Calvin Theological Seminary Hosts Speaker on Israel-Palestine Conflict

Last month, CTS hosted a powerful conversation about seeking peace in Israel and Palestine.

From the devastating October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas to widespread Israeli retaliation, the suffering faced by the people in this region is shocking and tragic. Those with personal connections, and certainly those who care deeply for our fellow humanity created by God, are reeling from the impact of this ongoing conflict. The CTS community was invited to attend an October 31 lecture by an expert on the crisis, Dr. Mark Braverman, urging: Make this a priority. We will discuss one of the world’s greatest crises of 2023 — and each of us will be referring back to it for decades to come.

Braverman is an American Jew and author of A Wall in Jerusalem: Hope, Healing, and the Struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine and Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land. He serves as executive director of Kairos USA, an organization whose mission is to mobilize churches in the United States to respond faithfully and boldly to the situation in Israel and Palestine. CTS Adjunct Professor of New Testament, Dr. Gary Burge, author of “Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians” and “Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to Holy Land Theology,” and Braverman have previously worked on various international efforts to bring reconciliation and peace to the region.

By processing the events happening in real time, Braverman’s talk, “The Struggle for Justice and Peace in Israel-Palestine,” and subsequent Q&A session provided students with new insights into the region’s history and current events, as well as further ways to pray and otherwise act in the pursuit of peace. 

Following the event, Burge and Braverman sat down for an interview with Dean of Students Jeffrey Sajdak to further expand on the situation.

Both of these events are now available to the general public in video and podcast forms. Use the links below to dive into a conversation about war, history, religion, Reformed Christianity, and the pursuit of peace. And please join all of us in the CTS community in praying wholeheartedly for the flourishing and safety of those caught in the conflict.

• “The Struggle for Justice and Peace in Israel-Palestine,” Mark Braverman, October 31, 2023  Video
• CTS Interview with Mark Braverman, October 31, 2023  Podcast | Full Video | Part 1 Video (Interview broken into bite size portions)