March 4, 2021
By Smyrna Khalaf Moughabghab “I can’t take it any longer.” “I’m bored of everything.” “I’ve been like this for one year.” I know many have heard these sentences or have said them or have thought about them in the last months. Recently, my children have been expressing more frequently their […]
December 23, 2020
The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary wishes you a wonderful Christmas! May the following reflections by members of our community bless you this season. Teresa Sfeir Communication and Editing Officer “On earth peace,” the angels told the shepherds. Were they heralding world peace with the advent of Christ? The past […]
December 16, 2020
We live at a time when religious diversity has become a fact of life in our globalized societies. Yet Christian engagement with Muslims remains complex, complicated by fear, misunderstanding and a history fraught with political and cultural tensions. With acts of religiously motivated violence filling our headlines and religious discourse […]
December 9, 2020
By Tim Brys A few years ago, I was left rather shaken when confronted with the fact that Christians are not the only ones to enjoy deeply meaningful religious experiences. Consider for example the following account that I read in William James’s classic work, The Varieties of Religious Experience. James […]
November 11, 2020
The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary’s 60th Anniversary is an opportunity to remember God’s faithfulness through many decades of fruitful ministry. A vision “to see God glorified, people reconciled, and communities restored through the Church in the Arab world” daily motivates this dynamic community of students, staff, and partners to minister […]
October 28, 2020
The 17 October 2019 outburst of popular protests was a watershed moment for Lebanon. It effectively launched a tumultuous 12-month period dominated by three prevailing national crises: a street protest movement fueled by rapidly deteriorating socioeconomic and political conditions, a public health emergency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and […]
September 24, 2020
Contemporary models of Christian missions have been tested by the unprecedented conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent months the realities of social distancing, travel restrictions, increased government tracking, and economic decline have challenged the way missionaries, sending agencies, and receiving ministries conduct “business.” While a sense of frustration is […]
September 14, 2020
By Tim Brys, Martin Accad and Brent Hamoud When COVID-19 hit Lebanon in February 2020 bringing the country to a near standstill, the team at the Institute of Middle East Studies was challenged to rethink its peacebuilding initiatives in light of new social-distancing realities. This was quite difficult for programs […]