Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion: Two Thousand Years of Christian Missions in the Middle East

Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion 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, adding new dimensions to the history of the region and the nature of the relationship between the Middle East and the West. Historians and political scientists increasingly recognize the importance of integrating religion into political analysis, and this volume, using long-neglected sources, uniquely advances 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. Eleanor H. Tejirian and Reeva Spector Simon delineate the ongoing tensions between conversion and the focus on witness and "good works" within the missionary movement, which contributed to the development and spread of nongovernmental organizations. Through its conscientious, systematic study, this volume offers an unparalleled encounter with the social, political, and economic consequences of such trends.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Spread of Christianity: The First Thousand Years 2. The Latin West in the Middle East: Pilgrimage 3. Disintegration 4. The Great Awakening of the Protestants and the Anglicans 5. Missionaries and European Diplomatic Competition 6. The Imperialist Moment: From the Congress of Berlin to World War I 7. Achievements and Consequences: Intended and Unintended 8. World War I: Nationalism 9. Setting the Agenda: From Conversion to Witness-and Back Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Eleanor H. Tejirian is an associate research scholar at the Middle East Institute, Columbia University. She is the coeditor, with Reeva Spector Simon, of The Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921 and Altruism and Imperialism: Western Religious and Cultural Missions in the Middle East. Reeva Spector Simon is the author of Iraq Between the Two World Wars: The Militarist Origins of Tyranny and Spies and Holy Wars: The Middle East in Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. She is also a coeditor of The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times.

Review :
This work fills a substantial gap in the existing literature. It is encyclopedic in its range, keeping in view the missionary struggles between eastern and western Christianity-the Coptic, Roman, and Orthodox churches-as well as the divisions between the Protestant denominations. Eleanor H. Tejirian and Reeva Spector Simon's history is conceived on a grand scale and draws together much of the recent enormous literature on the subject. -- Andrew Porter, King's College London This book is a handy historical survey of the history of the Christian mission in the Middle East. It is well written and has a clear and thoughtful flow. -- Nancy L. Stockdale, University of North Texas The authors succeed in showing how Christian missions have inextricably connected the religious, cultural, and political history of this region over the past two millennia. -- Heather J. Sharkey Middle East Journal ... Simon and Tejirian have done an admirable job focusing on the past 2,000 years of Christian presence and witness in the Middle East. -- Scott Bridger The Gospel Coalition ... A fascinating and useful book... -- Rene Wadlow Transnational Perspectives The end result of Tejirian and Simon's massive undertaking is a clear, succinct volume thatcovers an impressive breadth of material. It should be required reading... Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations A valuable introduction to the fascinating and conflicted history of the Christian missions in the Middle East. -- Heleen Murre-van den Berg The Catholic HIstorical Review