July 27, 2017

Reflections on Citizenship

By Elie Haddad I am a native Lebanese citizen. I was born and raised in Lebanon. I love Lebanon, despite the insecurity, uncertainty, and corruption that characterize the country, and despite having grown up during the civil war. Lebanon has left its mark on me. Even the years of the […]
July 20, 2017

Reflections on Fear and Faith

By Arthur Brown “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the […]
July 13, 2017

Hospitality in an Age of Terror

By Suzie Lahoud “By the exercise of hospitality we come to the knowledge of Christ.” – Augustine[1] The week that the controversial US travel and immigration ban was first issued, I sat in my living room in Lebanon with a Syrian woman whose water had broken in her seventh month […]
July 6, 2017

How Should Arab Christians React to Persecution?

By Martin Accad The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary has just completed its fourteenth Middle East Conference/Consultation, organized by its Institute of Middle East Studies, the highlights of which were presented last week through our blog. Under the overarching concept of “disorienting times,” we explored the four themes of “Persecution and […]
June 30, 2017

How Can the Church Be Prophetic in Today’s Disorienting Times? Highlights from Middle East Consultation 2017

From June 19 to 23, 200 participants from over 20 nationalities participated in our annual Middle East Consultation (MEC) titled The Church in Disorienting Times: Leading Prophetically through Adversity. Each of the first 4 days of MEC focused on one theme. This year, morning sessions began with a theological keynote, […]
June 22, 2017

Acceptance of the Other: How Interfaith Dialogue Has Helped One Community Come to Life Again

By Kathryn Kraft When she stood up from the little stool on which she had been perched throughout our interview, I saw that she was indeed pregnant. I’d guess about seven months. But, I thought, she already had seven children, a sunken eye, and a lost home! I wondered if […]
June 15, 2017

What the Poor Have Taught Me?

By Rupen Das* A 2009 study by Tomas Rees on the relationship between poverty and religiousness found that personal insecurity (due to stressful situations, such as poverty) was an important determinant of religiosity.[1] The poor tend to be more religious. I find the faith of the poor both intriguing and challenging. […]
June 8, 2017

Getting the Trinity out of the Ivory Tower

By Mike Kuhn Are there any “ivory tower theologians” out there? I’ve never seen an ivory tower…and I suppose that’s the point. Ivory tower theologians are presumably dealing with things nobody cares about, things that make no practical difference in day to day life. I remember chuckling at “Owl” as […]