini, “Christians in Jordan,” in In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in the Twenty-First Century (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2023), 13–37.
See chapter 10 in this volume: Lucy Schouten, “Why Church Leaders Discourage Christians from Leaving Jordan: An Anti-Emigration Perspective.”
Arab Human Development Report 2016: Youth and the Prospects for Human Development in a Changing Reality (New York: United Nations Development Program, 2016), 22–23.
Ibid., 4.
Ibid., 6–8.
We Choose Abundant Life Group, “We Choose Abundant Life: Christians in the Middle East: Towards Renewed Theological, Social, and Political Choices” (Beirut, 2021), https://wechooseabundantlife.com (accessed 31 October 2024).
See chapter 5 in this volume: Tala Raheb, “Christian Agency and Lutheran Personal Status Laws in Palestine.”
“The Vocation and Mission of Women in the Economy of God, the Life of the Church, and Society” (Maronite Patriarchate, Bkerke, September 9, 2023).
Arab Human Development Report 2022: Expanding Opportunities for an Inclusive and Resilient Recovery in the Post-Covid Era, Executive Summary (New York: United Nations Development Programme), 6–7.
Viola Raheb, Latin American with Palestinian Roots (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012).
Dalia Abdelhady, The Lebanese Diaspora: The Arab Immigrant Experience in Montreal, New York, and Paris (New York: NYU Press, 2011).
George Akroush, Mapping of Christian Organizations in Palestine: Social and Economic Impact (Bethlehem: Diyar Publisher, 2021).
See chapter 4: Elizabeth S. Marteijn, “The Revival of Palestinian Christianity: Developments in Palestinian Theology.”
Mitri Raheb, I Am a Palestinian Christian (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 122–33.
Rafiq Khoury, ed., Sudasiya li-Azmina Jadida: al-Rasael al-Raʾawiya al-sit al-ula li-Patarikat al-Sharq al-Catholic (Jerusalem: Latin Patriarchate press, 2008), 65–92.
“Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth. A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering” (Diyar, 2009).
From the Nile to the Euphrates: The Call of Faith and Citizenship (Bethlehem: Diyar, 2015).
See the organization’s website: https://cafcaw.org/.
We Choose Abundant Life Group, “We Choose Abundant Life.”