Messianic Zionism In The Digital Age

Judaism in the twenty-first century has seen the rise of the messianic Third Temple movement, as religious activists based in Israel have worked to realize biblical prophecies, including the restoration of a Jewish theocracy and the construction of the third and final Temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Through groundbreaking ethnographic research, Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age details how Third Temple visions have gained considerable momentum and political support in Israel and abroad . The role of technology in this movement’s globalization has been critical. Feldman skillfully highlights the ways in which the internet and social media have contributed to the movement's growth beyond the streets of Jerusalem into communities of former Christians around the world who now identify as the Children of Noah (Bnei Noah). She charts a path for future research while documenting the intimate effects of political theologies in motion and the birth of a new transnational Judaic faith.

"How does state policy shape our most intimate desires? This groundbreaking anthropological approach to the study of desire shows how Orthodox desires and their discontents are reshaped at the intersection of religion, reproduction and politics, highlighting how ethical choreographies between personal desire and the state emerge even in the most traditional settings"--

This two-volume set investigates the evangelical presence in America as experienced through digital media, examining current evangelical ideologies regarding education, politics, family, and government. Evangelical broadcasting has greatly expanded its footprint in the digital age. This informative text acquaints readers with how the electronic church of today spreads its message through Internet podcasts, social networking, religious radio programs, and televised sermons; how mass media forms the institution's modern identity; and what the future of the industry holds as mobile church apps, Christian-based video games, and online worship become the norm. The work—split into two volumes—reveals the ways that the Christian broadcast community affects evangelical traditions and influences American society in general. Volume 1 explores how electronic media shapes today's Christian subculture, while the second volume describes how the electronic church impacts the wider American culture, analyzing what key figures in evangelical mass media are saying about today's religious, political, economic, and social issues. The set concludes by addressing criticism about religious media and the prospects of American public discourse to accomodate both secular and religious voices.

Since Israel conquered the West Bank, formerly held by Jordan, in 1967, over 400,000 settlers have moved into the territory. In recent years, Israeli settler organizations and allied American-Jewish lobbyists have responded to international condemnation of the occupation by mobilizing narratives of indigeneity, claiming sovereign and divine rights to the land. Settler-Indigeneity in the West Bank asks what Israeli settlers mean when they say they are indigenous; how settler indigeneity is felt, performed, and mediated; and what the implications of indigeneity claims are on the international stage. Building on foundational scholarship that has come out of post-colonial and indigeneity studies, the volume theorizes settler-indigeneity as a cultural phenomenon and product of transnational settler-colonial histories, while also interrogating the dialectic of “settler” and “indigenous” to illustrate their co-constitution. Considering agriculture, clothing, food, language, and religious practices, the chapters explore how feelings of indigeneity are fashioned and how these feelings continue to transform the landscape of the West Bank. Offering a series of original ethnographic accounts of these cultures and communities, Settler-Indigeneity in the West Bank intimately documents and discusses the processes of settler-nativization in conversation with a variety of related literature in anthropology, cultural studies, Israel studies, religious studies, and settler-colonial studies.

Pervading culture and politics alike, Christian Zionism is the fastestrowing religious movement in Christianity today, with current believershought to exceed five million in the US alone. Proposing a literal readingf the bible, it states that a Jewish return to the Holy Land is aequirement for the Second Coming and inevitable Armageddon. Promoting commonnterests between Israel and the Christian World, and possessing manyell-moneyed advocates, Christian Zionism has a far-reaching influence inoday's world. In this illuminating book, professor and rabbi Danohn-Sherbok traces the transition of Christian Zionism from Puritan times tohe present, examining the ever increasing role of Armageddon in its belieftructure and studying its deep-rooted sway on both the Middle East peacerocess and the American political system. Covering Hal Lindsey's books andis invitations to White House Seminars, Cohn-Sherbok inspects the growth ofhe movement and its quintessential role as a political lobbying force.;nvaluable to anyone who seeks a greater understanding of the interplay

Over the centuries, the messianic tradition has provided the language through which modern Jewish philosophers, socialists, and Zionists envisioned a utopian future. Michael L. Morgan, Steven Weitzman, and an international group of leading scholars ask new questions and provide new ways of thinking about this enduring Jewish idea. Using the writings of Gershom Scholem, which ranged over the history of messianic belief and its conflicted role in the Jewish imagination, these essays put aside the boundaries that divide history from philosophy and religion to offer new perspectives on the role and relevance of messianism today.

Despite the masses still lining up to enter mega-churches with warehouse-like architecture, casually dressed clergy, and pop Christian music, the “Post-Boomer” generation—those ranging in age from twenty to forty—is having second thoughts. In this perceptive look at the evolving face of Christianity in contemporary culture, sociologists Richard Flory and Donald E. Miller argue that we are on the verge of another potential revolution in how Christians worship and associate with one another. Just as the formative experiences of Baby Boomers were colored by such things as the war in Vietnam, the 1960s, and a dramatic increase in their opportunities for individual expression, so Post-Boomers have grown up in less structured households with working (often divorced) parents. These childhood experiences leave them craving authentic spiritual experience, rather than entertainment, and also cause them to question institutions. Flory and Miller develop a typology that captures four current approaches to the Christian faith and argue that this generation represents a new religious orientation of “expressive communalism,” in which they seek spiritual experience and fulfillment in community and through various expressive forms of spirituality, both private and public.