Christians and Middle East Conflict

It's hard to know where to focus one's concerns today given so many conflicts involving putative Christians and ostensibly Christian powers. The Russia-Ukraine conflict of course ranks high, but the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, are conflicts at least as important and at least as deadly for the Christians involved. A new book helps situate these conflicts in wider context: Paul Rowe et al, eds., Christians and the Middle East Conflict (Routledge 2014), 200pp.

About this book we are told:

Christians and the Middle East Conflict deals with the relationship of Christians and Christian theology to the various conflicts in the Middle East, a topic that is often sensationalized but still insufficiently understood. Political developments over the last two decades, however, have prompted observers to rediscover and examine the central role religious motivations play in shaping public discourses.
This book proceeds on the assumption that neither a focus on the eschatological nor a narrow understanding of the plight of Christians in the Middle East is sufficient. Instead, it is necessary to understand Christians in context and to explore the ways that Christian theology applies through the actions of Christians who have lived and continue to live through conflict in the region either as native inhabitants or interested foreign observers. This volume addresses issues of concern to Christians from a theological perspective, from the perspective of Christian responses to conflict throughout history, and in reflection on the contemporary realities of Christians in the Middle East.
The essays in this volume combine contextual political and theological reflections written by both scholars and Christian activists and will be of interest to students and scholars of Politics, Religion and Middle East Studies.