The Rise of Christian Zionism

Abstract

For historians of American foreign relations, one of the most difficult relationships to analyze and discuss has been that between the United States and Israel. It is not surprising that historiography in this field has at times lurched between strongly opposing interpretations or failed to delve into complexities in order to avoid uncomfortable controversies. Caitlin Carenen wades into these turbulent waters and emerges with a refreshingly multilayered study which grapples with the intersections of government relations, domestic political evolution, and religious philosophies. Carenen’s book can be read on a number of different levels. First, it explains the increasingly sympathetic relationship between the United States and Zionism. This chronological story takes us from the 1930s to the end of the George W. Bush administration, and answers political questions about when the two countries had a more distant or a closer relationship. Second, the book maps out how the strengthening political relationship between the two governments paralleled and intersected with the growing support for Zionism among organized Protestant groups, beginning with liberal, mainline organizations, and then among evangelical groups. Third, Fervent Embrace is about the shift of political power in American society from one dominant Protestant group to another: Liberal, mainline to evangelical. Fourth, in tracing this power shift among Protestants, Carenen also shows the philosophical shift within Christian Zionism. She explains how the justifications for Zionism were different at different points in the century and among different Protestants. And, finally, Carenen addresses the most controversial lightening rod in the discussion of the American-Israeli relationship: The connection between antisemitism and support for or opposition to Israel.