More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism. By Robert O. Smith. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. xvi + 284 pp. $26.96 cloth.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism . By Robert O. Smith . Foreword by Martin E. Marty . New York : Oxford University Press , 2013. xvi + 284 pp. $26.96 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesThe degree of American with State of to use Robert O. Smith's language in his enlightening book, is simply remarkable. As Smith documents, polling results over last few decades make abundantly clear that American Christians--led by white evangelicals--consistently and overwhelmingly side with Israelis and against Palestinians. Regarding U.S. policies in Middle East, while polls show that a majority of people throughout rest of world--including, as revealed in a 2003 poll, Israelis themselves--believe that American foreign policy is unfairly tilted toward Israel, Americans maintain that U.S. policies are fair and evenhanded. In short, Americans' consistently positive attitude toward State of is (32).This sets up question animating More Desired than Our Owne Salvation : why do so many Americans understand support for state of as a God-mandated responsibility? Smith rightly rejects simplistic argument that this exceptional affinity is product of assiduous efforts made by Israeli lobby. But Smith also rejects notion--advanced by many others (including himself in past)--that it can simply be explained by popularity in America of John Nelson Darby's 19th-century prophetic schema, dispensational premillennialism. While Darby's emphasis on prophesied of to Palestine certainly fuels Christian (particularly evangelical) support for state of Israel, Smith argues that there are not enough Americans who hold to Darby's schema to explain level of pro-Israel sentiment. Moreover, Darby adamantly held to notion that church age had to end with rapture before prophesied restoration of Jews could take place. Smith puts it succinctly: the most elegant approach is to recognize that premillennial dispensationalism alone is not a sufficient cause to explain Christian political activity on behalf of or State of Israel (160).Instead, Smith convincingly argues that roots of Christian Zionism in United States go back much further, to English Protestant tradition of Judeo-centric prophecy (3). He devotes three detailed and interesting chapters to development of this interpretation in 17th-century England, along way noting that this interpretation consistently included Catholics and Muslims as eternal enemies of God while simultaneously--in hands of Puritan interpreters--constructing . . . as eventual allies against Turko-Catholic Antichrist (70). Remarkably, or perhaps not so remarkably, these interpretations were being developed in a country where had been banned for centuries. These Puritans brought Judeo-centric prophecy interpretation to America, understanding as a typological referent for their national covenant in New World. …