From the moment of God's covenant with Abraham in the Old Testament, the idea that a people are chosen by God has had a central role in shaping national identity. This text argues that sacred belief remains central to national identity, even in an increasingly secular, globalized modern world.

An innovative, theological study of the sense of holy place?, and the links between nationality, nationalism and spirituality. Is nationalism, fundamentaly opposed to any ideas of equality, tolerance or international understanding, or can it be expressed in humanitarian and Christian forms?

Americans and Israelis have often thought that their nations were chosen, in perpetuity, to do God’s work. This belief in divine election is a potent, living force, one that has guided and shaped both peoples and nations throughout their history and continues to do so to this day. Through great adversity and despite serious challenges, Americans and Jews, leaders and followers, have repeatedly faced the world fortified by a sense that their nation has a providential destiny. As Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz argue in this original and provocative book, what unites the two allies in a “special friendship” is less common strategic interests than this deep-seated and lasting theological belief that they were chosen by God. The United States and Israel each has understood itself as a nation placed on earth to deliver a singular message of enlightenment to a benighted world. Each has stumbled through history wrestling with this strange concept of chosenness, trying both to grasp the meaning of divine election and to bear the burden it placed them under. It was this idea that provided an indispensable justification when the Americans made a revolution against Britain, went to war with and expelled the Indians, expanded westward, built an overseas empire, and most recently waged war in Iraq. The equivalent idea gave rise to the Jewish people in the first place, sustained them in exodus and exile, and later animated the Zionist movement, inspiring the Israelis to vanquish their enemies and conquer the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Everywhere you look in American and Israeli history, the idea of chosenness is there. The Chosen Peoples delivers a bold new take on both nations’ histories. It shows how deeply the idea of chosenness has affected not only their enthusiasts but also their antagonists. It digs deeply beneath the superficialities of headlines, the details of negotiations, the excuses and justifications that keep cropping up for both nations’ successes and failures. It shows how deeply ingrained is the idea of a chosen people in both nations’ histories—and yet how complicated that idea really is. And it offers interpretations of chosenness that both nations dearly need in confronting their present-day quandaries. Weaving together history, theology, and politics, The Chosen Peoples vividly retells the dramatic story of two nations bound together by a wild and sacred idea, takes unorthodox perspectives on some of our time’s most searing conflicts, and offers an unexpected conclusion: only by taking the idea of chosenness seriously, wrestling with its meaning, and assuming its responsibilities can both nations thrive.

Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.

How Native Hawaiians' experience of Mormonism intersects with their cultural and ethnic identities and traditions

This collection of twenty-three essays by Duncan Stroik shows the development and consistency of his architectural vision. Packed with informative essays and over 170 photographs, this collection clearly articulates the Church’s architectural tradition.

Wales has a centuries-long history of interest in Palestine and Israel, and a particularly close interest in Jews and Zionism, which has been expressed widely in the literature. Whose People? Wales, Israel, Palestine is the first monograph to explore this subject. It asks difficult and probing questions about the relationship that Wales has had with Palestine in the past, and now has with the Israel-Palestine situation in the present, and it challenges received wisdom about Welsh tolerance and liberalism. Using publications in Welsh and in English across several centuries, this survey examines Welsh missionary efforts and colonial desires in Palestine; complex and contradictory attitudes to Jews, and the use of Zionism and the Hebrew language revival as a model for Wales. Beginning with an analysis of a so-called tradition of Welsh identification with Jews, the study locates its origins in the early twentieth century, and moves on to uncover provocative material in Welsh conversionist writing on Jews, Muslims and Samaritans in Palestine in the nineteenth century, and imaging of Jews in twentieth-century fiction and the periodical press. It concludes with a survey of Jewish literary responses to Wales that suggests that some Jewish writers have been active agents in reinforcing Welsh support of Zionism in particular. The evidence uncovered here shows a complex picture of a unique cultural and political relationship. Whose People? Wales, Israel, Palestine makes an important contribution to international Jewish studies, to the study of British colonial involvement in Palestine, and to Welsh and Jewish literary and cultural history.

Have you ever asked yourself how you are made in God's Divine image? If you have, you also realize mosy searches and journeys to this mysterious question have involved seeking answers through numerous spiritual works, references, and actual religious experiences throughout your life's journey. What if the answers you seek are not wholly available through searching outward; but may also require you to search within your own self? After all, doesn't it make sense that self-understanding, self-awareness, and self-actualization is more of an inner process than an outer one? How can you fully gain self-understanding without doing self analysis? "Keys To A Sacred Place" is designed to take you on a journey within. As you do, it is the humble author's hope you will discover far more within you than you could have ever imagined. Further, you will restore wholess of yourself; spirit, mind, and body and gain a fuller and greater connection to God's complete Divine image and essence! Enjoy your journey of self-discovery!

Scholar Leeming offers the first comprehensive narrative study of the mythology of the Middle East, that tumultuous region that was the cradle of civilization. Leeming begins with a brief history, followed by an in-depth discussion of the mythology of the region, ranging from prehistoric figures such as the mother goddess of Catal Huyuk to Mesopotamian gods such as Marduk and mythic heroes such as Gilgamesh, to the pantheon of Egyptian mythology. He also explores the mythology of the three great monotheistic religions of the region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a provocative epilogue, Leeming notes that fundamentalists in the area's three religions today all see their way as the only way, forgetting that myths represent truths that are spiritual and philosophical, not historical events that can be used to justify acts of violence.--From publisher description.