November 23, 2023

Getting to the Roots of Peacemaking: Perspective on Initiatives and Confrontation

by Dustin Ellington I was inspired by what I saw and heard at this year’s Middle East Consultation (MEC) focusing on “My Peace I Give You: Practicing Peace in the Middle East.” It was my first time attending the MEC. What I found most inspiring was hearing stories and explanations […]
November 9, 2023

The Predicament of Confrontation

by Bassem Melki Following the October blog by Sherri Ellington (“Layers of Peace”) about MEC 2023, I want to shed light on the issue of confrontation (which was raised during MEC 2023 and will be tackled again during MEC 2024) as an important step of peacemaking that we cannot neglect […]
October 12, 2023

Layers of Peace: Highlights from the 2023 Middle East Consultation at ABTS

By Sherri Ellington This year’s Middle East Consultation – which happens to be my first ever, and I was touched, impressed, and inspired – was called “My Peace I Give You: Practicing Peace in the Middle East.” It was the second year in a row for the MEC to be […]
September 28, 2023

The Dangerous Role of the Media in Exacerbating Conflict … and Other Theological Musings

By Martin Accad On my commute to work in the morning, I am always on the lookout for news of the day on the radio: on the hour … at 15 minutes after the hour … or at 15 minutes before the hour. I browse through my preset stations, each […]
September 14, 2023

The Bible’s Words in Our Neighborhood Dialects

By Elia Shehata The good news concerning the redemption of Jesus Christ was first shared orally and after a while, under the Holy Spirit’s leadership, was written down in the Greek language. When the Gospels were written down, the Greek was already a translation from an Aramaic oral message containing […]
August 31, 2023

At the Splintering End of Institutional Evangelicalism: Christian Nationalism and Theological Progressivism

By Wes Watkins As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the […]
August 17, 2023

The Sin of Talking about Sin

By Elie Haddad In ABTS’s latest blog post, Walid Zailaa expressed his concern for the church to remain faithful to its theological convictions amid a society that does not subscribe to a unified metanarrative. Walid argued that being tolerant should not mean that the Church remains silent on issues it […]
August 3, 2023

Is Tolerance the Only Deciding Factor?

By Walid Zailaa Contemporary societies seem to have abandoned the idea of a single overarching narrative—one story— that defines their existence. Instead, we rely more today on the concept of “tolerance” to promote peaceful coexistence among diverse individuals and communities. Though tolerance is a positive value, it has become the […]