The Cross in Contexts: Suffering And Redemption in Palestine.

• Author: Tatlock, Jason R.
• Position: MIDDLE EAST - Book review

Raheb, Mitri, and Suzanne Watts Henderson. The Cross in Contexts: Suffering And Redemption in Palestine. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2017.

The impetus for this book came from an incident when a church leader told Suzanne Watts Henderson, a religious studies professor, that she needed material on Jesus's death that came from outside the confines of atonement theology. This book project is, in part Hendersons response; its purpose is to promote an understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus in its original context and to recognize the applicability of this story to modern circumstances, especially in situations of oppressive state control. Henderson solicited the assistance of Mitri Raheb, a Christian minister from the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, who could situate Jesus's suffering in a modern context. Thus, the book presents the cross mainly in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which the modern state of Israel is shown as the occupying oppressor. The reader will readily recognize this fundamental bias in the work, which is unapologetically proPalestinian. Because the book is mainly directed to a contemporary American readership, it will provide a counter-perspective to readers who have only been exposed to views that endorse Israeli governmental policies.

In the four chapters Raheb wrote, he used history and geography to demonstrate that both the Palestinian people and the territory are metaphors for the cross, for the people and their land have been occupied and treated harshly just as a body is occupied and harshly treated in crucifixion. Raheb suggests, moreover, that the cross is a symbol not just for Palestinians of Christian faith but for all Palestinians. He argues that state occupation fosters guerrilla warfare and greater religious fervency, including religious-oriented terrorism, and that such fervor can be repressive as people seek to enact strict religious laws in order to obtain divine favor. Raheb uses the cross as a criticism of religious- and state-based terrorism, indicating that Jesus experienced both. Raheb includes a survey of the poetic works of Mahmoud Darwish, a Muslim Palestinian who found in the cross a symbol for his own life and that of his people. Raheb, places the plight of current Palestinians in the context of the long history of conquest in the land, centering the discussion on the quandary people face in the midst of conquest and destruction when they wonder why their deity seems remote...