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 question of this collection. In this volume the identity and the vocation of the Church as a minority is addressed by scholars, looking at a New Testament letter to a minority community (1 Peter) and other historical sources.

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