Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism : An Ethnography of Unequal Encounter

Given the theological significance of the state of Israel for many evangelicals worldwide, the existence of a population of Palestinian evangelicals may seem counterintuitive. Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism offers an ethnographic analysis of the encounter between Palestinian and Western evangelicals, exploring the impact of Christian Zionism on Palestinian Christians.

Given the theological significance of the state of Israel for many evangelicals worldwide, the existence of a population of Palestinian evangelicals seems counterintuitive at first. This small population shares with global evangelicals many common markers of evangelicalism, but due to their Palestinian identity, has a difficult relationship both to the Israeli state and to the powerful Christian Zionist populations in the United States and elsewhere. In an incisive ethnographic analysis of the encounter between Palestinian and Western evangelicals, Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism portrays what Christian Zionism looks like in practice, and what theological alternatives might be offered by Palestinian evangelicals intimately affected by this practice in their everyday lives. It argues that the complex processes of Palestinian evangelical positioning acutely highlight how the powers of evangelical orthodoxy interact with the economic, social, and political powers of the modern state, particularly as it controls and disciplines its populations in accordance with its desired national project. Palestinian evangelicals highlight critical fault lines of powerful geopolitical, national, and religious ideologies. While small in number, they offer a unique perspective to better understand the Israel-Palestine conflict. By developing a new conceptualization of global evangelicalism that recognises the unequal interactions between its constitutive parts, this book seeks to contribute to the emerging calls for the decolonization of the anthropology of global Christianity.