Zionist secularization nationalized messianic myth rather than replacing it

Evidence

God was excluded from the discourse, yet biblical divine promise continued to direct political activity and to serve as a source of legitimacy. In that respect, Zionist national consciousness was not separate from the theological myth, but was rather a particular interpretation of that myth, considered to be the exclusive understanding of the Scriptures. Secularization in Zionism meant the nationalization of religious-messianic conceptions, not their replacement. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 315

The distinction between the “utopian return to Zion” and messianism expresses Zionist ambivalence toward “messianism.” Zionism rejected messianism for two reasons: On the one hand, messianism was seen as being merely a passive expectation for divine intervention, or for being apocalyptic, catastrophic, anti-rational, and unrealistic. In this sense, the distinction from messianism was crucial for the shaping of the new national Jewish self-image as that of a “productive,” “realistic,” and “rational-enlightened” community. On the other hand, messianism was interpreted as a national “secular” myth of return, and Zionism was perceived as its fulfillment – “the utopian return.” … Messianic figures were presented as national heroes and national leaders, and messianic texts were understood as political treatises (Werses 1988). Scholem contributed to that framework the most sophisticated description of an immanent dialectical process in which messianic content is crystallized and sublimed, until it receives its most sublimed form in the Zionist nationalization of the myth. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 351

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies how a religious concept (messianism) becomes a national-political construct through selective rejection and sublimation.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core interest: how a group sacralizes a political project by rebranding religious content as secular-national, sustaining solidarity. — connects to: Protestant reinterpreted biblical concepts seeded modern nationalism — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 330; Zionism required religious myth because it lacked the land and language pillars of nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 2373; Hamas emptied traditional religious concepts and refilled them with revolutionary content — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 2430 (+23 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 315; Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 351

Broader Connections

• Secular Zionism reworked Jewish messianic theology rather than replacing it. #corroborates (0.95) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 641
• Secular Zionism reinterpreted theology rather than departing from it #corroborates (0.88)
• Zionism’s professed secularism carried hidden messianic theology #expands (0.82) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 300
• Jewishness was transposed from a nation’s religion into a national religion #expands (0.78) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 836
• Suppressing messianism produced a secular national theology that erased the land’s non-Jewish history #expands (0.76)
• Secular Zionism replicated Protestant supersessionist theology toward Jews #expands (0.75)
• Zionism’s secularization reinscribed the Semitic wedge separating Jew from Arab #expands (0.75)
• Rational or moral correction from inside cannot touch Zionism’s founding religious claim #expands (0.74) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 563
• Messianism shifted from religious to secular redeemers after Sabbatai Zevi #expands (0.72)