Synopsis
"A major challenge for people of faith is to resist the growing demonization of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism . . . I want to do something to build bridges between the three religions. I feel called to embody in my own life the healing, the reconciliation, the unity I long for between people of different religions." Art Gish became involved in the life and worship of all three religions; he considered himself a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew, and worked at integrating those three perspectives into his life. Acknowledging that Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are all threatened by narrow-minded, violent extremists who put the particular interests of their own people above our common interests, he tells inspiring stories of open-minded Muslims, Jews, and Christians who struggle together for reconciliation and who confront injustices that spawn hostility. Gish looks not only at the disagreements but also at the unity of the three Abrahamic faiths. He writes, "When people cross boundaries, exciting things happen. Each time in Israel/Palestine that I experience Jews, Muslims, and Christians eating, working, laughing, and crying together, I sense a foretaste of the coming kingdom of God, a demonstration of how things could be, and one day will be."
About the Authors
Arthur G. Gish (1939-2010) was active in peace and social justice work for over fifty years, beginning with work as a conscientious objector with Brethren Volunteer Service in Europe (1958-60). He participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and has opposed US involvement in every war since his youth.
Born and raised on a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Gish was reared in the Church of the Brethren. For thirty-six years, until his death in a tragic farm accident in 2010, he and his wife, Peggy Faw Gish, were members of New Covenant Fellowship, a communal farm near Athens, Ohio.
Gish began working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in the occupied West Bank in 1995, out of which this book took shape. Gish is also the author of The New Left and Christian Radicalism, Beyond the Rat Race, Living in Christian Community, At Tuwani Journal: Hope & Nonviolent Action in a Palestinian Village, and Muslim, Christian, Jew: The Oneness of God and the Unity of Our Faith, a Personal Journey in the Three Abrahamic Religions.
Lydia Neufeld Harder has been passionate about the church and its ministry throughout her life. She has expressed this in her commitment to theological scholarship as well as through various kinds of ministry in the congregation and broader church. She advocates for an "embodied" theology in which elements of one's identity such as social location, gender and sexuality, ethnic background and economic standing are acknowledged within the theological conversation. She directed the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC) from 1994-1999 and taught as an adjunct faculty member at Conrad Grebel University College (CGUC) and Toronto School of Theology (TST). Her other teaching experience includes a number of years of elementary school teaching as well as short term assignments in seminaries in Paraguay and Egypt as well as Elkhart, Indiana and Winnipeg, MB. Her area of teaching and research has been in biblical hermeneutics with a focus on feminist dialogue. More recently she has co-taught courses in the area of the church and its ministry with her husband Gary. She fully retired from teaching in 2013 but continues her interest in theology by participating in TMTC forums and the TMTC Women Scholars group. Lydia participated in the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) International Peace Committee and was deeply involved in the theological dialogues between the Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute and TMTC, visiting Iran two times. She has also been a board Member of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (eight years), a member of the Faith and Life Committee of Mennonite World Conference (2 years) and was on the editorial committee of the Believers Church Commentary Series (ten years).
MARC H. ELLIS is Professor of History and Jewish Studies, formerly of the Maryknoll School of Theology and Baylor University. He is founding Director of the Center for the New Diaspora and the Global Prophetic and the author and editor of thirty books including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation and Finding Our Voice: Embodying the Prophetic and Other Misadventures.
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