Book Description

This book is the first to investigate the effect of the biblical Holy Land on American religious institutions, from early Puritanism in 1620 to Judaism in 1948. It explores the attachment between religious America and the Land of Israel from a pluralistic perspective, tracing the history of religion in America as it relates to the spiritual and geographical identity of the Holy Land. Contents: Preface; Introduction: The Holy Land in American Religious Thought. PART I: THE HOLY LAND COMES TO AMERICA; Puritans and Congregationalists: The Americanization of Zion; Sephardic Jewry: Present and Future Zion; American Indians: Ten Lost Tribes and Christian Eschatology. PART II: NINETEENTH CENTURY INDIVIDUAL TIES TO THE HOLY LAND; Protestant Pilgrims: Disjunction between Expectation and Reality; Protestant Missionaries: Jewish Conversion and Christ's Return; Consuls: Jews and Holy Land History. PART III: RELIGIOUS GROUPS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; Christianity among Blacks: The Spiritual Holy Land; Protestant Liberalists: Jewish Return and Christian Kingdom; Mormons: Dialectical Holy Lands; Judaism: American Impact and Internal Divisions. PART IV: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; Protestant Liberalism: Universal Ideas; Catholicism: Holy Land of Christ's Crucifixion; Judaism: Centrality of the Land; Conclusion.