Christian Attitudes towards the State of Israel (review)

The two momentous events in twentieth-century Jewish history - the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel - have both had a profound impact on Christian theology. The Holocaust forces exponents of Christianity to rethink its traditional anti-Judaism. The establishment of Israel confronted Christians with the need to reconsider conventional Christian supersessionism, the doctrine that teaches that the Church has replaced Israel as God's chosen. Paul Charles Merkley's book is about the latter issue.

He writes: 'Israelis and Jews of the diaspora simply do not know what to make of Christian attitudes toward Israel. On the one hand, there is the phenomenon of "Christian Zionism," which, some say, provides the most reliable, the most constant voice in defence of Israel, and which, indeed, in recent years, has been a more constant political resource for Israel than the "Jewish vote." On the other hand, there is the attitude of the World Council of Churches, generally reflected in the conventions of its constituent denominational bodies, where a consistent anti-Zionism has been the keynote for decades.'

The Jews' confusion is aptly observed. At a time when the Jewish people in general, and the Jewish state in particular, feel threatened and isolated, the support of evangelical Christians and their influence on the government of the United States is most valuable and welcome. On the other hand, Jews are also aware that, even if the conversion of the Jews is not foremost on the agenda of Zionist Christians, the latter are often imbued with an End Days theology that looks forward to a time when all Jews, once gathered in their land, will 'see the light' and embrace Christ, thus making the Second Coming possible. As I once heard Yehuda Bauer, the distinguished Jewish historian, put it somewhat polemically, 'these people love Jews and hate Judaism.'

The confusion is compounded by the fact that, despite the growing influence of Jewish Orthodoxy, most Jews are liberal and share many of the values of the liberal Protestants of the World Council of Churches. But the same Protestants express opinions about Israel that, though not anti-Semitic in the conventional sense, resemble many old anti-Semitic canards and evoke bitter memories of persecution and humiliation. They speak at times as if the Holocaust never happened.

It seems that many Christians are unable to accept Jews as equal members of the family of nations living in a sovereign state of their own and entitled to behave as others do. Traditionally, Christian theology, even when it did not advocate the extermination of Jews, was only able to tolerate them as inferiors. Because of the propensity of liberal Christians to side with the underdog and the tendency of the currently fashionable 'contextual theology' to identify Palestinians as the only victims of the Middle East, anti-Zionism has become a convenient vehicle for expressing opposition to Jewish sovereignty, perhaps to Judaism as such. In some circles, according to Merkley, this opposition has been coupled with a neo-Marcionian rejection of the Old Testament and its 'Jewishness.'

Merkley is most critical of this approach. He views with favour the Jews' return to the land of their ancestors. He regrets that, perhaps other than right-wing Israeli politicians and some individual rabbis, the Jewish community in the United States has not made sufficient common cause with Christian Zionists.

But the book under review is by no means a polemical tract. It is a carefully researched and very serious scholarly examination of both sides of the Christian debate. It marshals its arguments with a wealth of well-researched and lucidly presented material that includes, inter alia, interesting analyses of the influence of the Eastern Churches on contemporary Protestantism, the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church, and the relationship between Christian anti-Zionism and contemporary Islam. The book is, therefore, bound to benefit students of the subject, irrespective of their political and theological perspectives.