December 21, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS – The highly charged Israeli-Palestinian situation has strained Christian-Jewish relations and left Christians with missed commitments. In the newly released Christians and a Land Called Holy authors Charles P. Lutz and Robert O. Smith provide a clear account of the situation and a compelling plea for Christian involvement in the area.

Carefully sorting out the tangled historical and religious roots of the problems, they reveal the strong forces at work in the bitter and divisive clashes of the last fifty years, the driving biblical notions of election and covenant, the affects the turmoil has had on Palestinians (particularly Palestinian Christians), and how, finally, Christians can help secure a future of justice and peace.

"A probing and compassionate examination of the many complex issues that plague this beleaguered but still Holy Land." – James Zogby, President, Arab American Institute.

"This book is an important addition to the burgeoning witness of Christians who, while fighting anti-Semitism, struggle also for the freedom of the Palestinian people." – Marc H. Ellis, University Professor and Director, Center for American & Jewish Studies, Baylor University.

"Reading Christians and a Land Called Holy is like strolling through the souk with two veteran guides. Chuck and Robert walk the reader through a virtual marketplace of ideas and actions for the soul, the heart, and the helping hand." – Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago Divinity School.

Charles P. Lutz, a retired journalist, is Minnesota coordinator of Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of twenty national church policy agencies. He writes and speaks frequently on matters of faith and politics involving Israel and Palestine and visits the Holy Land often with groups of concerned Christians. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Robert O. Smith is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving as Lutheran Campus Pastor for the University of Chicago.

Christians and a Land Called Holy, Format: 5.5" x 8.5," paperback, 176 pp., ISBN: 0-8006-3784-4, Price: $15.00.

To order Christians and a Land Called Holy please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press