Naim Ateek
Encyclopedia
The Rev. Dr. Naim Stifan Ateek is a Palestinian Christian
who is the founder and head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
in Jerusalem. He went to school to the Nazareth Baptist school where he also taught after graduation. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989. The book laid the foundation of a theology
that addresses the conflict over Palestine
and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon
of St. George’s Cathedral
, Jerusalem, he lectures widely both at home and abroad. His latest book, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, was published by Orbis in 2008.
. The Ateek family, with Naim, were Christians in a predominantly Muslim community. For two weeks they lived under occupation when finally the military commander informed his father that unless the family left straight away, they would be killed. All the Christians were relocated to Nazareth
and the Muslims were deported to Jordan
. This traumatic and sudden dislocation was the Ateek family's personal experience of the event the Arabs call, the "Nakba" (the catastrophe). When the Ateeks were finally permitted to travel to Beisan a decade later, they discovered their former home was now occupied by a Jewish family. Shortly after, Ateek's father suffered a paralyzing stroke.
, Abilene
, Texas
in 1963, and his Master of Divinity degree in 1966 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), Berkeley
, California
. He then returned to Galilee
where he started his ministry after being ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. In the early 1980s he returned to the United States where he completed his doctoral studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary
. Dr. Ateek has also received honorary Doctors of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific
, Berkeley, California and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
; and the distinguished alumni award from San Francisco Theological Seminary. This year, Dr. Ateek received the Sayre award from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship
USA.
In 1974, Ateek was married to Maha Fuad Aranki of Birzeit, West Bank
.
After 30 years of parish ministry, Ateek took an early retirement and dedicated his time to the ministry of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
that he helped to found at the beginning of the 1990s. As the president and director of Sabeel, he expanded Sabeel’s ministry both inside the country as well as abroad. In addition to the work of justice and peace, it includes the ecumenical ministry within the Christian community and the inter-faith work between Christians and Muslims.
" of the "central biblical hermeneutic" (79). Following this hermeneutical method: "To understand God, therefore, the Palestinian Christian, like every other Christian, begins with Christ and goes backward to the Old Testament and forward to the New Testament and beyond them" and "The Bible for Palestinian Christians, then, can be retained in its entirety" (80).
However, a zionist named Hasdai Westbrook has written critically of Ateek's activities. The setting was a September 2005 meeting of "Seventeen representatives from various American Jewish organizations and from several American Protestant denominations" with Ateek at the Sabeel office in Jerusalem. The meeting "was the last stop on a trip to Israel and Palestine intended to mend fences between American Jews and mainstream Protestant denominations." Westbrook writes, "Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor of the Anti-Defamation League confronted Ateek on his position that he did not accept Israel's right to exist
. Ateek refused to repudiate it, quoting an Israeli writer's statement that if the Jewish people had a right to a homeland it should be in Germany, not Palestine."
In his 2001 Easter message he stated, in part:
Palestinian Christian
Palestinian Christians are Arabic-speaking Christians descended from the people of the geographical area of Palestine. Within Palestine, there are churches and believers from many Christian denominations, including Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholic , Protestant, and others...
who is the founder and head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
Sabeel
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center is a Christian liberation theology organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded by Palestinian Anglican priest, Rev. Naim Ateek, the former Canon of St...
in Jerusalem. He went to school to the Nazareth Baptist school where he also taught after graduation. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989. The book laid the foundation of a theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
that addresses the conflict over Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of St. George’s Cathedral
St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem
thumb|rightSt. George's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem, established in 1899. It is the seat of the Bishop of Jerusalem of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East....
, Jerusalem, he lectures widely both at home and abroad. His latest book, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, was published by Orbis in 2008.
Early life
Naim Ateek had just turned eleven when his town of Beisan (Beth Shean) twenty miles south of the Sea of Galilee was occupied by Israeli soldiers on May 12, 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
. The Ateek family, with Naim, were Christians in a predominantly Muslim community. For two weeks they lived under occupation when finally the military commander informed his father that unless the family left straight away, they would be killed. All the Christians were relocated to Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
and the Muslims were deported to Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. This traumatic and sudden dislocation was the Ateek family's personal experience of the event the Arabs call, the "Nakba" (the catastrophe). When the Ateeks were finally permitted to travel to Beisan a decade later, they discovered their former home was now occupied by a Jewish family. Shortly after, Ateek's father suffered a paralyzing stroke.
Education
Ateek earned his BA degree from Hardin-Simmons UniversityHardin-Simmons University
Hardin–Simmons University is a private Baptist university located in Abilene, Texas, United States.-History:Hardin–Simmons University was founded as Abilene Baptist College in 1891 by the Sweetwater Baptist Association and a group of cattlemen and pastors who sought to bring Christian higher...
, Abilene
Abilene, Texas
Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in west central Texas. The population was 117,063 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2006 estimated population of 158,063. It is the county seat of Taylor County...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in 1963, and his Master of Divinity degree in 1966 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He then returned to Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
where he started his ministry after being ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. In the early 1980s he returned to the United States where he completed his doctoral studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary
San Francisco Theological Seminary
San Francisco Theological Seminary is a graduate school affiliated with Presbyterian Church located in San Anselmo, California. Founded in 1871, SFTS is a graduate theological institution that is focused on graduate theological education in the Reformed tradition...
. Dr. Ateek has also received honorary Doctors of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Church Divinity School of the Pacific
Church Divinity School of the Pacific is one of the eleven seminaries of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It is located in Berkeley, California, and is a member of the Graduate Theological Union...
, Berkeley, California and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
; and the distinguished alumni award from San Francisco Theological Seminary. This year, Dr. Ateek received the Sayre award from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is a U.S. peace organization composed of members of the Episcopal Church. It was originally founded on November 11, 1939 as the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship by Bishop William Appleton Lawrence, Mrs. Henry Hill Pierce, Rev. John Nevin Sayre and Bishop Paul Jones and...
USA.
In 1974, Ateek was married to Maha Fuad Aranki of Birzeit, West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
.
After 30 years of parish ministry, Ateek took an early retirement and dedicated his time to the ministry of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
Sabeel
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center is a Christian liberation theology organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded by Palestinian Anglican priest, Rev. Naim Ateek, the former Canon of St...
that he helped to found at the beginning of the 1990s. As the president and director of Sabeel, he expanded Sabeel’s ministry both inside the country as well as abroad. In addition to the work of justice and peace, it includes the ecumenical ministry within the Christian community and the inter-faith work between Christians and Muslims.
Theological views
In, Justice, and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, Ateek argues that the Old Testament is problemmatic for Palestinian Christians because of its use in justifying Zionism. "Before the creation of the State of Israel," he writes, it was "considered to be an essential part of Christian Scripture, pointing and witnessing to Jesus" (77). But since 1948, "some Jewish and Christian interpreters have read the Old Testament largely as a Zionist text to such an extent that it has become almost repugnant to Palestinian Christians" (77). As a result, "The fundamental question of many [Palestinian] Christians, whether uttered or not, is: How can the Old Testament be the Word of God in light of the Palestinian Christians' experience with its use to support Zionism?" (77-78). In other words, Ateek asks, "How can the Church, without rejecting any part of the Bible, adequately relate the core of the biblical message—its concept of God—to Palestinians?" (78). Ateek asserts the answer is to be found in a "theology that liberates" based upon "Jesus Christ himself" as the "canonBiblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
" of the "central biblical hermeneutic" (79). Following this hermeneutical method: "To understand God, therefore, the Palestinian Christian, like every other Christian, begins with Christ and goes backward to the Old Testament and forward to the New Testament and beyond them" and "The Bible for Palestinian Christians, then, can be retained in its entirety" (80).
Accusation of refuting Zionist aims
In Justice, and Only Justice, Ateek writes, "The preservation of Israel as a Jewish state is important not only to Israeli Jews but to Jews all over the world. I believe that we must honor their wish and accept it. In fact, the Palestinians should eventually guarantee the survival of Israel by accepting it as a Jewish state" (166).However, a zionist named Hasdai Westbrook has written critically of Ateek's activities. The setting was a September 2005 meeting of "Seventeen representatives from various American Jewish organizations and from several American Protestant denominations" with Ateek at the Sabeel office in Jerusalem. The meeting "was the last stop on a trip to Israel and Palestine intended to mend fences between American Jews and mainstream Protestant denominations." Westbrook writes, "Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor of the Anti-Defamation League confronted Ateek on his position that he did not accept Israel's right to exist
Right to exist
The right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the nineteenth century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the community it represents. Unlike self-determination, the...
. Ateek refused to repudiate it, quoting an Israeli writer's statement that if the Jewish people had a right to a homeland it should be in Germany, not Palestine."
Use of Crucifixion Imagery
In his 2000 Christmas message, Ateek likened the Israeli government to "modern day 'Herods' ":
The Christmas message for this year takes cognizance of the story of King Herod, the baby Jesus, and the massacre of the innocents. The events of the past three months of protest in Palestine have seen the killing of many children, youths, and even elderly people by the Israeli army. We have witnessed the destruction of many homes and businesses and a siege imposed on three million Palestinians. The state of Israel has been brutally gunning down hundreds of people and injuring thousands whose only crime is their desire for a life of freedom and the independence of their own country from the oppressive occupation.
King Herod allowed himself to stoop down to the basest of all feelings. He stripped himself of all semblance of humanity when he ordered the killing of innocent children. This scenario is being repeated in a different guise. Almost 40% of those killed have been less than 18 years old. Some younger teenagers died by bullets fired from further away than their stones of protest could possibly reach. These young Palestinians posed minimal threat, no real danger to their killers. Why do Israeli soldiers target protesters in the upper parts of their body, given the use of such powerful weapons? This expresses the intent to destroy, not deter. These deaths are a crime against the value of human life. They dehumanize not only the killers, but also those who command them.
At this Christmas time, when we remember the message of peace and love that came down from God to earth in the birth of Jesus Christ, our celebrations are marred by the destructive powers of the modern day "Herods" who are represented in the Israeli government. The message of this Christmas is already overshadowed by the sound of war, violence, and state terror. Indeed, violence breeds violence, and innocent people have been killed on both sides. But the original sin is the violence of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East [Je]rusalem. When the Israeli leadership calls daily for the termination of the violence, for us this means, the occupation must end. It is the occupation that is evil and violent. It is apartheid in its ugliest form. Once the occupation ends, the violence will end. There is no other proper sequence. The sooner the Israeli leadership understands this, the quicker we will achieve an enduring peace.
In his 2001 Easter message he stated, in part:
As we approach Holy Week and Easter, the suffering of Jesus Christ at the hands of evil political and religious powers two thousand years ago is lived out again in Palestine. The number of innocent Palestinians and Israelis that have fallen victim to Israeli state policy is increasing.These messages were also mentioned in the Nation article, author Westbrook reports: "Bretton-Granatoor and other Jewish leaders pressed Ateek on his writings, accusing him of anti-Semitism in speaking of the Israeli government as 'Herods' and of its 'crucifixion' of Palestinians. Ateek brushed the suggestion aside, claiming that his use of biblical imagery in the struggle against oppression was justified."
Here in Palestine Jesus is again walking the via dolorosa. Jesus is the powerless Palestinian humiliated at a checkpoint, the woman trying to get through to the hospital for treatment, the young man whose dignity is trampled, the young student who cannot get to the university to study, the unemployed father who needs to find bread to feed his family; the list is tragically getting longer, and Jesus is there in their midst suffering with them. He is with them when their homes are shelled by tanks and helicopter gunships. He is with them in their towns and villages, in their pains and sorrows.
In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. It only takes people of insight to see the hundreds of thousands of crosses throughout the land, Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. Palestine has become one huge golgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily. Palestine has become the place of the skull.
Using the Gospel story one can put it in a different and still very poignant way. Four things are clear today. Jerusalem still does not know what makes for peace; Jesus is weeping and his tears are mixed with many other people's tears; the number of people who are carrying their crosses is multiplying phenomenally; and the women of Palestine as well as many Jewish women are weeping over the many killed and wounded innocents. This is the reality of life today.
Sources
- Unmasking False Religion; Following Jesus in occupied territory. Sojourners Magazine, September–October 2001 (Vol. 30, No. 5, pp. 27).
- Apartheid in the Holy Land Desmond TutuDesmond TutuDesmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, April 29, 2002, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, - Jerusalem: Eternal, intractable by Gerald Butt, 28 September 2000, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
- A journey of justice, a journey of faith. An interview with Naim Ateek by Brian Grieves, September 2001, in Witness
- The Theology of Sabeel: What We Believe: Notes from a talk by Rev. Naim Ateek, July 21, 2008, Milwaukie, Oregon
See also
- SabeelSabeelSabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center is a Christian liberation theology organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded by Palestinian Anglican priest, Rev. Naim Ateek, the former Canon of St...
- Palestinian ChristianPalestinian ChristianPalestinian Christians are Arabic-speaking Christians descended from the people of the geographical area of Palestine. Within Palestine, there are churches and believers from many Christian denominations, including Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholic , Protestant, and others...
- Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle EastEpiscopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle EastThe Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East is a province of the Anglican Communion stretching from Iran in the east to Algeria in the west, and Cyprus in the north to Somalia in the south. It is the largest and the most diverse Anglican province. The church is headed by a President...
- Bishop Riah Hanna Abu El-AssalRiah Hanna Abu El-AssalRiah Hanna Abu El-Assal is an Israeli Arab Anglican clergyman, who was Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem from 1998 to 2007.-History:He graduated from Nazareth Baptist school where he also taught...
- St. George's Cathedral, JerusalemSt. George's Cathedral, Jerusalemthumb|rightSt. George's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Jerusalem, established in 1899. It is the seat of the Bishop of Jerusalem of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East....