Concrete holiness and place attachment: Christian Zionist agricultural volunteers in Samaria

Christian Zionism is a Protestant theology rooted in nineteenth-century Britain, advocating the return of Jews to the land of Israel as the fulfilment of God’s will and plan for the salvation of humanity. This article deals with the unique theology of the Christian Zionist group Hayovel, an organization dedicated to bringing Christian volunteers for agricultural work in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Based on fieldwork conducted among Hayovel volunteers, this article offers an analysis of Hayovel’s theology of rootedness and faith in the religious significance of the land. In contrast to mainstream Evangelical Christianity, Hayovel emphasizes the importance of sacred space and attempts to construct an experience of concrete holiness through agricultural work and touring the region’s Biblical sites. Hayovel’s activity is described here as the construction and cultivation of the Israel as a spatial and spiritual core and as a place of potential refuge and as a reaction to the increasing detachment from space in the global era.

Role of religion in American politics: An analysis of the influence of Evangelical Church in Israeli Palestinian conflict

The politics of the Holy land is of crucial importance to the followers of the three Abrahamic religions in terms of religious beliefs, which metamorphosed into military and political significance in the 20th Century. The United States (U.S) support for Israel is especially visible during the republican presidencies. The U.S had five republican presidents from 1980 to 2020, and their evangelical beliefs shaped American foreign policy toward this region, a policy that may loosely be termed as affected by Christian Zionism, which was originally a 16th Century religious Puritan movement, who latter shaped into Christian political movement. U.S Christian Zionism reiterates favourable images of Jews and is pessimistic about peace in Holy land. Christian Zionists believe Lord has bestowed the land of Palestine to Jews and have held up this claim since the turn of the 20th Century. This paper first describes the fundamental nature of Christian Zionism, their view of the modern Israel and resultant political and military policies. This also focuses Christian Zionists support of republican presidents and specially President Trump relationship with Christian Zionism. The shifting of U.S embassy to Jerusalem, the formal approval to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by President Trump are studied.

The Jewish Diaspora in Christian Thinking

This chapter summarizes the most important historical developments in Christian thinking about the Jewish diaspora, from antiquity to the present. It considers the apocalyptic Jewish perspectives of Jesus and Paul, the rise of adversus judaeos literature, Augustine’s innovative witness doctrine, and the fate of that doctrine in Catholic thinking up until its ostensible elimination during the papacy of John Paul II. In its examination of Protestantism, the article pays particular attention to developments in the Reformed traditions, especially the restorationist aspirations in the seventeenth century and the more recent rise of Christian Zionism.

Televangelizing Muslims

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Arabic-language Christian television channels have proliferated rapidly, broadcasting their message across the airwaves of the Middle East. One such channel is al-Hayat, which attempts to evangelize Muslim viewers and educate Christians through numerous programs about Islam. Interviews conducted with Jordanian Christians and Muslims indicate that al-Hayat has played a significant role in elevating distrust and suspicion between the two religious communities in Amman, which previously enjoyed more positive and friendly relationships, as well as contributing to a heightened sense of religious affiliation as a part of Jordanians’ personal and communal identities. Al-Hayat is not alone in this; other Christian channels, as well as Muslim ones, have also played a part in heightening security concerns and religious identification. Al-Hayat and some of its counterparts also maintain connections with what is often termed the “Islamophobia industry,” as well as American Christian Zionism—factors that shed light on the channels’ influence and often ambiguous intent. On television sets across the Arab world, Al-Hayat reproduces Western Islamophobic discourse and—whether intentionally or not—serves to enact part of the political mission and eschatological vision for the Middle East espoused by some Christian Zionists.

Christian Zionist religiouscapes in Brazil: Understanding Judaizing practices and Zionist inclinations in Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism

The increasing appropriation by Charismatic Evangelicals of Jewish narratives, rituals, and even Zionist anxieties is now evident in many parts of the globe. Drawing on two cases, one based on a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal church and another based on an ethnographic investigation of a ‘Judaizing Evangelical’ community in Brazil this study interrogates to what extent we can comprehend this emerging tendency within Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism as a result of the spread of Anglo-American Christian Zionism. The article contends that while there are significant overlaps between Anglo-American Christian Zionism and the Zionist and Judaizing tendencies within Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicalism, it is reductionist to comprehend the Brazilian case exclusively through Anglo-American frameworks. Given the particularities of the Brazilian Charismatic evangelical context, the article points to the unique ways in which Christian Zionist tendencies are being ‘glocalized’ in this country.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes the main arguments of the book. It explores themes such as the rationale of the Judaizing Evangelical revival and how it relates with wider discussions of religious change. It debates how social markers gender and ethnicity are intertwined in the case of the Judaizing Evangelicals in Brazil. At the micro level, it reveals how former Charismatic Evangelical women gradually adopt a set of religious norms in their daily lives through a curious negotiation of their Charismatic Evangelical pasts and the strict rules of Orthodox Judaism. At the macro level, describes the birth of a new tendency within Christianity that differs from similar Christian philo-Semitic movements such as Messianic Judaism and Christian Zionism. It concludes by stating how the rise of Judaizing Evangelicalism pushes forward key issues related to contemporary Christian philo-Semitism and World Christianities. Rather than an emic concept, it suggests that Judaizing Evangelicalism should be understood as an analytical concept that describes an unique interaction between Jewish and Christian monotheisms.

The Rise of Philo-Semitic Attitudes and Zionist Discourses in Christianity

This chapter explores the rise of philo-Semitic attitudes and Zionist discourses in World Christianity. By comparing the similarities and the differences between different Christian Philo-Semitic attitudes, it provides a categorization of Messianic Judaism, Christian Zionism, and Judaizing Evangelicalism. An overview of the Brazilian religious field is also offered, where particular focus is given to the growth of Charismatic Evangelicalism in the country. The chapter also investigates background information including the social structuration and the origins of “Judaizing Evangelical revival” within the community under study. The chapter concludes by situating the Judaizing Evangelical community within the emerging philo-Semitic attitudes and Zionist tendencies in World Christianities.

Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus

This book investigates a growing religious movement fusing beliefs and rituals deriving from Charismatic Evangelicalism and Judaism. Unlike analogous phenomena found in the West, such as Messianic Judaism (where Jewish-born people identify as believers in Jesus) or Christian Zionism (Evangelicals who emphasize the role of the Jews living in Israel by embracing Zionist activism), it addresses a different dimension of this trend emerging from the Global South. Based on an ethnography conducted during 2013–2015 within a religious community in Brazil, this book explains why former Charismatic Evangelicals (with no Jewish background) are adopting Jewish tenets and lifestyles. Focusing particularly on women’s conversion narratives, it investigates the reasons why Brazilian Charismatic Evangelicals are embracing rules derived from Orthodox Judaism, such as strict dress codes, eating kosher food, and observing menstrual taboos, while believing in Jesus as the Messiah. The analysis indicates that Judaizing Evangelical communities should be understood as a revival seeking to restore Christianity. The incorporation of Jewish elements aims to rebuild the authenticity of Christianity while distinguishing them from Charismatic Evangelicalism and its perceived scriptural inaccuracy, moral permissiveness, and materialism. This revival also involves recovering a collective past. References to a hidden Jewish heritage and a “return” to Judaism are mobilized for justifying strict adherence to Jewish practices. Drawing upon a sociocultural analysis, this study examines the historical, theological, religious, and subjective reasons behind this emerging Judaizing trend in Charismatic Evangelicalism. This book also engages with the literature of religious conversion, cultural change, and debates examining religious hybridization processes.

British Project in Palestine: Colonial “National Home”

Mandatory Palestine proved to be a unique example of an attempt to create a “national home” within the framework of the colonial system. The present article aims to analyse the combination of the national and the colonial in the implementation of the “home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, as well as the role of cultural-religious narratives in the mindset of both the British administrators and the Zionist settlers. The research is based on British official documents and archive materials, as well as on the memoirs of Jewish settlers in Eretz Yisrael, some of which are introduced into the Russian academic circulation for the first time. Many British politicians viewed the return of the Jews to their historical homeland as a specific noble mission, which fit both into the framework of “Christian Zionism” and the notion of the civilizing nature of imperial colonialism. Palestine, along with its religious and cultural significance, was at the same time playing a thoroughly practical strategic role, and in that sense served as a highly convenient “foothold”. The British politicians and administrators perceived the Zionists as loyal agents of European colonial influence in the Middle East region. Based on the conducted research, the author reached the following conclusions. Even before ethnic confrontation in mandate Palestine intensified, some representatives of the British Empire anticipated that the Jews would not be a loyal minority, always ready to act in the Empire’s interests to the full extent. The main finding of the research is that despite the superficial similarity between the outlooks of the European Zionists and the official representatives of the British Empire, their perceptions of Palestine and their aims and purposes there were fundamentally different. On the one hand, the notions of the leaders of the Zionist movement about Eretz Yisrael were indeed in many respects close to the positions of British politicians and administrators. Jewish nationalism emerged under the influence of European ideas and concepts, and even orientalism influenced it to a certain degree. On the other hand, the Zionists perceived the Europeans as situational allies, therefore their interests coincided only in the short-term perspective. The idea of the national revival of the people of Israel in its historical homeland played a key role for them. This laid the foundation of the new Jewish identity, which also included multiple elements of religious traditions and legal bases of Judaism.