Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Naim Stifan Ateek (born in the Palestinian village of Beisan in 1937) is a Palestinian priest in the Anglican Church and founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. He has been an active leader in the shaping of the Palestinian liberation theology. He was the first to articulate a Palestinian theology of liberation in his book, Justice, and only Justice, a Palestinian Theology of Liberation, published by Orbis in 1989, and based on his dissertation for his degree in theology. The book laid the foundation of a theology that addresses the conflict over Palestine and explores the political as well as the religious, biblical, and theological dimensions. A former Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, he lectures widely both at home and abroad. His latest book, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, was published by Orbis in 2008.
Born in 1937 in the Palestinian village of Beisan, Ateek moved with his family to Nazareth in 1948. He has said that Beisan (also known as Beth Shean) was destroyed by Israeli forces, turning his family into refugees.
He was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in 1967. He holds degrees from Hardin-Simmons University in Texas and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in California. In addition, he received a Doctor of Divinity degree from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in California in 1985.
Ateek earned his BA degree from Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas, in 1963, and his Master of Divinity degree in 1966 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), Berkeley, California. In 1985 he completed his doctoral studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Dr. Ateek has also received honorary Doctors of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, California, and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the distinguished alumni award from San Francisco Theological Seminary. In 2006, Dr. Ateek received the Sayre award from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship USA.
Ateek served as Canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem and as parish priest in Haifa and Nazareth. In 1991 he founded the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (also known simply as Sabeel), headquartered in Jerusalem, describes itself as "an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians", which "encourages Christians from around the world to work for justice and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people".
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