Abstract
In his foreword to Munther Isaac’s Christ in the Rubble, Willie James Jennings asserts, “[. . .] we must be thankful for Munther Isaac and what he offers us in this book.” Jennings is absolutely right. Isaac’s exposition of the history that led to the genocide currently taking place in Gaza, and the flawed theology that has provided its “rationale,” is necessary reading for any who call themselves Christian. And Isaac’s commitment, as a Palestinian Christian pastor living and working under the brutal conditions of Israeli occupation, to speaking up and speaking out for his people is a bold act of great personal and pastoral risk. Western Christians must listen to the voices of Palestinian Christians that have been silenced for so long and, as Jennings says, ought to be grateful for the faith and courage of Isaac and others like him who continue to demand attention despite all the obstacles placed in their way.
The first chapters of Christ in the Rubble outline the recent history of Israeli occupation of Palestine and the brutal tactics of terrorism and state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians in Gaza. While the Nakba—both of 1948 and in its continuation today—is addressed as general context, focus is given predominantly to the conditions and events in Gaza in the past decade. Isaac spends nearly all of two chapters answering the offensive question often on the lips of white Westerners: “But what about October 7?” His patient treatment of this misguided question is a testament to his grace as a pastor.
The first half of the book also traces in depth the historical, political and theological movements that have led to this moment of genocide. He addresses the underlying issues of colonialism, racism and empire, of Zionism and particularly Christian Zionism, of Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians and the Western Church’s collaboration in it.
As a Palestinian Christian myself, I found the first four chapters of Christ in the Rubble excruciatingly hard to read, for two reasons. First, as Isaac himself states, “Palestinian Christians find it deeply disturbing when the Bible is misinterpreted to justify our oppression.” I can affirm that one does not have to live in Palestine-Israel to be utterly disturbed by the contradictions of Western Christians. Indeed, in many ways, it is even more disturbing to Palestinian Christians in the diaspora who live within the constructs of Western Christianity while holding tightly to our own identity. Isaac’s book tells me nothing new. I know intimately well the shocking horror of the suffering of my people at the hands of Western so-called “Christian” imperialism and the Israeli-Zionist machine. I did not relish reading through it all in one place and was forced to skim or skip over whole paragraphs that I found too painful and enraging.
But there is another reason for my discomfort reading these chapters. Isaac outlines well the systemic traumatization of the Palestinian people over decades and the current atrocities committed against them, but everything he reviews is just that—a review. The facts of history and the current realities have been easily accessible for anyone with eyes to see, at least in recent decades. And yet, my sense is that for most of Isaac’s readers, even Christian leaders (not to mention political ones, many of whose poor theology is rightly critiqued in the book), all of this information is new. Isaac’s pain from, frustration with and anger at his siblings in Christ who have so betrayed Palestinian Christians pulses from the pages of Christ in the Rubble and resonates with all Palestinian Christians. We have long been left to wonder in rage and horror how it is possible that Western Christians are not familiar with our stories, that our primates and pastors and bishops are still ignorant of our suffering, and that our fellows in the faith have for so long and continue to this day to support our oppression and stand silent in the face of genocide. Isaac claims that Christ in the Rubble is “a book I wish I had never had to write,” and how right he is! That it is a necessary book is apparent. That it is a necessary book is also a damning condemnation of Western Christian leaders.
It is no wonder, then, that, along with the political and theological arguments he makes, Isaac uses this book as a call to—even a demand for—repentance from Western Christians for the denial of their moral duty as followers of Christ and, thus, their betrayal of the Palestinian people. Isaac’s insistence on this reckoning and repentance is well-articulated and poignant but may be futile. After all, this is not the first time Palestinian Christians have called their Western siblings to acknowledge this failing and repent. Isaac quotes whole passages and texts of previous attempts to demand this of the Western Church, to many of which Isaac himself contributed. None of these has succeeded and there is no indication that Christ in the Rubble will fare better.
The intended audience of the book seems to be liberal rather than conservative Christians who have yet to see and understand the full picture of the Palestinian experience. But despite Isaac’s explicit statements throughout the book that progressive Christians are just as much part of the problem of Christian Zionism and the brutalization of Palestine as are their more conservative or evangelical counterparts, one imagines that many liberal Christian leaders in the West might read even this book and still respond, like the Pharisee comparing himself in prayer to the tax collector: “Well, at least I’m not like that evangelical.”
The truth is that, as folks of any minority group know, even expressions of anger and pain as resonant as Munther Isaac’s regularly go unheard by the powerful, however “liberal” they may profess themselves to be. I can only assume that the passion of Palestinians like Isaac, though couched in well-researched and well-articulated academic arguments, will be viewed by those at the highest levels of power in the Church as too demanding, too caustic. I hope I am wrong.
I offer only two critiques of Christ in the Rubble, one on substance, one stylistic. The first is that I find Isaac’s address of Christian Zionism as it relates to colonialism, empire and their effects to be weakened by a number of turns he makes in his arguments. While his criticism of Christian Zionism does good and important work, there are some missteps in his approach. He is right to reject the Christian Zionist misinterpretation of scripture outright and on multiple levels, but he tries to replace it with his own Christian scriptural interpretation to argue for Palestinians’ claim to the land alongside the Jewish one given to the Hebrew people through God’s covenant. This is an unhelpful and potentially dangerous move.
While Isaac is quick to point out that politicians are wrong to apply their poor theology to inform policy and plans for Palestine, he fails to see how even good theology equally has no place in secular politics. Palestinians’ claim to the land does not lie in the fact that they have been grafted in to the vine of Jewish covenant or because of any interpretation of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Scriptural interpretation, theological beliefs and doctrinal statements have no place in this or any other matter of international relations. To attempt to counter Christian Zionism with a different interpretation of the same set of scriptures is to lend credence to the very argument that the books of the Bible have anything to do with the current state of Israel and its oppression of Palestinians. We must not turn to any set of scriptures, Christian or otherwise, to say whether or not a genocide or the brutalization of a people is appropriate. To do so is madness; let us stick to what is clearly illegal and unethical by international standards.
And by straying into this debate with Christian Zionists—a kind of tit-for-tat for whose interpretation of scripture might win—Isaac’s argument begins to hint at a subtle kind of supersessionism. Eager to disprove Zionist analogies, Isaac ends up often prioritizing New Testament inclusion over and against the Hebrew Bible’s clear favoritism for one tribe of people (the Hebrews). Instead, Isaac would have had a stronger case had he placed the claims of the Hebrew Bible in the historical, societal and literary contexts from which they arose in order to counter and correct the naïve misinterpretations of Scripture that form the basis for Christian Zionism in all its forms.
My only other critique of Christ in the Rubble relates to the second half of the book. The latter chapters of the book seem to be primarily a review of Isaac’s own extensive involvement in justice work for Palestine in recent years, since before October 7, 2023, and more particularly since the beginning of the Gazan genocide. For those of us who have followed his pastoral and advocacy work, this section reads as a distraction from the powerful arc of the book’s argument. More welcome would be a robust theological case for hope among all those of us who suffer and a theoretical apology for our anger, based on Isaac’s impressive Biblical scholarship and incorporating his earlier writings (as opposed to reprinting whole swaths of them).
In all, however, Christ in the Rubble is a well-crafted and much-needed tool for those of us invested in the work of educating our Western Church leaders about the imperative to break the silence on the Gazan genocide and to end Christian collaboration in and support of Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinians. It should be required reading for any Christian leader and incorporated into anti-racism curricula throughout the Church. Munther Isaac is to be commended and, as Jennings affirms, greatly thanked for this courageous and powerful book.