Christian Communities in the Contemporary Middle East: An Introduction

Abstract

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 special issue addresses such pertinent questions and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the contemporary realities and recent histories of institutional churches and Christian communities in the Middle East. It does so with a specific focus 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 this issue’s articles on Christianity in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon, while these studies also highlight the ties Christians in these nations have to co-religionists in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, and around the world. To convey the particularities of contemporary churches in the Middle East and place in religious and studies, what follows, I first consider the demographics and within Middle Eastern introduce the nine articles in issue, noting the critical gaps this research fills in support of Middle Eastern Christian Studies.