Moving Out of the Margins: The Shi’as Lebanon and Their Journey Out of Marginalization and Poverty. Lessons for Missions in the Middle East

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is to understand how Islam conceptualized poverty and how this understanding, along with other factors, enabled the Shi'ite community in Lebanon to move out of the margins of society and out of poverty. The objective of this thesis is to identify lessons from the Shi'ite community's empowerment, for the church and Christian missions in the Middle East, in order for them to be more effective. This thesis reviewed the Old and New Testament's teaching on poverty using a social - historical lens in order to understand the context of the teaching on the care for the poor. It then explored what the teaching and practice of the early Church was and its resulting impact. It also used specific theoretical paradigms to analyze and understand the nature of poverty. The end result of this thesis is the development of a model for empowering communities to move out of poverty.