New Release
Available now
Catholic priest ‘writes what he lives’ in new book on Palestine/Israel
A new book written by Fr David Neuhaus SJ and titled ‘Conquest or Leaven: Reflections of a Catholic Priest in Palestine/Israel’, has been published by the Jesuit Institute South Africa.
Available from the Jesuit Institute for R220 each
US version by Orbis Books
Writing from Jerusalem, an Israeli Jesuit priest brings his unique experiences to bear, weaving together theology, history, and political analysis with care and compassion. Conquest or Leaven challenges Christians and all people of good will to grapple with questions of violence and nonviolence, peoplehood and land, partition and dialogue, history and community, society and marginalization.
Advance Praise & Reviews for the US edition
“In Conquest or Leaven, David Neuhaus, SJ, gives the reader a front-row seat on events unfolding in the world’s most volatile region. His autobiographical approach offers an engaging narrative of the frightening and conflicting confluence of violence and non-violence, history and geography, politics and society, dialogue and intolerance. The outcome is a sobering, incarnational exegesis and a contextualized theology that challenges our imagination and understanding of salvation in the present context of Palestine/Israel.” ―Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ, dean and professor, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
Biography
David M Neuhaus SJ
David Mark Neuhaus SJ is a member of the Jesuit community in the Holy Land. Born in South Africa to a Jewish German family that fled Nazi Germany. He immigrated to Israel as an adolescent and was baptised into the Catholic Church in Jerusalem. He teaches Scripture in various institutions in Israel and Palestine, including the Latin Patriarchate Seminary in Beit Jala, Bethlehem University, and the Salesian Theological Institute in Jerusalem. He completed a BA, MA and PhD (Political Science) at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He then completed pontifical degrees in theology and Scripture in Paris (Centre Sevres) and Rome (Pontifical Biblical Institute). He is the author of numerous books and articles. He is emeritus Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics, Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Israel. At present, he is also a fellow at the Jesuit Institute of South Africa.
About the Book
A divided, traumatised and even dehumanised people such as those we find in the Holy Land – Palestine and Israel – is in life-giving need of transformation. In this book, Fr David Neuhaus SJ argues that the Christians of the Holy Land may play a key part in fostering such transformation — not as a neutral bridge, for Christian Palestinians are just as oppressed as their Muslim neighbours, but as a leaven in society.
Few are as well-placed to analyse the past, present and future of Palestine/Israel as Fr Neuhaus: the son of refugees from Nazism, raised in a Jewish family and later ordained a Jesuit Catholic priest, who grew up under South African apartheid and has lived as an Israeli citizen in Jerusalem for almost fifty years. His reflections, collected in this book, offer the reader an informed and empathetic overview of the issues and realities at stake, free from the propaganda and disinformation so common in much of the media. He also calls us to stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land.
Who will step up to help heal the traumatised societies of the Holy Land — to be a voice for justice, an agent of peace, a guide towards the transformation that must come?
Günther Simmermacher, editor of The Southern Cross and author of The Holy Land Trek.
The Launch
Filmed at the Jesuit Institute at Auckland Park, Johannesburg.
Polity.org.za interview
