Zionist secular nationalism borrowed Protestant theological imagination
Evidence
However, the reformulation of the theological perception in modern “romantic” terminology of originality, authenticity, and return express a radical transition and means its accommodation into the Western perception of history, and particularly into Protestant theological imagination. The Zionist ideal of “return” to the ancient past was based on the fundamental Protestant ideal: The Zionist return was directed toward to the self-same image of the land as was the spiritual ideal of Protestantism - to the Holy Land of the Second Temple period, the age of Jesus, which is “as if” the origin of the “common culture” - what came to be known as the “Judeo-Christian.” More importantly, the Zionist concept of return was articulated in the same terms and set of images that has been developed in Protestant literature. The image of the ancient Jewish community was the same image attributed to the early Church in Protestant thought, formulated in the same terms, and according to similar cultural images of a pious peasant community. The Jewish national ideal considered as secular followed the theological imagination of Protestantism. The Reformation should therefore be seen as the location of the shift from “traditional” to “national” Religion and Nationalism in the Jewish and Zionist Contextt 39 Jewish consciousness. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 324
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to literature on how ‘secular’ national movements covertly inherit the theological frameworks they claim to transcend — relevant to the reader’s question about professed conviction (secularism) versus actual structuring assumptions. — connects to: Secular Zionism replicated Protestant supersessionist theology toward Jews; Secular Zionism reinterpreted theology rather than departing from it; Zionist secularization nationalized messianic myth rather than replacing it — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 315 (+5 more)
- QUESTION: Worth chasing: to what extent does the claim that ‘secular’ Zionism is Protestant-inflected generalize to other postcolonial nationalisms that adopted Western historiography?
Broader Connections
- Secular Zionism replicated Protestant supersessionist theology toward Jews
#corroborates(0.90) - Zionist secularization nationalized messianic myth rather than replacing it
#expands(0.85) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 315 - Secular Zionism reinterpreted theology rather than departing from it
#qualifies(0.80) - Protestant reinterpreted biblical concepts seeded modern nationalism
#expands(0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 330 - Zionism’s professed secularism carried hidden messianic theology
#expands(0.80) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 300 - Nationalism’s borrowings from religion do not make religion its source
#qualifies(0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 946 - Zionism made the Bible a national rather than religious text
#expands(0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 327 - Zionism countered the earlier invention of Judaism as a religion
#expands(0.75) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 748