In an interview with Time magazine in 1963, Karl Barth recalled advising young theologians 40 years previous “to take your Bible and take your newspaper and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” It seems he often used variations of this figure of speech to talk about the need to think theologically about the world in which we inhabit, but also to think about the Biblical world (and our interpretation of it) in light of our present situation. The idea being that each is meant to interpret the other.
Whether we know it or not, we all face this question of how to relate our faith to the big problems facing society in every age. And the answers we give to that question are inevitably political, including here in the Middle East.