A Tembel Hat in the Streets of Nazareth: Paul Gauthier’s Israeli Experience

The French priest Paul Gauthier (1914-2002) was a former theology professor who, after a short period as a prêtre-ouvrier (worker-priest) in Marseille, decided in 1956 to settle in Nazareth and practice his working apostolate there. For the next eleven years, and until his abrupt departure shortly a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kandel Lamdan, Silvana ca. 20./21. Jh. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2022
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 2022, Volume: 115, Issue: 4, Pages: 566-590
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Gauthier, Paul 1914-2002 / Israel / Arabs / Conflict / Jews / Kibbutz / Zionism / History 1956-1967
RelBib Classification:BH Judaism
FD Contextual theology
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBL Near East and North Africa
KDB Roman Catholic Church
NCD Political ethics
Further subjects:B Nazareth
B Jews
B kibbutz
B Arabs
B Vatican II
B working apostolate
B Six-Day War
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Summary:The French priest Paul Gauthier (1914-2002) was a former theology professor who, after a short period as a prêtre-ouvrier (worker-priest) in Marseille, decided in 1956 to settle in Nazareth and practice his working apostolate there. For the next eleven years, and until his abrupt departure shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel became Gauthier’s home. Some years after his arrival, Gauthier was invited to the Second Vatican Council by the archbishop of Galilee. There, Gauthier led the group the "Church of the Poor," which aimed to bring the issue of poverty and pastoral service to the forefront of Council discussions. Gauthier spent his years in Israel between two physically close but culturally and politically distant worlds. On the one hand, he lived and worked with the vulnerable Arab population of Nazareth. On the other, he was in close contact with Israel’s new Jewish society, which greatly aroused his curiosity. In addition to his friendly contact with the Israeli civilian and military authorities, who would help him foster his cooperative for Arab housing, he was attracted by the kibbutz lifestyle and was especially moved by the philosophy of the Zionist thinker and pioneer Aaron David Gordon. Gauthier believed that his experience in Nazareth and Israel, where he saw an interchange of many worlds, could shed light on the worker-priest apostolate and provide a model for priestly spirituality in a working-class environment, in its various aspects. This article analyzes the influence of the "Israel experience" on Paul Gauthier’s thought.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816022000323