Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations

by Daniel G. Hummel

Overview

Weaving together the stories of activists, American Jewish leaders, and Israeli officials in the wake of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Covenant Brothers portrays the dramatic rise of evangelical Christian Zionism as it gained prominence in American politics, Israeli diplomacy, and international relations after World War II. According to Daniel G. Hummel, conventional depictions of the Christian Zionist movement—the organized political and religious effort by conservative Protestants to support the state of Israel—focus too much on American evangelical apocalyptic fascination with the Jewish people. Hummel emphasizes instead the institutional, international, interreligious, and intergenerational efforts on the part of Christians and Jews to mobilize evangelical support for Israel.

From missionary churches in Israel to Holy Land tourism, from the Israeli government to the American Jewish Committee, and from Billy Graham's influence on Richard Nixon to John Hagee's courting of Donald Trump, Hummel reveals modern Christian Zionism to be an evolving and deepening collaboration between Christians and the state of Israel. He shows how influential officials in the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs and Foreign Ministry, tasked with pursuing a religious diplomacy that would enhance Israel's standing in the Christian world, combined forces with evangelical Christians to create and organize the vast global network of Christian Zionism that exists today. He also explores evangelicalism's embrace of Jewish concepts, motifs, and practices and its profound consequences on worshippers' political priorities and their relationship to Israel.

Drawing on religious and government archives in the United States and Israel, Covenant Brothers reveals how an unlikely mix of Christian and Jewish leaders, state support, and transnational networks of institutions combined religion, politics, and international relations to influence U.S. foreign policy and, eventually, global geopolitics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812251401
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	06/07/2019
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Daniel G. Hummel is a postdoctoral fellow in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Roots, 1948-1967

Chapter 1 From Mission to Witness 19

Chapter 2 Judeo-Christianity 40

Chapter 3 Errand to the Holy Land 59

Part II Shoots, 1967-1976

Chapter 4 Common Ground 79

Chapter 5 Sightseeing Is Believing 102

Chapter 6 Reconciliation 128

Part III Branches, 1976-2018

Chapter 7 Christian Right Zionism 159

Chapter 8 Spirit-Centered Zionism 185

Chapter 9 Global Christian Zionism 212

Epilogue 234

List of Source Abbreviations 241

Notes 245

Index 303

Acknowledgments 315

Editorial Reviews

"Covenant Brothers is a smart, compelling, and pathbreaking book. The arguments are provocative, in the very best sense. Daniel G. Hummel challenges his readers to see their worlds in new ways. This deeply researched book will stand as the definitive study of American Christian Zionism for a long time to come."

Washington State University Matthew Avery Sutton

"Engagingly written and persuasively argued, Covenant Brothers is based on extraordinary primary research that amply demonstrates that we cannot understand U.S.-Israel relations without examining the impact Israel had on American opinion."

University of Cambridge Andrew Preston

"[A] compelling, thoroughly researched argument that Christian Zionism has been first and foremost a Christian-Jewish reconciliation movement, with Israel at its center . . . Altogether, Covenant Brothers is going to prove indispensable to scholars of Christian Zionism and even Jewish-Christian relations writ large. And it is certainly accessible enough for nonspecialists seeking to understand the emergence of a movement currently enjoying unprecedented political sway during the Trump presidency, as well as for those interested in glimpsing at the movement's future."

H-Judaic

"Hummel has written a masterful, very readable book that manages at once to mount a surprising argument and tell compelling narrative history."

The Forward

"Anyone seeking to understand the Palestine conflict and U.S. support for Israel needs to take seriously, as Daniel Hummel does in this excellent book, the American Christian Zionist movement."

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

"Engagingly written and persuasively argued, Covenant Brothers is based on extraordinary primary research that amply demonstrates that we cannot understand U.S.-Israel relations without examining the impact Israel had on American opinion."

Universityof Cambridge Andrew Preston

"Hummel has written a masterful, very readable book that manages at once to mount a surprising argument and tell compelling narrative history."—The Forward

"Anyone seeking to understand the Palestine conflict and U.S. support for Israel needs to take seriously, as Daniel Hummel does in this excellent book, the American Christian Zionist movement."—Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

"[A] compelling, thoroughly researched argument that Christian Zionism has been first and foremost a Christian-Jewish reconciliation movement, with Israel at its center . . . Altogether, Covenant Brothers is going to prove indispensable to scholars of Christian Zionism and even Jewish-Christian relations writ large. And it is certainly accessible enough for nonspecialists seeking to understand the emergence of a movement currently enjoying unprecedented political sway during the Trump presidency, as well as for those interested in glimpsing at the movement's future."—H-Judaic

"Engagingly written and persuasively argued, Covenant Brothers is based on extraordinary primary research that amply demonstrates that we cannot understand U.S.-Israel relations without examining the impact Israel had on American opinion."—Andrew Preston, University of Cambridge

"Covenant Brothers is a smart, compelling, and pathbreaking book. The arguments are provocative, in the very best sense. Daniel G. Hummel challenges his readers to see their worlds in new ways. This deeply researched book will stand as the definitive study of American Christian Zionism for a long time to come."—Matthew Avery Sutton, Washington State University

From the Publisher