Recent review of our Sabbatical program

Jim and Julia Binney recently took part in our sabbatical program here at NETS. You can read the review at their blog.

Time for a Sabbatical?

Visit our seminary website if you might be interested in a sabbatical coordinated through our seminary.

Alex Miller reviews Steven Paas' new book

In our second NETS book review, Alex Miller, lecturer in Church history and theology, reviews Christian Zionism Examined by Steven Paas.

Download the PDF by clicking here.

Here is the first paragraph of the review:

Christian Zionism is a hot topic right now among evangelicals and is always a relevant issue for Christians living in Israel/Palestine. Last week I was teaching at the women’s bible study for the local Episcopal church here in Nazareth and one of the ladies blurted out, “Where does this idea that the Jews still own the land come from!?” Even though that was not at all the topic of the study at all.

Christianity in Palestine: Lecture 6, Constantine and Helena

Lecture 6_Constantine and Helena

Constantine, a controversial figure, was influential for the development of Christianity after the 4th Century. In relation to Palestinian Christianity, Helena, his mother, was equally important but in a different way, as the one whose mission to the Holy Land would lay out the basic map of holy places for all future generations, including ours.

Lecturer: Duane Alexander Miller Botero

Assigned Reading: St Constantine the Great: an Orthodox perspective by Marina Shelley Havach

Christianity in Palestine: Lecture 5, Traits of the Early Church

Lecture 5_The Church in the Roman Empire

Lecture 4 was about the Roman Empire, and this lecture is about key traits of the early Church related to mission. It was 1) shaped by persecution, 2) by c. 200 episcopal in its polity, 3) alive and well outside of the Roman Empire, and 4) engaged in apologetics. Special attention is paid to Justin Martyr, a native of Palestine (Neapolis-Nablus).

Lecturer: Duane Alexander Miller Botero

Reading: Justin’s First Apology

Christianity in Palestine, Lecture 4

Lecture 4: The Roman Empire and the Spread of Christianity

Synopsis: What were the factors present in the Roman Empire that facilitated the surprisingly rapid growth of the Christian faith? This lecture will cover factors like the Pax Romana, Roman infrastructure, the Jewish diaspora, and the Septuagint.

Lecturer: Alex Miller

Course Information: Christianity and Mission in Palestine (Fall of 2012).

Brent Neely reviews Gabriel Said Reynolds' new book

In our first NETS Book Review, Brent Neely, our Vice President for Academic Affairs, reviews the new book by Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective (Fortress Press, 2012).

Download the PDF by clicking here. Here is the first paragraph of the review:

Gabriel Said Reynolds' The Emergence of Islam: Classical Traditions in Contemporary Perspective  is a masterfully-written book. The argument is propelled by an engaging style, economy of words, and a momentum built in to the structure of the book. Reynolds' approach is academic and empirical, but the target audience is educated non-specialists. His tone is candid without being sensational or polemical. In fact, his ability to give context and a fair hearing to a wide spread of data is rather refreshing given the contentious nature of much writing on Muhammad and Islam. In terms of spirit one might place Reynolds somewhere between the poles of philo-Islamic advocates and anti-Islamic polemicists, a polarity which he explicitly illustrates with reference to Karen Armstrong and to Robert Spencer (locations 198-212, Kindle Edition).

Christianity in Palestine, Lecture 3: The Content and Method of Jesus' Ministry

Lecture 3: The content and method of Jesus’ mission

Nazareth Seminary, Fall of 2012.

Lecture questions: In what ways was Jesus’ ministry original? In what ways did he simply carry on established traditions? What was the content of his teaching? And how did he envision to accomplish that goal?

Lecturer: D. A. Miller

Christianity in Palestine, Lecture 2

Christianity in Palestine, Fall 2012, lecturer D A Miller

Lecture 2: when Christianity became a religion

Christianity in Palestine, Lecture 1

Christianity in Palestine, Fall 2012, lecturer D A Miller

Lecture 1: what is contextual missiology?

Christ Church (Anglican) in Nazareth, by Duane Alexander Miller

Do you ever wonder what the churches in Nazareth today are like? Very few of them have any documented history, and one of our goals is to document the history of the churches here in our city.

With that in mind, our lecturer in Church History and Theology, Alex Miller, has recently published a brief history of Christ Church, which is the Anglican/Episcopal church here in town. This article appears in St Francis Magazine. The article has some nice pictures of the church as well as some helpful information.

Click to download the PDF of the article.


Mr Miller has also published articles on the following churches in the region:

Church of the Redeemer (Anglican/Episcopal) in Amman, Jordan

The Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr (Anglican/Episcopal) in Jerusalem

The Alliance Church (CMA) in Jerusalem's Old City


If you would like to see some pictures of a few churches check these out:

St Joseph's (Latin) in Nazareth

Annunciation (Orthodox) in Nazareth

Christ Church (Anglican) in Nazareth

St Michael's (Anglican) in Heliopolis, Egypt

If you have pictures of any church in the Middle East and would like to corroborate in a project to preserve photographic records of these structures please contact Mr Miller by leaving a comment on this blog's most recent post, regardless of topic.