Colin Chapman has lived with his wife, Anne, in the Middle East, mostly in Egypt and Lebanon, for 18 years in four different spells since 1968. He has worked with the Anglican Church and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and taught Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon.

In the UK, he has taught at Trinity College, Bristol, and the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham. During his time in Beirut he wrote Whose Promised Land? which was first published in 1983 and has seen four revisions since then. Other publications include Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenges of Islam (IVP, 2007), Whose Holy City? Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Lion/Baker, 2004), "Islamic Terrorism": is there a Christian response? (Grove, 2006).