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READING LIST
Jerusalem, One City,
Three Faiths
By Karen Armstrong
Venerated for millennia by three faiths, torn by irreconcilable conflict, conquered, rebuilt, and mourned for again and again, Jerusalem is a sacred city whose very sacredness has engendered terrible tragedy. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly praised A History of God, traces the history of how Jews, Christians, and Muslims have all laid claim to Jerusalem as their holy place, and how three radically different concepts of holiness have shaped and scarred the city for thousands of years.
A Walk in Jerusalem:
Station of the Cross
By the Rev. Canon John Peterson
In A Walk in Jerusalem, the Reverend Canon John L. Peterson brings new life to this centuries-old ritual known as the Stations of the Cross. Illustrated with a map, 14 black-and-white photographs, and 14 pen-and-ink drawings, this helpful guide provides the appropriate episode of the Passion story along with a meditation and brief liturgy that apply that story to today’s world. Designed for use on Good Friday or general devotions, A Walk in Jerusalem offers new insight into the Passion Narratives and encouragement to live as Christ taught.
The Last Week: What
the Gospels Really
Teach About Jesus's
Final Days in
Jerusalem
By Marcus Borg and John
Dominic Crossan
Using the gospel of Mark as a guide. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.
The First Christmas:
What the Gospels
Really Teach About
Jesus's Birth
By Marcus Borg and John
Dominic Crossan
by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan This important book written by well-known biblical scholars Borg and Crossan explores the stories of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Borg and Crossan look at these stories in the context of the first century as they ask the question, “What did these stories mean in the first century and how are these stories to be understood today?” Reading The First Christmas and going to Bethlehem and understanding the geography of the hill country around Bethlehem and to Nazareth in the Galilee opens up an new understanding of the “truth of what the gospels actually say.”
The General's Son:
Journey of an Israeli
in Palestine
By Miko Peled
In 1997, a tragedy struck the family of Israeli-American Miko Peled: His beloved niece Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. That tragedy propelled Peled onto a journey of discovery. It pushed him to re- examine many of the beliefs he had grown up with, as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel’s political-military elite, and transformed him into a courageous and visionary activist in the struggle for human rights and a hopeful, lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Lemon Tree
By Sandy Toolan
In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly twenty years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called Dalia, who invited them in.
With Jesus Through
Galilee According to
the Fifth Gospel
By Bargil Pixner
With the help of pictures and historical maps, the reader can follow the inner development of Jesus and his disciples and their role in society. Against the backdrop of the landscape of Galilee emerges the figure of Jesus the compassionate man.
With Jesus in
Jerusalem
By Bargil Pixner
A special endeavor of the author and his community is the attempt to redefine and renew the relationship between Christian and Jews, based on tolerance and on understanding founded on knowledge of the historical and spiritual background of Jesus’ time. They deliberately decided to have this book edited and published by an Israeli publisher. This reflects a new approach that allows Jews to see Jesus as a teacher and preacher, a son of their own people, and Christians to view the Jewish people in a new spirit of openness. Still, this book is a Christian interpretation of the life of Jesus.Who was responsible for Jesus’ death? Recent excavations and discoveries shed new light on contemporary groups such as Natzoreans, Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees and provide us with new understanding of the life around Jesus.
The Faith Club: A
Muslim, A Christian,
A Jew: Three Women
Search For
Understanding
By Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner
When an American Muslim woman befriends two other mothers, one Jewish and one Christian, they decide to educate their children about their respective religions. None of them guessed their regular meetings would provide life-changing answers and form bonds that would forever alter their struggles with prejudice, fear, and anger. Personal, powerful, and compelling, The Faith Club forces readers to face the tough questions about their own religions.
A Path to Peace: A
Brief History of
Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a
Way Forward in the
Middle East
By George Mitchel
George Mitchell knows how to bring peace to troubled regions. He was the primary architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for peace in Northern Ireland. But when he served as US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace from 2009 to 2011—working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—diplomacy did not prevail. Now, for the first time, Mitchell offers his insider account of how the Israelis and the Palestinians have progressed (and regressed) in their negotiations through the years and outlines the specific concessions each side must make to finally achieve lasting peace.
The Way to the
Spring: Life and
Death in Palestine
Beyond the
Two-State Solution
By Johnathan Kuttab
By Ben Ehrenreich
Over the past three years, Ben Ehrenreich has shared the laughter, fury and sorrow of people in cities and villages across the West Bank, young and old people, men and women. He has witnessed the extremes to which they are pushed, the daily deprivation and oppression that they face, the strategies they construct to survive it - stoicism, resignation, rebellion, humor, and a stubborn, defiant joy. In The Way to the Spring, he describes the cruel mechanics of the Israeli occupation and the endless absurdities and tragedies it engenders: the complex and humiliating machinery of the checkpoints, walls, courts and prisons; the steady, strangling loss of lands that have been passed down for generations; the constant ebb and flow of deadly violence.
Beyond The Two-State Solution, by Jonathan Kuttab, is a short introduction to the current crisis in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism have been at loggerheads for over a century. Some thought the two-state solution would resolve the conflict between them. Jonathan explains that the two-state solution (that he supported) is no longer viable. He suggests that any solution be predicated on the basic existential needs of the two parties, needs he lays out in exceptional detail. He formulates a way forward for a 1-state solution that challenges both Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism. This book invites readers to begin a new conversation based on reality: two peoples will need to live together in some sort of unified state. It is balanced and accessible to neophytes and to experts alike.
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