Holy Land/Israel/Palestine

The seeds:  [1] Martin Luther is often quoted as saying something like, “If I knew the world were ending tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today.” Luther didn’t say or write that,[i] but it is a variant of a longstanding saying in both Judaism and Islam: the tradition of the sapling. Different versions are […]

How can a story without women speak to women? Sarras explores the circumstance of the prophet Jonah and how his experience can speak to Palestinian women today. ​ She examines the story and language of Jonah’s story and compares to the oppression Palestinian Christian women endure today, while suggesting how the church can strengthen these women in their justice work.​​

Niveen Sarras highlights the nameless girl and the father-son duo in Amos 2:7c and brings context to the story by examining the rest of the book of Amos, arguing that the girl was raped. Sarras then uses the Amos story to explore the rape culture in modern Palestine and narrates the deep need for change.

1] In our time, when the Israeli/Palestinian conflict occupies such a prominent place in our political discourse, the topic of Christian Zionism has become a critical matter for theological and ethical deliberation. In this issue, the Journal of Lutheran Ethics is pleased to provide a contribution to this important discussion. [2] Robert O. Smith reminds […]

An Ethical Critique of Christian Zionism [1] As an Arab Palestinian Evangelical Lutheran Christian who grew up as a refugee, questions about the land and theology of Palestine/Israel are not just theological or philosophical exercises to me. They involve all that I am and all that I hold sacred in my life as a Palestinian […]

[1] What is Zionism? What is Christian Zionism? Let’s try to develop some working definitions before we visit the pros and cons of a movement that seems to be attracting a fair amount of attention today. [2] A simple definition could be, “Zionism supports the return, or the various returns, of the Jewish people to […]

Thesis [1] The essential lines of classical Christian anti-Judaism are by now familiar to many, documented in such seminal works as James Parkes’ The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue and Rosemary Radford Reuther’s Faith and Fratricide and more recently chronicled for readers of the New York Times bestseller list in James Carroll’s Constantine’s […]

[1] In our post-Holocaust era, many Jews have identified with the State of Israel as their last line of defense should the community again come under the threat of eradication. Most Christians, especially in North America, are unable to begin fathoming this possibility. Their communities simply have not been under such a threat. The typical […]

Palestinians, Christian Zionists and the Good News Gospel [1] What is striking in the large body of writing and activity related to the development of Christian Zionism, particularly in its more extreme manifestation rooted in American pop culture dispensationalism, is how little is said about those who were most affected by the establishment of the […]

[1] I begin with an admission of my personal vulnerability related to this essay. Having spent most of my life on college and university campuses and knowing how critical an audience of scholarly experts can be, I undertake a topic related to ethics with genuine trepidation. I am a non-professional addressing readers who are likely […]