Summary
A politicized Christian framework adapting Latin American liberation theology to the Palestinian situation, advocating national independence and democratic governance in terms of the biblical mandate for justice, as Lybarger presents it through Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.107-108, p.138).
Details
- Its Christian variation of the religious standpoint draws on prophetic discourse in the Bible to cast the national struggle as enactment of the divine commandment to free the oppressed and establish “justice and only justice”; only through an end to occupation, restitution of the dispossessed and equality for all can there be “a new heaven and a new earth” (Ateek 1989; Ateek, Ellis, and Ruether 1992) (PDF p.107-108 / printed p.86-87).
- It empowered adherents simultaneously to contest the Islamist construal of the Palestinian cause as an essentially Islamic matter and to critique Zionist uses of the Bible to justify maximalist Jewish claims to the land (PDF p.138 / printed p.117).
- Munir’s politicisation occurred through this framework via his Jerusalem priest, a Sabeel founder; Hanna’s occurred through Sabeel’s politicized biblical hermeneutic during visits to Palestine, including The Way of the Cross mapping the Stations of the Cross onto the occupation (PDF p.138, p.143-144 / printed p.117, p.122-123).
Related pages
Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile · Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center · Naim Ateek · Sectarianization