March 2, 2023

Deconstructing the Kerygmatic?

By Martin Accad This year will mark nearly twenty years since I first began to think about the SEKAP spectrum for Christian-Muslim interaction. I have advocated for a moderate posture on a five-level continuum between Syncretism (D1: “all roads lead to Mecca”) and Polemics (D5: “aggressive and exclusivist”), with D2 […]
September 8, 2022

Is Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses more “Satanic” than Attempted Murder? Revisiting the Rushdie Affair

By Martin Accad When the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, saw that his people were shunning him, he was aggrieved by their rejection of the message he brought them and he secretly wished that Allah, exalted is He, reveals something to him which would bring […]
March 24, 2022

Political Theology in an Antireligious World

By Martin Accad Many today are angry at religion, or at least disappointed with it. Rightly so perhaps, since so much violence is carried out in God’s name. In the MENA part of the world, anger and disappointment were manifest in the so-called “Arab Spring” protests that began near the […]
November 11, 2021

Middle East Consultation 2021 Recap Series: “The Church’s Engagement with Society”

By Martin Accad From September 30 to October 2, ABTS hosted the Middle East Consultation 2021 entitled “Towards a Dynamic Church: Making Disciples, Developing Leaders, and Engaging Society in Lebanon and Beyond.” During the three-day online event, we invited local, regional, and global voices to consider urgent matters of faith […]
July 22, 2021

Summer Repost: My Inner Journey to Hell and Back

By Martin Accad This is a revised version of a post that was published by IMES in 2014 Earlier this month, during a conference I was attending in Ghana, I joined a group on a visit to one of the “Slave Castles” on the Southern coast. I expected it to […]
June 10, 2021

Love Your Neighbor, Be Political!: A Reflection From Lebanon About Faith in Politics

by Martin Accad and Caleb Hutcherson In an interview with Time magazine in 1963, Karl Barth recalled advising young theologians 40 years previous “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” It seems he often used variations of this figure of […]
May 27, 2021

What’s in a Name?: A Case for Using ‘Isa in Arabic Translations of the Bible

By Martin Accad “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 2) As Juliet agonizes over her love for Romeo, forbidden to her merely because he bears the Montague name, the family which is […]
February 25, 2021

Darkness Does Not Tolerate the Light of Truth: Reflections on the Savage Murder of Lokman Slim

By Martin Accad “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it;” but “the darkness will not overcome it.” These words are part of the testimony of John the apostle, in his gospel (1:5), concerning Jesus. Earlier this month (on the 4th of February, which also […]