[Asec] CfP on Eastern Christianity--Deadline--Dec 7

[Eugene Clay]

There are few areas of the world that have experienced as much instability and upheaval in recent years as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Yet while much has been written about the geo-politics of this region, when the impact religion has had on political developments there is considered, the focus is almost exclusively on the role of Islam. While this is understandable given the history and demographics of the region, it nonetheless leaves out an important part of the story, namely the role that the Eastern Christian Churches have played in recent developments.
We believe that this lacuna prevents a fuller assessment and understanding of the political dynamics within the MENA region, both those evinced within specific countries as well as throughout the wider space. Specifically, considering the regional Churches as politically engaged actors that are capable of creating as well as attenuating conflictual processes is important for the following reasons:
First, institutionalized Christian communities in the MENA region are frequently not isolated actors, but rather participants in wider transnational political dynamics, symbolic and strategic. For example, both Orthodox and Catholic communities maintain significant ties to Christian bodies in other parts of the world, and these frequently figure into altering political dynamics within MENA states. While the formalization of these ties is most readily evinced among Catholic communities given the status of the Pope and Vatican, they also appear among Orthodox denominations. An example of this concerns the close relations between the Patriarchs of Antioch and Moscow, and the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in countenancing the Russian Federation's military intervention in Syria as a human-rights endeavor intended to aid beleaguered Christians (and Muslims). But this transnational dynamic even extends to Churches that do not have significant institutional ties to regional or global powers. For example, the role of emigration has greatly affected Christians in the region, with their populations shrinking dramatically in most MENA states during the 20th century. At the same time, this dynamic has created significant diasporas in the West (e.g., the growing presence of Coptic Christians in the UK), which increasingly play a role in making politics "back home."
Second, it is often overlooked that Christianity was founded as, and continues to be, a profoundly Middle Eastern religion. As a result, how Palestinian Christians or Iraqi Christians perceive and relate to the governments and regimes they live under, and how these, in turn, affect their socio-economic status, is far different than how Western Christians (or politicians in traditionally Christian countries) often understand them. Therefore, it is important to focus on the political engagement of these groups on their own terms and avoid the essentializing impulses so often assumed (e.g., Palestinian Christians would not support Palestinian nationalism due to its linkages to Islam).
Third, there are wide-ranging demographic and socio-economic effects that play into how Christian communities in much of the MENA region interact with their states and wider societies. Much like Jews in medieval Europe, Christians across the region tended to be associated with specific trades and occupations (e.g., goldsmithing among Coptic Christians), which renders their religious affiliation an underexplored proxy for intertwined class and status issues.
Fourth, in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Christians frequently occupy the role of second-class citizens. This provides them with incentives to support secularist authoritarian regimes, as they often fear majoritarian democracy and the political rise of such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will lead to intensified discrimination against them. This creates a very interesting dynamic, where Christians in countries like Syria are often perceived as supporting authoritarian governments, and thus as being non-loyal citizens twice over: for the fact of not being Muslim, and for not supporting regime change.
Fifth, traditional Christian denominations in the MENA region - Orthodox, Maronite, etc. - operate through hierarchies and organizational structures that have been created and refined through centuries of religious and political development. These organizational features of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, differing from both Islam and Protestant Christianity, shape church-state interactions in many ways, including by influencing the nature of international church networks, establishing hierarchical leadership structures that can focus political activities toward either opposition activities, political mediation, or cooptation by government authorities, and facilitating mobilization of church members and resources toward any of these political objectives.
Our proposed special issue therefore seeks to compile five-to-six research articles addressing the above dynamics-in whole or part-from an explicitly social science perspective. The focus will be on specific states and conflictual processes (e.g., "Arab Spring" and outcomes in Syria), though we anticipate that authors will tie these to broader regional and global phenomena as warranted. The goal is thus twofold: to consider political realities in the region relative to the Christian Churches, and to do so in an empirically and methodologically rigorous fashion. Those interested in this project are asked to submit a 250-300 word abstract to the guest editors, Dr. George Soroka (soroka at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:soroka at fas.harvard.edu>) and Dr. Christopher Rhodes (cerhodes at bu.edu<mailto:cerhodes at bu.edu>) no later than December 7, 2018. Decisions about which proposals to invite will be made by mid-December.


George Soroka, Ph.D.
Lecturer on Government
Asst. Director Undergraduate Studies
1737 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-9890
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