Theology and Mission in World Christianity41 Christianity the Contemporary Middle East

Who are the Christians of the Middle East? How have churches and Christian organizations responded to violent conflicts, political unrest, refugee flows, and economic crises in the region? Does such socio-political turmoil define Middle Eastern Christians as a group? By what methods do scholars today study Christian communities in the Middle East? This volume addresses such pertinent questions and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the contemporary realities and recent histories of institutional churches and Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant communities in the Middle East. It focuses on the Arabic-speaking regions of North Africa and West Asia, while including studies on Christians in these regions who are not Arab and who use vernacular and liturgical languages other than Arabic. The diversity and rich heritage of Christianity in the Middle East is apparent in chapters on Christianity in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.