The Persecution of Christians Concerns Us All


Book Description

""In this situation I can highly recommend Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher's new book. It gives a clear and logical insight in many of the questions even people who consider themselves nonreligious people now ask. It can best be read with an open Bible and some open daily newspaper. It will give a surprisingly new insight into what it means to live in 'a time like this'."" (From the preface by the Very Rev. Johan Candelin, Director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance) ""Suffering comes in many forms, but the one that Scripture tells all Christians to expect is persecution for one's faith. As Thomas Schirrmacher's theological study will demonstrate, the Bible has a tremendous amount to teach us about persecution. Without a Biblical understanding, we are unlikely to fully grasp the nature of the spiritual battle. I am delighted, therefore, that his book puts the Bible's teaching on persecution centre stage."" (Preface by Julia Doxat-Purser. Socio-PoliticalRepresentative & Religious Liberty Coordinator for the European Evangelical Alliance) Prof. Dr. theol. Dr. phil. Thomas Schirrmacher, PhD, ThD, DD, is professor of the sociolgy of religion at the State University of the West in Timisoara (Romania), Distinguished Professor of Global Ethics and International Development at William Carey University in Shillong (Meghalaya, India), as well as president and professor of ethics at Martin Bucer European Theological Seminary and Research Institutes with branches in Bonn, Berlin, Zurich, Innsbruck, Prague, Istanbul and Sao Paolo. Schirrmacher has held guest professorships and has given special lectures at universities on all continents. Schirrmacher is chair of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (Bonn, Cape Town, Colombo) and Ambassador for Human Rights of WEA; the WEA represents churches with 600 million members altogether. He also is a member of the board of the International Society for Human Rights. Schirrmacher regularly testifies in the German parliament and other parliaments in Europe, as well as in the EU in Brussels, the OSCE in Vienna and other international bodies. His has written 102 books; three of his newest books are Fundamentalism, Racism, and Human Trafficking. He has earned four doctorates, in missiology and ecumenical theology, in cultural anthropology, in ethics, and in sociology of religion, and received two honorary doctorates from the USA and India.




The Politics of Persecution


Book Description

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.




Under Caesar's Sword


Book Description

The first systematic global study of how Christians respond to persecution, presenting new research by leading scholars of global Christianity.




Live Not by Lies


Book Description

The New York Times bestselling author of The Benedict Option draws on the wisdom of Christian survivors of Soviet persecution to warn American Christians of approaching dangers. For years, émigrés from the former Soviet bloc have been telling Rod Dreher they see telltale signs of "soft" totalitarianism cropping up in America--something more Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity politics are beginning to encroach on every aspect of life. Civil liberties are increasingly seen as a threat to "safety". Progressives marginalize conservative, traditional Christians, and other dissenters. Technology and consumerism hasten the possibility of a corporate surveillance state. And the pandemic, having put millions out of work, leaves our country especially vulnerable to demagogic manipulation. In Live Not By Lies, Dreher amplifies the alarm sounded by the brave men and women who fought totalitarianism. He explains how the totalitarianism facing us today is based less on overt violence and more on psychological manipulation. He tells the stories of modern-day dissidents--clergy, laity, martyrs, and confessors from the Soviet Union and the captive nations of Europe--who offer practical advice for how to identify and resist totalitarianism in our time. Following the model offered by a prophetic World War II-era pastor who prepared believers in his Eastern European to endure the coming of communism, Live Not By Lies teaches American Christians a method for resistance: • SEE: Acknowledge the reality of the situation. • JUDGE: Assess reality in the light of what we as Christians know to be true. • ACT: Take action to protect truth. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming totalitarianism can't happen in their country. Many American Christians are making that mistake today, sleepwalking through the erosion of our freedoms. Live Not By Lies will wake them and equip them for the long resistance.




The Persecuted


Book Description

For 2,000 years, the persecution of Christians has taken place wherever the Church has been present -- essentially, in every corner of the world. More than 260 million Christians around the globe are facing some form of persecution right now, and that number continues to climb each year. The Persecuted is an astonishing book that tells the real-life stories of brave Christians who are suffering intimidation, oppression, and violence right now as they resolutely live out their Faith in Muslim lands. The author, Casey Chalk, shocked by what he saw as a journalist living overseas, presents with skill and sensitivity these riveting stories that he witnessed firsthand. This global tour of Christian persecution will take you from the slums of Karachi, where Islamic extremists harass and kill beleaguered Christians, to the bustling, exotic streets of Bangkok, where Christians hide in fear while awaiting adjudication of their refugee applications. You'll meet brave Christians who escaped Muslim persecution to make a new life in the Netherlands, and others who slipped away only to become trapped in Russia. Casey tells the stories of Christians who were tortured and, in some instances, killed in Muslim nations -- and then lays out a strategic plan for rescuing as many as possible from their plight. Chalk also addresses other fundamental issues, explaining why Islam's radicals feel they must declare war on Christianity and why they persist in enslaving the Christians in their midst. He also explains how they have managed to get away with this appalling conduct in the face of powerful international organizations--and the Catholic Church herself--spotlighting the persecution and calling for its end. These harrowing stories bring you face-to-face with fellow Christians enduring the ultimate test in distant lands. They will strengthen your faith and also prepare you for what may lie ahead here in the West if we fail to heed the advice given in this timely and important book.




The Last Christians


Book Description

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.




When Christians Face Persecution


Book Description

What does the bible say about persecution of Christians? Many New Testament studies focus on persevering in faith to the end and responding even to perpetrators of persecution with love and forgiveness. Yet while there are unifying principles, the New Testament is filled with a range of experiences of and reflections on Christian persecution - texts that it is crucial to engage with in order to fully appreciate the bewildering array of experience and strongly held viewpoints amongst believers today. In When Christians Face Persecution, Chee-Chiew Lee explores the New Testament authors' theological understanding of persecution. She offers a thorough look at the biblical foundations, covering their responses to early Christian persecution, their evaluation of these responses, and how they encourage or persuade their recipients to persevere in their faith. Lee also brings these writings together to offer an integrated theology of facing persecution, reflecting on how the understanding of early Christian writers can be applied to the persecution of Christians today. When Christians Face Persecution is a valuable study that will enrich your knowledge of biblical teaching on persecution, and its continued relevance in the twenty-first century. It offers engaging theological synthesis as well as contextual reflection, and it invites you to a deeper understanding of the breadth of theological perspectives contained with the New Testament.







The Myth of Persecution


Book Description

An expert on early Christianity reveals how the early church invented stories of Christian martyrs—and how this persecution myth persists today. According to church tradition and popular belief, 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. But as Candida Moss reveals in The Myth of Persecution, 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 invoked 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. By shedding light on the historical record, Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get them.




The Globalization of Christianity


Book Description

While Christianity appears to be in decline in the West it is growing robustly in the global South. What does this mean for the Christianity that was once considered to be the religion of the West? The new contexts and trajectories require innovative responses and relevant theological reflection in the church. This volume addresses these changes through identifying and analyzing global shifts, highlighting practical innovations in the church that attempt to deal with new trajectories, and proposing theological positions intended to help face the issues and challenges of the twenty-first century. Contributors to this volume include Philip Jenkins (The Next Christendom, The New Faces of Christianity, God's Continent), Steven M. Studebaker, Gordon L. Heath, Bradley K. Broadhead, Christof Sauer, Lee Beach, Michael P. Knowles, Peter Althouse, Michael Wilkinson, John H. Issak, David K. Taurus, and Seongho Kang.