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Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism, by Stephen Spector
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Most observers explain evangelical Christians' bedrock support for Israel as stemming from the apocalyptic belief that the Jews must return to the Holy Land as a precondition for the second coming of Christ. But the real reasons, argues Stephen Spector, are far more complicated. In Evangelicals and Israel, Spector delves deeply into the Christian Zionist movement, mining information from original interviews, web sites, publications, news reports, survey research, worship services, and interfaith conferences, to provide a surprising look at the sources of evangelical support for Israel.
Israel is God's prophetic clock for many evangelicals - irrefutable proof that prophecy is true and coming to pass in our lifetime. But Spector goes beyond end-times theology to find a complex set of motivations behind Israel-evangelical relations. These include the promise of God's blessing for those who bless the Jews; gratitude to Jews for establishing the foundations of Christianity; remorse for the Chu
- Sales Rank: #354200 in Books
- Published on: 2008-12-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.40" h x 1.20" w x 9.20" l, 1.30 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Spector, a professor of English at Stony Brook University and a Jew, argues that evangelical Christian support for Israel is a good thing for Jews. To make this argument, in light of considerable distrust of evangelicals by American Jews and others, he offers impressively thorough research. Evangelicals' motives are complex, and include identification with Israel as an ally against terrorism as well as biblically-based conviction that God truly has favored Israel. His counterintuitive argument is likely to be questioned by those skeptical of his tendency to take statements at their face value: in analyzing, for example, whether George W. Bush's Mideast policy is affected by Christian Zionism, he credits sources supportive of Bush who tell him no, it's not. While some may find him naive, the depth of his work provides credibility for his view. (Dec.)
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Review
"Stephen Spector's Evangelicals and Israel is a significant accomplishment that advances our understanding of an important subject. Subtle, balanced and thoughtful, this book is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the relationship between American politics and our Middle Eastern policies today."
--Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World
"Spector, no stranger to scripture, sheds light on the variety of true believers who inhabit the world of Christian Zionism. Without polemic or caricature, he deploys his own Biblical expertise, scholarship, and journalistic skills to investigate a complex, multi-layered, and sometimes paradoxical community in which theology and politics mix with a passionate belief in Israel's prophetic mission. Whether you agree or disagree, no one seriously interested in the fate of the Jewish homeland can afford to ignore his close reading and rich analysis."
--Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control
"For this definitive work on Christian Zionism and how evangelicalism shapes American foreign policy, Stephen Spector moves beyond assumptions or anecdotes. Instead, he bases his conclusions on extensive research, including interviews conducted directly with leaders - both inside and outside the evangelical world - who have influenced attitudes regarding the Middle East and policy toward Israel in recent decades. The results capture the variety and complexity of Christian Zionists' motives and convictions regarding not only Israel and the Jewish community, but also Muslims and the Arab world. He examines the intersection of politics and theology in a narrative that is both nuanced and compelling."
--D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite
"From his intensive researches, Stephen Spector shows that Evangelical attitudes are very nuanced, varied and individual, even among traditional conservatives. ...Those interested in the role of lobbies, whether they are Jewish or Evangelical, had better read the book."--Times Literary Supplement
"An excellent analysis of evangelical support for Zion. . . [an] accessible and lively narrative."--Christian Century
About the Author
Stephen Spector is Professor of English at Stony Brook University. He is the author of Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews.
Most helpful customer reviews
49 of 67 people found the following review helpful.
A Jewish Defence of Liberal Christian Zionism
By Dr. S. Sizer
After decades of reluctance to address this deeply controversial issue, in recent years there has been a veritable avalanche of books critical of the Christian Zionist movement. Authors include Grace Halsell, Don Wagner, Timothy Weber, Victoria Clark, Dan Cohen-Sherbok, Naim Ateek, Gary Burge, as well as two books of my own. It is perhaps therefore not surprising to find a growing reaction among Jewish Zionists who have begun to come to the defence of their Christian allies.
Stephen Spector's work is representative of this genre of Jewish apologists, which includes Paul Merkley, David Brog, Shalom Goldman and Gerhard Falk. Their agenda appears to be to justify a strand within Christian Zionism that is neither popular nor representative of evangelicalism as a whole, but which nevertheless plays a strategic role within the Israel Lobby.
The book purports to be the story of American evangelical Christian Zionism. It is a good read, as one should expect for a Professor of English. It would be more accurate, however, to describe it as the story of political Christian Zionism as represented by organisations such as Eagles Wings, Bridges for Peace, Christian Friends of Israel, Christians United for Israel and the International Christian Embassy. These self appointed para-church organisations have publically disavowed both proselytism among Jews as well as apocalypticism, based on a reductionist interpretation of the Bible. They are primarily lobby organisations, advocating on behalf of a Zionism among churches and in Washington among politicians.
While critical of both evangelistic Christian Zionism (such as Jews for Jesus) as well as apocalyptic or dispensational Christian Zionism (such as Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye), Spector reserves his strongest criticisms for evangelicals who oppose Zionism on theological grounds.
So, although Spector interviewed over 70 Evangelical and Jewish Zionists in the course of his research, he relies on anecdotes and paraphrases to portray the views of those he deems `liberal' or `modernist' who regard biblical Zionism as an oxymoron. The chapter addressing criticisms of Christian Zionism is therefore one of the weakest and least convincing.
It is simply untrue to say that evangelicals who oppose Zionism "are closer to liberal mainline Protestants than to most conservative born-again Christians," Academics at the bastions of evangelicalism in the USA, such as Fuller and Wheaton, repudiate Christian Zionism just as much as their counterparts in Europe. John Stott, the `father' of evangelicalism, is not alone in describing `Christian Zionism' as `biblical anathema'.
If evangelicalism is defined by the centrality of the gospel, the necessity of a personal faith in Jesus Christ, in the authority of the Scriptures and in the verbal proclamation of the gospel to all nations, it is actually Christian Zionists who, having reinterpreted the gospel and disavow proslytism, are closer in spirit to mainstream liberalism rather than conservative evangelicalism.
It is therefore not surprising that it is in assessment of the biblical and theological presuppositions of Christian Zionism that the book is probably at its weakest. While strong on dialogue with Jewish and Christian Zionists, there is little evidence that Spector understands the theological presuppositions and tenuous biblical basis for the various strands of Christian Zionism. He is reassured that none of those he interviewed tried to convert him and that evangelical Zionists can share the gospel in acts of kindness toward the Jews rather than through proselytism. This is not evidence of the orthodoxy of Christian Zionists, just the opposite.
While Old Testament Bible verses are occasionally quoted without context to demonstrate that Zionism is biblically rooted, it is the evangelical critics of Christian Zionism, according to Spector, who `unfairly' quote `the biblical prophets to attack the modern state of Israel'.
The fundamental question Christian Zionists avoid is whether the coming of Jesus Christ was the fulfilment or the postponement of the promises God made to Abraham? Which is central to the New Testament - Jesus or Israel? Ironically, Christian Zionists are portrayed as the new Zealots. Like their 1st Century forebears, they are trying to impose a Jewish kingdom by force, something Jesus repudiated. Spector cites, for example and without comment, Jack Hayford as promising, "if the Israelis need soldiers, he and his Pentecostal congregants will fight side by side with them." Portraying the modern state of Israel as God's chosen people on earth, the role of the Church is therefore reduce to providing dubious justification for Israel's colonization of Palestine.
While ostensibly a book about evangelicals, it soon becomes rather tiresome when, in any debate or disagreement posed, it is always Zionists who are given the last word. So, for example, in a dismissal of Walt and Mearsheimer's definitive work on the Israel Lobby, Spector defers to Alan Dershowitz suggesting the author's claims "are variations on old anti-Semitic themes of the kind found in the notorious czarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and in Nazi literature."
Conversely, Spector gives ample space to some of the worst examples of Islamaphobia. There is a deep paranoia regarding the motives of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. He refuses to see that Israel could be, in any way responsible, partly or otherwise, for the perpetuation of the Middle East conflict. They are always, in his words, "the victims of injustice, not the perpetrators."
Disappointingly, for a book with 82 pages of notes and indexes, there is no conclusion or summary chapter. It is as if the publisher has left it out by mistake or needed to reduce the word count. Whatever the reason, the book is weaker for it.
Instead, the last chapter is given to an assessment of the influences on George W Bush's Middle East policy. Here Spector tries to downplay the impact of the Israel Lobby. Without really explaining why, he would have us believe there is "broad and deep support" for Israel in America because "that position is politically sound and morally just, not because of political pressure or influence" from evangelicals. Ironically, he gives the last sentence in the book to Hal Lindsey.
If first impressions count, the eulogy on the back cover from Abraham Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, must surely be the kiss of death to any work claiming to be balanced or objective. One surprised Cambridge academic did ask me rhetorically, who on earth could have possibly vetted the book for Oxford University Press? One wonders. But then it is worth remembering that it was the Oxford University Press who published (and still publishes) the first Christian defence of Zionism, namely the Scofield Reference Bible.
14 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
A Well Researched, Informative and Balanced Book
By Yaakov Ariel
Review of: Evangelicals and Israel: the Story of American Christian Zionism
I would like to recommend, in very strong terms, Evangelicals and Israel: the Story of American Christian Zionism. I have read with admiration this very instructive and carefully researched book. It is, to date, the best study of the topic and currently the best place for students and interested readers to learn about this highly complex and controversial topic in a balanced and dispassionate manner. In the last decade there has been a growing awareness of the special relationship that has developed between Israel and conservative evangelical Christians, but no one has, as yet, carried the kind of comprehensive and vigorous research that this book brings forward. Among other things, the author, Stephen Spector, has gone into the unprecedented trouble of interviewing a large number of religious and state leaders, in America and Israel, in order to determine the actual effect of evangelical opinions and influence on current state policies. Likewise, the published sources consulted in this book are the most comprehensive I have encountered in studies on this topic.
Spector is not only a very diligent researcher, but also a very systematic and insightful writer. His book is beautifully structured, offering, in its first chapters, theological and historical background to the evangelical interest in the Jewish people and their enchantment with the idea of Jewish restoration in Palestine. Here too the author offers more than the standard explanations for the special relationship that many conservative evangelicals have developed towards Israel, and he points to many factors, including remorse. The book includes some particularly important and ground breaking observations, such as a discussion of the connection between evangelical-Jewish relations and evangelical opinions on the Arabs and Islam (chapters 4 and 5). The author points out that not all conservative evangelical Christians offer unilateral support to Israel, and mentions evangelical groups and moments of sympathy for the Palestinian plight. Perhaps the book's greatest accomplishment is its ability to present highly sensitive topics, both religious and political, in a nuanced, dispassionate and fair-minded manner. The book includes a chapter on the criticisms of Christian Zionism, in which it brings forward, among others, voices of Arab critics of evangelical support of Zionism and Israel.
This is a particularly well written, well documented, well structured, highly insightful, and very lucid book. It makes for a good reading and offers an invaluable basis for understanding one of the most important developments in the relationship between religious sentiments and political opinions at the turn of the 21st century. I enthusiastically recommend it.
Reviewer: Yaakov Ariel, Chapel Hill, NC
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Four Stars
By Marjem Kalter
Very good research that sheds light on a complicated subject, but the writing needs to be tightened up.
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