God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America by Samuel Goldman (review)

In God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America, political scientist Samuel Goldman offers a sweeping overview of the relationship between Americans and Zionism, arguing that Christian Zionism is not a new idea but rather one grounded in three ongoing forces: covenantal theology, prophecy, and cultural affinity. At various points in American history, starting with the Puritans and ending with the modern Christian Right, each of these forces has been emphasized to varying degrees. Goldman’s argument is that the most modern incarnation—a sensational prophecy emphasis by dispensationalist fundamentalists—belies the less sensational influence of the others and discounts the long engagement with Zionism inherent in American thought. As he argues in his conclusion, “The politics of the apocalypse made for good headlines, but imagination sometimes outstripped evidence” (174). Even in the context of the Right’s support for Christian Zionism, Goldman detects a shift away from prophecy back toward covenant. Ultimately Goldman’s intent is to provide a corrective to contemporary views of Christian Zionism, and in this goal he is successful. In engaging prose, he offers a comprehensive and nuanced view of the history of American Christian Zionism, ultimately contributing to the cause of what he deems “religious literacy”—understanding the “textual sources, historical figures, and key concepts” of American Christian Zionism (11).

After alerting the reader immediately to his goal—a descriptive rather than theological treatment of American Christian Zionism--Goldman begins with a close examination of Puritan thought regarding Israel and concludes that the idea of covenant, God’s promises to the Jewish nation, guided much of the way proto-Americans viewed not only the Jews, but early ideas of restoration. He argues that early ideas of restoration “became a source of American exceptionalism, justifying not a retreat into the wilderness but rather a mission to assert power out into the world” (16). In this way, early ideas of covenant shaped America’s view of itself as an actor in the world, responsible for supporting God’s collective (as opposed to individual) plan for the Jews. During the years of the early republic, Americans’ thinking embraced “patriotic millenarianism” and shifted into understanding their new nation’s purpose in “prophecies about the people and Land of Israel. America, they thought, was too important to be left out of God’s plan. But its significance,” Goldman argues, “was contingent on the fulfillment of His ongoing covenant with the Jews” (58). In Part One, Goldman successfully accomplishes two tasks: he introduces a complex and nuanced issue to non-experts and simultaneously challenges experts to more vigorously engage in examinations of political theology.

In Part Two, Goldman moves into turn-of-the-century America and examines the Blackstone Memorial and revived interest in the Holy Land. He argues that an important shift happened in American thinking about Israel: it changed from theoretical to political. It was not enough, as the Puritans had done, to keep restoration as a part of a general understanding of Israel, nor only to see God’s purpose for Israel as a part of the American creed, as had citizens of the early Republic. Such ideas needed action. For Blackstone and others, Jewish restoration to the land of Israel “was a diplomatic and logistical problem that could be resolved by acts of state” (68). It is this emphasis on action that shaped contemporary Christian Zionism in the United States. Here, Goldman analyzes the development of premillennial dispensationalism and its place in the pantheon of American religious thought as it relates to ideas of returning Jews establishing a state in Israel. While the ideas are birthed in this time, it would not be until later in American history that dispensationalism would gain its notoriety in American popular culture and Christian Zionism. After celebrating the Balfour Declaration, American religio-political thinkers engaged in vigorous debates about the possibility of Israel’s establishment and how such an idea fit into the understanding of the United States as the arm of God’s own...