Kelley Nikondeha - The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope

Praise for The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope

Kelley Nikondeha eloquently weaves together the first advent story and the present-day stories of Palestinians, creating invigorating insights for present-day Christians. Palestine then and now, its people, and the politics of the land are a common thread throughout the book, bringing us to a place to genuinely grapple with the meanings of deliverance, peace, justice, and hope. Through her personal encounters, Kelley makes the Palestinian experience visible in a world that has made them invisible. If you are looking for an Advent read that dives into new and raw paths, then The First Advent in Palestine is for you.

Shadia Qubti, Palestinian Christian peacemaker and co-producer of Women Behind the Wall podcast

If you are wearied by or bored with the sentimentality and careless religious nostalgia of American Advent and Christmas, this is the book for you. Kelley Nikondeha takes a deep, alert dive into the natal poetry of the Gospels that has become for us too trite and jaded in its familiarity. She reads this poetry differently because she has, at the same time, made a deep investment in the contemporary life of real people in the actual circumstances of Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, people who happen to be Palestinians who continue to be outsiders to imperial power. The outcome of her bold reading is to see that these Gospel texts initiated a peace movement into the world that defies and subverts the phony peace of every imperialism. This rich, suggestive book permits us to reappropriate in knowing ways the good news of Advent-Christmas, news that destabilizes and emancipates.

Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

A masterful and contextual reading of the biblical story, of suffering and a hard-born hope. Kelley Nikondeha leads readers into a journey through the tiers of multiple oppressions in Palestine from the first advent under the Roman Empire to the current oppression of the indigenous Palestinians under Israeli occupation, highlighting advent as a subversion of imperial power. As a female liberation theologian living in the global south, the author weaves contemporary reality and scripture together, thus uncovering hidden histories and silenced stories, giving a face and a name to the oppressed people, and creating fresh insights into their resilience and faith. A great resource for individuals and churches struggling with the complexities of justice and hope, and a powerful call in the practice of solidarity with the oppressed of this world.

Mitri Raheb, founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem

Beautifully written, Kelley Nikondehas The First Advent in Palestine is empathetic and deeply movinga call to love both Jewish and Palestinian people of the Holy Land. Reminding readers that acknowledging the real and profound struggles of one people group does not negate the reality and experiences of oppression in the story of the other. Highlighting the often-unknown stories of Palestinian Christians, First Advent is a call for liberation and light.

Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and author of A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land

Kelley Nikondeha writes with the textual insight of Walter Brueggemann, the historical understanding of Borg and Crossan, and the prose-poetry writing style of Barbara Brown Taylor. She brings her own unique perspective as a Christian with a mixture of Catholic, Evangelical, US, African, and post-colonial experiences. The result is a reading of the advent stories that will illuminate the Middle Eastern world of Mary, Joseph, and Jesusand our world today as well, so full of agony, anxiety, and pregnancy.

Brian McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt (St. Martins, January 2021), among many others

After On the Incarnation by Athanasius, The First Advent in Palestine by Kelley Nikondeha is the best book Ive read on the incarnation, peace, and hope. Buy it, read it, and embody it in your community!

Peter Heltzel, author of Resurrection City: A Theology of Improvisation

Kelley Nikondeha is a modern-day storyteller, and I trust her to speak the truth, even when its hard. In this book, she thoughtfully and powerfully leans into the gravity of Advent, reminding us that even the best-known stories are complex onesthats what makes them so powerful. Kelleys words remind us that when the world is hurting, we lean in. Weve needed this book for a long time.

Kaitlin Curtice, author of Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God

In a world of protests and splintering religious ideologies, a world longing for peace but preparing for violence, Kelley Nikondeha infuses the often predictable Advent narrative with a sense of place and history that demands engagement. Through scholarship and imaginative theology, and by listening to the current cries for liberation in our world, Nikondeha has written a book that is a love letter to Palestine and the people formed there. It is vital reading, and if you let it, it will change the way you read the story of Jesuss birthand how you live in light of this transformative event.

D. L. Mayfield, author of The Myth of the American Dream and Unruly Saint: Dorothy Days Radical Vision and Its Challenge for Our Times

Like so many Westerners, Kelley Nikondeha experienced Advent brightlyangels, shepherds, a star, then a cozy manger scene. Then, her closer look at the Gospels advent narratives, framed by trips to Palestine, her life in eastern Africa, and her discovery of the central drama of what has been dismissed too easily as the intertestamental period, led her to see brutal empire, economic exploitation and hardship, dirty politics, the suppression of women, and persecution. She does not leave us there, though. It is precisely against this darkness that the light of the Savior that she knew all along shines all the more brightlyand calls us to be a light of peace in our darkness today. Every Christian should read this book every Adventor at any time of year.

Danial Philpott, professor of political science, University of Notre Dame

Advent is often a time filled with attempts to be holly and jolly, making cookies and shopping. With this book, Kelley Nikondeha rescues the season from the saccharine and oversimplified to give us hopea hope that absolutely has to do with our present day, challenging us to engage in the slow and beautiful process the incarnation set in motion: the disarming practice of restorative justice, peace, and compassion. The author deftly weaves enlightening historical material concerning the political and economic landscape Jesus was born into with moving and beautifully written accounts of her own contemporary experiences among fascinating characters in the Holy Land and beyond. It is a pleasure to read, a call to attention, and a much needed reimagining of what Advent can be.

Debbie Blue, author of Consider the Birds , Consider the Women , and Magnificat

Kelley Nikondeha walks us vividly through Scripture, history, and the complexities of today. Adventwith its longing, lament, hope, challenges, and callingcomes more alive page by beautifully written page. This book has made Advent more meaningful for me, and I highly recommend it because I believe it will do the same for you.

Kent Annan, co-director, Humanitarian Disaster Institute (at Wheaton College)

The advent story is a story we all relate to, especially Palestinian Christians. During Advent, our Palestinian people connect with the Holy Family, a family with a new child who is born on the margins of society. This book reflects the authors own journey to see beyond the wall separating two narratives. Kelley Nikondeha provides readers with new insights and the invitation to understand Advent beyond any wall of separation.