Books Addressing the Issue of Christian Zionism

A number of books which address the issues of Christian Zionism have been published in the past few years. Below is a listing of four books, with descriptions from the book cover notes and our observations.

Armageddon and the Peaceable Kingdom

Whose Land? Whose Promise? – What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and Palestinians

The Wrath of Jonah – The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

Out of the Ashes – The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century

Armageddon and the Peaceable Kingdom, Walter Klaassen, Herald Press, 1999

Walter Klaassen, a Mennonite, got his PhD in philosophy at Oxford University. He subsequently taught at Bethel College and Conrad Grebel College (University of Waterloo, Ontario).

“Walter Klaassen has rendered the church of Jesus Christ an invaluable service with this volume. His critical analysis of current doomsday thinking should go a long way in restoring a measure of sanity to those who are caught up in speculations about the end-times. Klassen confronts many of the unbiblical views of how history will end.”

“Klaassen offers an alternative vision of the kingdom of God, based on a balanced interpretation of the New Testament. Instead of putting undue emphasis on the book of Revelation, he gives full weight to the teaching of the Gospels and the epistles, stressing both the spiritual and the ethical dimensions of that teaching.”

“Some preachers claim the End is near. They exhaust us with predictions of blood and fire, the sun darkened, and the moon turned to blood. Yet Acts says Israel is being rebuilt in the church with Jews and Gentiles. Throughout Christian history, all predictions of dates and times have proved false.”

One of the more interesting aspects of this book is a review of the 2000 year history of Christians trying to predict the End Times using their flawed interpretations of biblical scriptures and current events. In just the past 50 years, there have been many such failed attempts. “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”

Whose Land? Whose Promise? – What Christians Are Not Being Told about Israel and the Palestinians, Gary M. Burge, Pilgrim Press, 2003

We often wrongly associate all evangelicals with Christian Zionists. Gary Burge is President of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, and a professor of New Testament in the Graduate School at the evangelical Wheaton College in Wheaton Illinois. The book is not long, has an excellent history of the region, provides a good overview of the politics, and presents a fair and balance review of all (not just part) of the Old and New Testament scriptures that are relevant to the issues of Israel and Palestine.

“[The book] is Burge’s personal exploration of his feelings about the crises in the Middle East, put on paper to communicate with other Christians who share the same opinions he does and seek answers to the same questions he does; questions such as:

The Wrath of Jonah – The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Rosemary Radford Ruether and Herman J. Ruether, Fortress Press, 2002.

Rosemary Radford Ruether is Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston Illinois. Herman J. Ruether is a political scientist. In a presentation on Christian Zionism, one audience member volunteered that their congregation studied this book, and it resulted in a “sea change” in the congregation’s view about the Israeli/Palestinian situation.

“In this immensely learned and clarifying volume the Ruethers trace the tortured and contested history of Israel/Palestine from biblical times through the Diaspora, the development of Zionism, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the subsequent conflict with Arab and Palestinian nationalism. Magisterial in its grasp of the historical, political, economic, and religious roots of the conflict, The Wrath of Jonah also offers convincing analysis of the moral and political dilemmas facing Israelis and Palestinians today.”

“The Ruethers address this emotionally charged issue with deep concern for human rights and the effects of the rising spiral of violence… The overarching concern in this well-balanced book is to bring to the foreground ethical norms that Christians, Jews, and Muslims can recognize and subscribe to.”

Out of the Ashes – The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century, Marc H. Ellis, Pluto Press, 2002

This book is written by a Jewish theologian, Marc Ellis who is Professor of American and Jewish Studies, and Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University.

“Marc Ellis stands in a deeply honored…Jewish tradition of prophetic thought and action. This is a profoundly religious book and we ignore it at our peril.”

“As the world watches with horror the unfolding events in Palestine and Israel, Marc Ellis, a Jewish American scholar, examines what he sees as a crisis point in Jewish identity. In this book, Ellis offers a vision of Judaism that testifies to an ethical life in our era, based on the principles of justice and community upon which the Jewish faith was founded. Only by addressing the way in which those original principles are being squandered by a militarized state of Israel and a complicit Jewish establishment in America, he argues, can there be hope for a peace in the future.”