Identity and Vocation of Christian Minority Communities

What does it mean to be a Christian minority community, particularly in the context of Islam? That is the main question of this collection of high-quality academic contributions. Believers belonging to religious minority communities can struggle when it comes to defining their identity as part of the majority society while yet differing from that majority in various ways. It could also lead to the question as to how they might contribute positively to society, being in an often vulnerable position as minority. In this volume, the identity and vocation of the Church as a minority are addressed by different scholars, looking at a particular New Testament letter to a minority community (1 Peter) and engaging with different historical sources. The contribution of Jewish and Muslim scholars leads to an interesting conversation, since all monotheistic religions face similar challenges. The volume draws the themes together in two concluding chapters, the first written from a social-scientific perspective, the second from a theological-missiological perspective, that represent the key ideas emerging in addressing this important question.

Bernhard J.G. Reitsma is professor of Church and Theology with a special focus on Islam at the Protestant Theological University in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and head of the Graduate school. He is a minister with a special assignment in the Protestant Church of the Netherlands. Erika van Nes-Visscher is a researcher connected to The Church in the Context of Islam Foundation.

1. The Church as Minority in the Context of Islam 2. Reading 1 Peter in Constructing Minority Identity: Living as a Christian Minority in an Islamic Context 3. Suffering as an Integral Part of Mission in 1 Peter 4. Being a Christian Minority and Creating a Soft Difference: Perspectives on 1 Peter from a Social Identity Complexity Perspective 5. Identity, Persecution, Pilgrimage, and Exile: The Role of 1 Peter in Shaping the Discipleship Journey of Believers of Muslim Backgrounds through the Come Follow Me Course 6. Through the Eyes of Christian Minorities: A Reading of 1 Peter 2 7. 8. When the Margins Become The Centre: Jews, Statehood, and Belonging 9. Aphrahat and the Jews: An Early Church Perspective on Being a Persecuted Minority 10. Arab Christians: A Peculiar Minority Paradigm 11. Identity, Witness, and Service of Protestants in the Middle East: The Perspectives of Hovhannes Aharonian, Wanis Semaan, and George Sabra 12. Sunni Islamic Perspectives On in the West 13. Redemptive Suffering and Sectarian Hostility: Shi Islam as a Minority Faith 14. Blessing or Curse: The Identity of Christian Minority Communities from a Social Scientific Perspective 15. Resident Aliens: Theological Reflections on the Identity and Vocation of the Church as Minority in the Context of Islam