Christianity in the Contemporary Middle East

Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Communities in Context

Series: 

Volume Editor:
Deanna Ferree Womack
Who are the Christians of the Middle East? How have churches and Christian organizations responded to violent conflicts, political unrest, refugee flows, and economic crises in the region? Does such socio-political turmoil define Middle Eastern Christians as a group? By what methods do scholars today study Christian communities in the Middle East? This volume addresses such pertinent questions and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the contemporary realities and recent histories of institutional churches and Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant communities in the Middle East. It focuses on the Arabic-speaking regions of North Africa and West Asia, while including studies on Christians in these regions who are not Arab and who use vernacular and liturgical languages other than Arabic. The diversity and rich heritage of Christianity in the Middle East is apparent in chapters on Christianity in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74951-1
Publication:
08 Dec 2025
Paperback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-72751-9
Publication:
16 Dec 2025
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Deanna Ferree Womack is Associate Professor of History of Religions and Interfaith Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. She is the author of Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria (2019), Neighbors: Christians and Muslims Building Community (2020), and Re-inventing Islam: Gender and the Protestant Roots of American Islamophobia (2025).
Contents
Foreword
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Christian Communities in the Contemporary Middle East
 Deanna Ferree Womack

Part 1 Christian Ecclesial, Theological, and Political Identities in the Middle East

1 Islamic law, Unitary State law, and Communal Law: Divorce and Remarriage in Egypt’s Coptic Community
 Rachel M. Scott

2 At the Borders of Identity: Reflections on Egyptian Protestant Public Theology in the Wake of the Arab Spring
 Rebecca Skreslet Hernandez

3 The Ecclesial and Ethnic Identity of Chaldean Catholics
 Emil Anton

4 The Revival of Palestinian Christianity: Developments in Palestinian Theology
 Elizabeth S. Marteijn

5 Christian Agency and Lutheran Personal Status Laws in Palestine
 Tala Raheb

6 Navigating the Biblical Mandate: Discursive Change and Adaptation in the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem
 Aron Engberg

Part 2 Ethnographic Explorations of Arab, Syriac, and Armenian Christian Identity

7 Our Lady of Soufanieh’s Miniature Image: The Political Story of an Icon in Syria and Lebanon (1982–2014)
 Emma Aubin-Boltanski

8 From the Margins of the Colophon: Arab Orthodox Monasticism in Ruins
 Aaron Frederick Eldridge

9 Oriental Orthodox Young Adults and Liturgical Participation: A Matter of Identity
 Rima Nasrallah and Ronelle Sonnenberg

10 Why Church Leaders Discourage Christians from Leaving Jordan: An Anti-Emigration Perspective
 Lucy Schouten

11 Gazan Christians: Pilgrimage Permits, Migration, and the Exchange of Precarity
 Kenny Schmitt

Selected Bibliography
Index
Students, scholars, and professors/instructors of Middle Eastern Christianity, World Christianity, Religion, and Middle Eastern Studies.
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