Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion: Two Thousand Years of Christian Missions in the Middle East
Reeva Spector Simon and Eleanor Tejirian
Abstract
This book surveys two thousand years of the Christian missionary enterprise in the Middle East within the context of the region's political evolution. Its broad, rich narrative follows Christian missions as they interacted with imperial powers and as the momentum of religious change shifted from Christianity to Islam and back. It adds new dimensions to the history of the region and the nature of the relationship between the Middle East and the West. The book explains how historians and political scientists are increasingly recognizing the importance of integrating religion into political analy ... More
This book surveys two thousand years of the Christian missionary enterprise in the Middle East within the context of the region's political evolution. Its broad, rich narrative follows Christian missions as they interacted with imperial powers and as the momentum of religious change shifted from Christianity to Islam and back. It adds new dimensions to the history of the region and the nature of the relationship between the Middle East and the West. The book explains how historians and political scientists are increasingly recognizing the importance of integrating religion into political analysis, and uses long-neglected sources to advance this effort. It surveys Christian missions from the earliest days of Christianity to the present, paying particular attention to the role of Christian missions, both Protestant and Catholic, in shaping the political and economic imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It delineates the ongoing tensions between conversion and the focus on witness and “good works” within the missionary movement, and shows how these have contributed to the development and spread of nongovernmental organizations.
Keywords:
Christian missions,
missionary enterprise,
Protestant,
Catholic,
Middle East,
Christianity,
Islam
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231138659 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231138659.001.0001 |
