The Last Christians: Stories of Persecution, Flight, and Resilience in the Middle East

by Andreas Knapp, Sharon Howe (Translator)

Overview

A Westerner’s travels among the persecuted and displaced Christian remnant in Iraq and Syria teach him much about faith under fire.

Gold Medal Winner, 2018 IPPY Book of the Year Award
Silver Medal Winner, 2018 Benjamin Franklin Award
Finalist, 2018 ECPA Christian Book Award

Inside Syria and Iraq, and even along the refugee trail, they’re a religious minority persecuted for their Christian faith. Outside the Middle East, they’re suspect because of their nationality. A small remnant of Christians is on the run from the Islamic State. If they are wiped out, or scattered to the corners of the earth, the language that Jesus spoke may be lost forever – along with the witness of a church that has modeled Jesus’ way of nonviolence and enemy-love for two millennia.

The kidnapping, enslavement, torture, and murder of Christians by the Islamic State, or ISIS, have been detailed by journalists, as have the jihadists' deliberate efforts to destroy the cultural heritage of a region that is the cradle of Christianity. But some stories run deep, and without a better understanding of the religious and historical roots of the present conflict, history will keep repeating itself century after century.

Andreas Knapp, a priest who works with refugees in Germany, travelled to camps for displaced people in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to collect stories of survivors – and to seek answers to troubling questions about the link between religion and violence. He found Christians who today still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The uprooted remnant of ancient churches, they doggedly continue to practice their faith despite the odds. Their devastating eyewitness reports make it clear why millions are fleeing the Middle East. Yet, remarkably, though these last Christians hold little hope of ever returning to their homes, they also harbor no thirst for revenge. Could it be that they – along with the Christians of the West, whose interest will determine their fate – hold the key to breaking the cycle of violence in the region?

Includes sixteen pages of color photographs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874860627
Publisher:	Plough Publishing House, The
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Series:	Gospel in Great Writers
Pages:	233
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

A poet, priest, and popular author in Germany, Andreas Knapp left a secure position as head of Freiburg Seminary to live and work among the poor as a member of the Little Brothers of the Gospel, a religious order inspired by Charles de Foucauld. Today he shares an apartment with three brothers in Leipzig’s largest housing project, and ministers to prisoners and refugees. His latest book, The Last Christians, recounts the stories of refugees in his neighborhood and of displaced people in camps in Kurdistan, northern Iraq.

Table of Contents

Preface: Giving a Voice to the Voiceless ix

1 Looking Death in the Eye 1

2 Please Help Us! 8

3 A Graveside Reunion 18

4 Last Respects 25

5 A Waiting Game 41

6 When They Persecute You 52

7 A Life's Work in Ruins 58

8 A Bishop in Exile 71

9 Nothing New under the Crescent Moon 86

10 Within Sight of the Islamic State 98

11 The Decline of the Christian Middle East 107

12 A Rocket in the Roof 122

13 Garo's Odyssey 133

14 Remembrance Is the Secret of Redemption 145

15 The Death of a Language 158

16 Through a Child's Eyes 171

17 Blessed Are the Meek 181

18 Easter Comes Early 193

19 Giving of Our Best 207

Epilogue: The Gift of Home 220

Editorial Reviews

09/04/2017
Knapp, a German priest who works with Christian refugees, writes despairingly about the plight of Assyrian Christians currently being forced from their homes in northern Iraq and Syria as a result of religious persecution. The rise of ISIS and the heightened violence between Islamic sects has made the survival of these Christian sects, some of whom still speak Aramaic dialects that date back to the time of Jesus, a tenuous proposition. Knapp is most effective when providing historical context for the eyewitness accounts he shares from the refugee community he serves. His background material on the Armenian and Assyrian genocides by the Ottoman Empire, aided and abetted by the Germans for tactical reasons during World War I, is most fascinating. Unfortunately, his discussion of modern Western interference often reads like a polemic. Also, his attempts to differentiate the Eastern Church’s pacifism from wars waged in the name of Christianity in the West may be accurate, but his argument for an equivalency between Christianity and Islam tends to paint the former with broader brush strokes. Knapp is sincere in his beliefs, and his passionate book will provide much-needed anecdotal testimony for readers interested in the plight of Christians throughout Iraq and Syria. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Knapp is especially impressed that Aramaic Christians have remained nonviolent and peaceable, despite centuries of continual violent oppression. Yousif, the refugee Knapp accompanies to Iraq, comments, "For the terrorists, it is an honor to kill. Shouldn’t it be an honor for us Christians to pray for and love our persecutors?” —Borromeo Society

In his book The Last Christians, Andreas Knapp reports on the tragic decline of Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. His book is a harrowing report on the demise of Christianity in the territories of the Middle East ruled by the Islamic State. —Sunday newsweekly

This book is alarming, suspenseful, and stirring. The Last Christians: Stories of Persecution, Flight, and Resilience in the Middle East takes stock of the precarious situation of Christians in the Middle East. Every so often the reader will need to pause and reflect. Inevitably, the question arises: How would I have reacted in that situation? How would I have behaved? What would I have done? Yet the book’s narrative compels one to keep reading. ... One would wish to give this book as recommended reading to all Christians, and especially to all politicians. Many eyes would be opened. —Catholic News Network

Knapp’s book The Last Christians is a historical narrative written from the victims’ perspective. It seeks to explain why the once flourishing culture of Christianity in the Middle East has been steadily decimated over the course of centuries, and why, in light of the Islamization of the entire region in recent years, for many Christian refugees the hope of returning to their homelands has dwindled. —Day by Day radio show

From the Publisher