Dating back to extensive use of “Kairos” in the New Testament, “kairos” in Christian theology refers to a time when the “kingdom of God” approaches and demands a decision from individuals and societies.  In contrast with the Greek “chronos” meaning a segment of time, ordinary time, “kairos” describes a critical moment in a human context of social change. The first Kairos Document was written by an ecumenical team of South African Christian black theologians in 1985 at the height of the black population’s resistance to apartheid. 

Secular media paid even less attention to the Kairos Palestine Document of 2009 than they did to the original South African Document or the other theological statements, including those in the U.S. and Europe, responding to the 1985 declaration of South African theologians.  Since the Hamas attacks in October 2023 some commentators have noted how little reference to the Palestinian cause or Israel’s Palestinian occupants has been made in our media since founding of the state of Israel in 1948.  So it is not surprising that outside of church circles there has been little notice of the Kairos Palestine Document.

The Document begins with an endorsement by thirteen “Patriarchs and Heads of Churches” in Jerusalem;  they describe the declaration as “a word of faith, hope and love” calling on “all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers (to,ed.) put pressure on Israel and take legal measures in order to oblige its government to put an end to its oppression and disregard for the international law.”  The thirteen Palestinian Christian authors advance a theological position “that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed”.

In its theological discussion of the land governed or occupied by the State of Israel, the authors affirm that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Ps 24:1) and therefore assert no land can be seen as the possession of any particular people. Exclusion and expulsion of any group or groups from the land cannot be God’s intention.  “God gives us the capacity, if we have the will, to live together and establish in it justice and peace, making it in reality God’s land.” The Kairos Palestine Document avers that the promise made by God to Abraham in the Hebrew Bible was to make him father of many nations living in justice and harmony in the land where he had been led.

In the current context of Israel’s continuing its indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the 2009 Document takes on yet more urgent significance as a cry for justice to Christians and non-Christians worldwide. When issued, the conflict no longer was about a purely theological or political issue.  “It is a matter of life and death” the authors and signators declared sixteen years ago and, as such, the Word of God in the Bible cannot be used to justify policies or State actions which bring death and destruction.  As a living Word which addresses the Hebrew and Christian Bible’s themes of promise, chosen people, and land a literal interpretation makes the Word an instrument of death.

On the Bible’s treatment of the crucial topic of “the land” the Kairos Palestine Document was followed six years later by publication of the book From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth .  Written by the young theologian and pastor Munther Isaac (see Erasing Borders blogs of September 1 and January 16, 2024), it is a sweeping study of a “Biblical theology” supporting a thesis of the universalisation of the land, indeed any land.  Its lively and clear presentation of the positions of biblical scholars and theologians enables a closer reading of the texts by laypersons and their progress in shaping their own views.  Although the author did not participate in creating the Kairos Palestine Document the book was written in service of its aims and concludes by asking, “Can it (the land) become a place where Jews, Muslims and Christians – while retaining their distinctive beliefs – can embrace each other as fellow human beings, and indeed as people of faith, and be reconciled in practice?”