Ministries

A New Beginning for Arab Christian Theology

There have been Arab believers since before the followers of Jesus were even called Christians (a nickname that was invented in Syria).

There have been Arab believers since before the followers of Jesus were even called Christians (a nickname that was invented in Syria).

They were there on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10-11). And the Christian church has continued in the Middle East throughout the past two thousand years. Some of the rich tradition of Arabic Christian theological writings from a thousand years ago are being rediscovered today. But a distinctively evangelical Arabic Christian voice has not been heard addressing its own theological concerns in today’s world within significant book-size publications. Until this year.

January 2008 saw the launch of the “Arabic Contemporary Theology” (ACT). Beautifully produced as an A4-size textbook of 500 pages in two column Arabic, it is the fruit of a three-year project by a group of ten Arab Christian theologians in Egypt and Lebanon, some of whom are Langham scholars. From clear biblical foundations, it tackles some of the sharp issues that Christians face especially in the Middle East, including:

• How Arab Christians understand the Old Testament
• The Old Testament concepts of covenant and land
• The meaning of Jesus’ identity as a Jew
• Understanding prophetic texts in relation to religion and politics today
• Christianity and women
• Evangelical and ecumenical relations
• Salvation and other faiths
• Arab culture and identity and their theological challenges

The book was launched at a three-day seminar at a coastal resort on the Red Sea (perhaps in the footsteps of Moses?), which brought together about 70 theologians, pastors and Christian leaders from various Protestant denominations in Egypt. Langham Partnership was invited to attend, since we have invested significantly in the project from its beginning, and so Chris Wright (International Director), and Pieter Kwant (International Programme Director for Langham Literature) were both pleased to participate, and Chris Wright was an invited speaker in some of the sessions.

The book is published by Dar El Thaqafa, which is the publishing arm of CEOSS, the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Service (founded in 1950 by Sami Habib). The Director of Dar El Thaqafa is Andrea Zaki Stephanous – a Langham scholar who has driven the whole project from the beginning.

A Dream Fulfilled

“The dream started when I was doing my Ph.D. as a Langham scholar in Manchester, England,” says Andrea. “My Ph.D. was about religion and politics, a theology of minorities. I realized it was so important for us as Arabs to have our own theology and understanding of the Bible. Originally we intended to produce an evangelical Arabic systematic theology. The only one we had before is about 150 years old, it is mostly translated, and not original. But the shocking fact is that there is no single evangelical Arab scholar in the region equipped to produce such a systematic theology alone. So the idea transformed into an Arabic contemporary theology.

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