Faculty Publication: "Religious Freedom in Israel-Palestine"

An article by our lecturer in Church History, Alex Miller, was recently published in St Francis Magazine, Vol 10:1, April 2014.

The title of the article is "Religious Freedom in Israel-Palestine: may Muslims become Christians, and do Christians have the freedom to welcome such converts?"

Here is the abstract:

This research represents a continuation and elaboration on Miller’s research for the Christianity and Freedom project, presented in Rome in December of 2013. This article seeks to understand the challenges and context of Christians who are also ex-Muslims in the Holy Land. Attention is paid to the difference between the contexts in the West Bank and Israel, and how the established Christian Churches sometimes safeguard their own precarious sense of security by turning away Muslims who seek to know more about the Christian faith and converts from Islam.

You can download the PDF from Dr. Miller's Academia.edu page or from St Francis Magazine.

Samuel Kuruvilla, Mary's Well Occasional Paper, Vol 3:1

Dr Samuel Kuruvilla is the author of our first Occasional Paper for 2014. The name of the paper is 'Contextual Theological Praxis as Resistance: Palestinian Christian Peace-building in the Occupied West Bank'.

Click HERE to download the PDF.

Abstract: This article deals with the different approaches that the Palestinian contextual theology movement ‘Al-Liqa,’ the liberation theology movement ‘Sabeel’ and the intercultural movement ‘Diyar’ consortium have taken towards resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict, given their similarities as well as divergences in the light of the intersection between theology and politics. The contextualisation of theology and politics in Palestine has a long history, especially in the light of the tortured history of that nation in world affairs. Palestinian Christians have long been controlled and influenced by Western Christendom and it was only in the middle part of the last century that a so-called ‘contextualisation’ movement rose among them that sought to place the culture of the Palestinian people right at the centre of their faith and practice. This article has sought to show how the Diyar Movement in Bethlehem has and can have an impact on Palestinian society, irrespective of party and religious affiliation, as it has sought to bridge the secular-religious divide within Palestinian society. 

Keywords: Palestine, Palestinian Theology, Liberation Theology, Sabeel, Al Liqa’, Contextualisation, Diyar