Download or read book The Politics of Persecution written by President Mitri Raheb and published by . This book was released on 2021-09 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been a recurring theme since the middle of the nineteenth century. The topic has experienced a resurgence in the last few years, especially during the Trump era. Middle Eastern Christians are often portrayed as a homogeneous, helpless group ever at the mercy of their Muslim enemies, a situation that only Western powers can remedy. The Politics of Persecution revisits this narrative with a critical eye. Mitri Raheb charts the plight of Christians in the Middle East from the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 to the so-called Arab Spring. The book analyzes the diverse socioeconomic and political factors that led to the diminishing role and numbers of Christians in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan during the eras of Ottoman, French, and British Empires, through the eras of independence, Pan-Arabism, and Pan-Islamism, and into the current era of American empire. With an incisive exposé of the politics that lie behind alleged concerns for these persecuted Christians--and how the concept of persecution has been a tool of public diplomacy and international politics--Raheb reveals that Middle Eastern Christians have been repeatedly sacrificed on the altar of Western national interests. The West has been part of the problem for Middle Eastern Christianity and not part of the solution, from the massacre on Mount Lebanon to the rise of ISIS. The Politics of Persecution, written by a well-known Palestinian Christian theologian, provides an insider perspective on this contested region. Middle Eastern Christians survived successive empires by developing great elasticity in adjusting to changing contexts; they learned how to survive atrocities and how to resist creatively while maintaining a dynamic identity. In this light, Raheb casts the history of Middle Eastern Christians not so much as one of persecution but as one of resilience.

Download or read book The Myth of Persecution written by Candida Moss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

Download or read book Courage My Story of Persecution I Witness written by Freshta Tori Jan and published by WW Norton. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuing this propulsive middle grade nonfiction series, a young woman once persecuted by the Taliban shares her journey to becoming a community activist. As a girl and as part of an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, Freshta Tori Jan was persecuted relentlessly. Her family faced kidnappings and daily murder attempts on the bus, on the way to school, in the workplace, and beyond. Freshta’s school was shut down by the Taliban, and many of her friends were murdered and shot. Her journey through poverty, terrorism, and other forms of injustice has enabled her to be a voice for those unable to share their stories and those unable to receive the opportunities she has sought. She believes in empowering youth in order to bring about change and be the leaders of today and tomorrow. With a voice that is both accessible and engaging, Freshta brings forward a captivating first-person account of strength, resilience, and determination, and delivers compelling narrative nonfiction by young people, for young people.

Download or read book The Coming Christian Persecution written by Thomas D. Williams and published by Crisis Publication. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The age of martyrs is not a thing of the past … Churches burned. Christians beheaded. Faith communities driven underground. Governments forcing silence upon those who profess fidelity to the Gospel. These experiences are not confined to members of the early Church or to the missionaries and converts in far-off pagan lands centuries ago. The persecution of Christians is happening right now-and it is closer to home than you may realize. Moral theologian and news analyst Dr. Thomas Williams incisively juxtaposes the still relatively unknown global Christian persecution of today with that of previous epochs, describing it in its various forms and providing insight into what it means for the Church and for society at large. Dr. Williams shows how Christian persecution has been with us since the time of Jesus, and how modern attacks against Christians spring from six primary sources: atheism, radical Islam, Hindu nationalism, totalitarianism, academia, and Satanism. He provides valuable advice on how these outrages can be remedied and explains what Christians can do to prepare for what is to come.

Download or read book The Persecution of Diocletian written by Arthur James Mason and published by . This book was released on 1876 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Privilege of Persecution written by Carl A Moeller and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Americans view the persecuted church as “third-world,” needy, uneducated, and poor -- sorely lacking in much of what we assume the church needs to function well. Essentially, we see them as being in need of us. But the irony, say Carl Moeller and David Hegg, is that we’re in much greater need of them. Through a combination of inspiring real-life stories, first-hand experiences, and exposition of key Scripture passages, Dr. Carl Moeller and Pastor David Hegg examine the "e;normal Christian life"e; of Christ-followers currently suffering persecution around the world. In topical chapter after chapter, the authors conclude that the suffering church's vibrant, sacrificial, and communal faith is much closer to God's intent for His church and His children. The authors explore the areas of community, leadership, worship, prayer, and generosity, among others, revealing specific attitudes and actions of the suffering church that can renew the spiritual lives of Christians in the West. Each chapter ends with challenging questions and suggestions for personal and corporate application.

Download or read book The Coming Persecution written by Larry W. Poland and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book God s Hostage written by Andrew Brunson and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1993, Andrew Brunson was asked to travel to Turkey, the largest unevangelized country in the world, to serve as a missionary. Though hesitant because of the daunting and dangerous task that lay ahead, Andrew and his wife, Norine, believed this was God's plan for them. What followed was a string of threats and attacks, but also successes in starting new churches in a place where many people had never met a Christian. As their work with refugees from Syria, including Kurds, gained attention and suspicion, Andrew and Norine acknowledged the threat but accepted the risk, determining to stay unless God told them to leave. In 2016, they were arrested. Though the State eventually released Norine, who remained in Turkey, Andrew was imprisoned. Accused of being a spy and being among the plotters of the attempted coup, he became a political pawn whose story soon became known around the world. God's Hostage is the incredible true story of his imprisonment, his brokenness, and his eventual freedom. Anyone with a heart for missions, especially to the Muslim world, will love this tension-laden and faith-laced book.

Download or read book The Last Christians written by Andreas Knapp and published by Gospel in Great Writers. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Westerner's travels among the persecuted and displaced Christian remnant in Iraq and Syria teach him much about faith under fire. Gold Medal Winner, 2018 IPPY Book of the Year Award Silver Medal Winner, 2018 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist, 2018 ECPA Christian Book Award Inside Syria and Iraq, and even along the refugee trail, they're a religious minority persecuted for their Christian faith. Outside the Middle East, they're suspect because of their nationality. A small remnant of Christians is on the run from the Islamic State. If they are wiped out, or scattered to the corners of the earth, the language that Jesus spoke may be lost forever - along with the witness of a church that has modeled Jesus' way of nonviolence and enemy-love for two millennia. The kidnapping, enslavement, torture, and murder of Christians by the Islamic State, or ISIS, have been detailed by journalists, as have the jihadists' deliberate efforts to destroy the cultural heritage of a region that is the cradle of Christianity. But some stories run deep, and without a better understanding of the religious and historical roots of the present conflict, history will keep repeating itself century after century. Andreas Knapp, a priest who works with refugees in Germany, travelled to camps for displaced people in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to collect stories of survivors - and to seek answers to troubling questions about the link between religion and violence. He found Christians who today still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The uprooted remnant of ancient churches, they doggedly continue to practice their faith despite the odds. Their devastating eyewitness reports make it clear why millions are fleeing the Middle East. Yet, remarkably, though these last Christians hold little hope of ever returning to their homes, they also harbor no thirst for revenge. Could it be that they - along with the Christians of the West, whose interest will determine their fate - hold the key to breaking the cycle of violence in the region? Includes sixteen pages of color photographs.

Download or read book Persecution Persuasion and Power written by James A. Kelhoffer and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2010 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James A. Kelhoffer examines an often overlooked aspect of New Testament constructions of legitimacy, namely the value of Christians' withstanding persecution as a means of corroborating their religious identity as Christ's followers. The introductory chapter defines the problem in interaction with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital. Chapters 2-10 examine the depictions of persecuted Christians in the Pauline letters, First Peter, Hebrews, Revelation, the NT Gospels, and Acts. These exegetical analyses support the conclusion that assertions of standing, authority, and power claimed on the basis of persecution play a significant and heretofore under-appreciated role in much of the NT. It is also argued that depictions of persecution can have both positive implications for the persecuted and negative implications for the depicted persecutors in constructions of legitimation.An epilogue considers later examples of early Christian martyrs and confessors, as well as John Foxe's Book of Martyrs . The epilogue also addresses the ethical and hermeneutical problem of asserting the withstanding of persecution as a basis of legitimacy in ancient and modern contexts. This problem stems from the observation that, although the NT authors present their construals of withstanding persecution as a basis of legitimation as if they were self-evident, such assertions are actually the culmination of numerous presuppositions and are therefore open to dissenting viewpoints. Yet the NT authors do not acknowledge the possibility of competing interpretations, or that oppressed Christians could someday become oppressors. Accordingly, this exegetical study calls attention to an ethical and hermeneutical problem that the NT bequeaths to the modern interpreter, a problem inviting input from ethicists and other theologians.

Download or read book Persecution in 1 Peter written by Travis B. Williams and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Persecution in 1 Peter, Travis B. Williams offers a comprehensive and detailed socio-historical investigation into the nature of persecution in 1 Peter, situating the epistle against the backdrop of conflict management in first-century CE Asia Minor.

Download or read book Persecution Plague and Fire written by Ellen MacKay and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theatre of early modern England was a disastrous affair. What we tend to remember of the Shakespearean stage and its history are landmark moments of dissolution. This title is a study of these catastrophes and the theory of performance they convey.

Download or read book Misquoting Jesus written by Bart D. Ehrman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.

Download or read book Persecution and the Art of Writing written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-05-10 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays collected in Persecution and the Art of Writing all deal with one problem—the relation between philosophy and politics. Here, Strauss sets forth the thesis that many philosophers, especially political philosophers, have reacted to the threat of persecution by disguising their most controversial and heterodox ideas.

Download or read book Feeling Persecuted written by Anthony Bale and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Feeling Persecuted, Anthony Bale explores the medieval Christian attitude toward Jews, which included a pervasive fear of persecution and an imagined fear of violence enacted against Christians. As a result, Christians retaliated with expulsions, riots, and murders that systematically denied Jews the right to religious freedom and peace. Through close readings of a wide range of sources, Bale exposes the perceived violence enacted by the Jews and how the images of this Christian suffering and persecution were central to medieval ideas of love, community, and home. The images and texts explored by Bale expose a surprising practice of recreational persecution and show that the violence perpetrated against medieval Jews was far from simple anti-Semitism and was in fact a complex part of medieval life and culture. Bale’s comprehensive look at medieval poetry, drama, visual culture, theology, and philosophy makes Feeling Persecuted an important read for anyone interested in the history of Christian-Jewish relations and the impact of this history on modern culture.

Download or read book The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East written by Ronald J. Rychlak and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the most crucial religious freedom issue of our day. It explores various facets of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, ISIS's ideology, their relationship to Islam as practiced by most Muslims, and the nature of religious freedom. It is essential reading for all concerned about religious persecution.

Download or read book Judging Jehovah s Witnesses written by Shawn Francis Peters and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While millions of Americans fought the Nazis, liberty was under attack at home with the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses who were intimidated and even imprisoned for refusing to salute the flag or serve in the armed forces. This study explores their defence of their First Amendment rights.