Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation

by Naim Stifan Ateek

Book Overview

Writing as a Palestinian Christian who has lived most of his life in Israel-Palestine, Naim Ateek examines the prospects and problems facing the Palestinian Christian community. Justice and Only... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088344545X
• ISBN13: 9780883445457
• Release Date: July 1989
• Publisher: Orbis Books
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.1" x 0.6" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Justice and only justice - A Palestinian Theology of ...

Unlike the first reviewer of this book, I am impressed by the author's ability to forgive the occupiers of his native land. After describing the impact of the establisment of Israel and the follow on occupation of Palestinian lands (1967) from a personal perspective (his family was expelled from their home with no notice by the Israeli Army), he tries to find a way for Palestian Christians to understand the situation from a non-literal Biblical perspective.If more Americans read books like this, we might have a better understanding of what is really happening in the Middle East. Peace will never come until the United States and Israel stand in the shoes of the Palestinians and accept the fact that a huge injustice continues against the Palestinians. Likewise the Palestinians must come to terms with the reality of the modern Israeli State and accept the fact that Israel exists today because of the Holocaust and the resulting sympathy for a Jewish State. This is a position Naim Stifan Ateek proposes.This is an excellent read, although sometimes a bit depressing.

theologically astute

atik is both gentle and forceful. his arguments and old testament understanding are *very* biblically and historically grounded. as a christian who has spent a lot of time studying the bible, i find that atik has done an amazing job laying out the groundwork for a very revolutionary liberation theology. theologically, atik *is not* a premillenialist in his interpretation in hermeneutics (and eschatology, as other essays he's written have shown) so, if one is a premillenialist (which is a very faulty, in my opinion, theological standpoint since it depends on a eurocentric understanding of scripture which was created at the turn of the 20th century and originally dismissed as "heresy")one will not take to kindly to atik's book. ideologically, the zionist "christian" will confuse atik's understanding of christ as a palestinian. as biblical anthropologists have pointed out, the idea of "jew" as a race did not exist during christ's time. there was only the jewish religion and the national boundaries of Palestine where this religious culture dominated at the time. the racial ideas of "palestinian" and "jew" did not emerge until much later and were only galvanized as a binary in 1948. atik is referring to this historical fact. the words are wise and compelling. atik has done a lot of research and has grounded everything with a profound understanding of the bible.

A compelling liberation theology view of Palestine

This book is an application of the Liberation Theology that the author learned at seminary in the San Francisco area to the fight for self-determination by the Palestinian people. I highly recommend it, in conjunction with any books by Rev. Elias Chacour such as "We Belong To The Land" or "Blood Brothers." These are nonviolent, inclusionary approaches to peace among all of the inhabitants of Israel / Palestine