Description

From Pluralism to Extinction?

Perspectives and Challenges for Christians in the Middle East

Edited by Sotiris Roussos
Published: 16 July 2023 [Mediterranean Politics Series: 5]

Paperback: ISBN: 978-1-80135-224-6 Buy from Amazon | Buy on Talebe.com
Digital version: ISBN: 978-1-80135-225-3 Read on Google Play | Read on Kindle | Read on CEEOL | Read on Talebe.com

Christian communities are deeply rooted in the Middle East, starting their witness since the first centuries of Christianity. The last hundred years of Middle East Christianity’s history went through a series of profound crises. Displacement by war, genocide and occupation leading to loss, emigration and exile seem to be the main experience of Christianity in the modern Middle East. Against this background of displacement, Christians have sought to resettle and build anew when allowed. They have been able to make significant cultural, political and economic contribution to Middle Eastern societies. In the last thirty years they are again facing ominous threat of extinction. Entering the new millennium, they are confronted with major difficulties and transformations in world politics. From 2011 Christians particularly in Syria and Iraq, have been suffering death and destruction in the hands of extremist Islamist groups.

The volume is a fresh approach to the study of the Christian communities in the Middle East examining their relation to state, identity and politics. It questions main presuppositions and perceptions regarding Christianity in the Middle East, casts new light on the living Christian communities in the region and reflects on their future role.

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CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION: THE “CANARY IN THE MINE” OR THE FATE OF CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST – Sotiris Roussos
• ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: LOSING THE PAST IN THE FUTURE? – Hratch Tchilingirian
• ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY THEORY: CHRISTIAN ‘EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY’ IN EGYPT AND LEBANON – Zakia Aqra, Stavros Drakoularakos & Charitini Petrodaskalaki
• MIDDLE EASTERN CHRISTIANITY IN SYRIA AND IRAQ: AT THE EPICENTRE OF THE RISE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE – Stavros Drakoularakos
• TURKISH POLICIES VIS-À-VIS CHRISTIANS: FROM EXCLUSION TO INCLUSION TO EXCLUSION AGAIN – Nikos Christofis
• THE GREEK/PALESTINIAN DIVIDE WITHIN THE JERUSALEM ORTHODOX CHURCH: THE INSTITUTIONAL ASPECT – Konstantinos Papastathis
• THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE STATE: THE MIDDLE EAST CONNECTION – Ilias Tasopoulos
• CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND US MIDDLE EAST POLICY: FOREIGN POLICY IN THE SERVICE OF GOD’S WILL – Marina Eleftheriadou
• CHRISTIANITY IN THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST: CURRENT SITUATION AND FUTURE CHALLENGES – Anthony O’Mahony

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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS:

Zakia Aqra, Ph.D., Political Science and International Relations, University of the Peloponnese, Greece. She is also a Senior Editor at the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS). Her research focuses on foreign policy, armed non-state actors and religious pluralism in the Middle East. Researcher in the “Christianity and Religious Pluralism in the Modern Middle East: International Politics and Religion at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century” Project (funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).

Nikos Christofis, Associate Professor of Turkish and Middle Eastern history and politics at the Centre for Turkish Studies at Shaanxi Normal University; adjunct lecturer at the Hellenic Open University; and affiliate researcher in the Netherlands Institute at Athens. His work focuses on comparative historical analysis of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, and the Middle East.

Stavros Drakoularakos, Ph.D, Political Science and History, Post-Doctoral Researcher University of the Peloponnese, Editor-in-Chief at the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS). Researcher in the “Christianity and Religious Pluralism in the Modern Middle East: International Politics and Religion at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century” Project (funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).

Marina Eleftheriadou, adjunct lecturer at the University of the Peloponnese. Her research focuses on political violence and non-state armed actors, with an emphasis on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is also a consulting editor at the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS) and has served as research associate at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI).

Anthony O’Mahony, Fellow and Tutor at Blackfriars Hall and Studium, University of Oxford. He was Reader in the History of Eastern Christianity, Heythrop College, University of London, between 1999-2018 and Director for the Centre for Eastern Christianity 2009–2018. In 2018 he was appointed Associate Fellow at School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He held the Sir Daniel & Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue Chair in Eastern Catholic Theology in 2018/2019 at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

Konstantinos Papastathis, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Previously, he worked as a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Luxembourg and Leiden University. His main scientific interests involve the fields of Politics and Religion, and Middle Eastern studies.

Charitini Petrodaskalaki, MA in History: Near and Middle East (SOAS, University of London), and coordinator at the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS). Researcher in the “Christianity and Religious Pluralism in the Modern Middle East: International Politics and Religion at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century” Project (funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).

Sotiris Roussos, Professor on International Relations and Religion in the Middle East at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of the Peloponnese. He is the Head of the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS). Scientific Supervisor of the “Christianity and Religious Pluralism in the Modern Middle East: International Politics and Religion at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century” Project (funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).

Ilias Tasopoulos, Ph.D., University of the Peloponnese, Scholar of the Greek State Scholarships’ Foundation, Senior editor at the Centre for Mediterranean, Middle East and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS). Researcher in the “Christianity and Religious Pluralism in the Modern Middle East: International Politics and Religion at the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century” Project (funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation).

Hratch Tchilingirian Associate Faculty member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford; Associate Professor of Armenian Studies (IMAS program), Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. He is the Director of Armenian Diaspora Survey, a 10-country, public opinion research project, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

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PRODUCT DETAILS:

ISBN: 978-1-80135-224-6 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-80135-225-3 (Digital)
Publisher: Transnational Press London
Published: 16 July 2023
Language: English
Pages: 209
Binding: Paperback
Interior Ink: Black & white
Weight (approx.): 0.6 kg
Dimensions (approx.): 15cm wide x 23cm tall