cover image Who Are the Christians in the Middle East?

Who Are the Christians in the Middle East?

Betty Jane Bailey. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, $22 (215pp) ISBN 978-0-8028-1020-5

With the world's attention focused on ongoing conflicts in Israel, journalists, authors and scholars have examined the long-standing hostility between Jews and Muslims there. One group that is often omitted from the story, however, is the region's Christians, who constitute a historic minority not only in Israel but also in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and other nations. In Who Are the Christians in the Middle East? Betty Jane and J. Martin Bailey explore the history of the region's various Christian groups, which include many different Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions. This is a very practical reference book, with one section describing each denomination and another explaining the situation of Christians on a country-by-country basis. The format makes for some repetition of information, but the material is accessibly written and well researched.