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Engberg, Aron Walking on the Pages of the Word of God Self, Land, and Text Among Evangelical Volunteers in Jerusalem ENGBERG, ARON 2016 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): ENGBERG, ARON. (2016). Walking on the Pages of the Word of God: Self, Land, and Text Among Evangelical Volunteers in Jerusalem. (1st ed.). Total number of authors: 1 General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 ARON ENGB ARON Printed by Media- Tr yck, Lund University 2016 Nor E RG What does it mean to be “literally walking on the Walking God of the on Pages the of Word pages of the Word of God”? In what sort of religious imaginary does it even make sense to say that one is? Considering that this claim comes from an Walking on the Pages of the Word of God Evangelical Christian currently working as a volunteer dic Ecolabel 3041 0903 in Jerusalem, it raises interesting questions not only Self, Land, and Text Among Evangelical Volunteers in Jerusalem about the relationship between the biblical text and a contemporary state, but also about faith and politics, ARON ENGBERG sacred space and its capacity to mediate divine CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY AND ReLIGIOUS STUDIES | LUND UNIVERSITY presence, and the ways in which the State of Israel is finding its way into Evangelical religious identities. This dissertation explores these questions through an ethnographic account of Christian volunteer workers and their stories about themselves, the land, and the biblical text. The volunteers are attached to Christian organizations in Jerusalem which consider their work a natural consequence of the biblical promises to Israel and their responsibility as Christians to “bless the Jewish people”. The dissertation relies on an up-close portrait of the discursive practices of the volunteers to explore a central puzzle of Zionist Christianity: the narrative production of Israel’s religious significance and its relationship to Protestant language ideologies. Aron Engberg works at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University, Sweden. Walking on the Pages of the Word of God is his doctoral dissertation. Lund University 473110 The Faculties of Humanities and Theology Centre for Theology and Religious Studies ISBN 978-91-88473-11-0 789188 9 Walking on the Pages of the Word of God 1 2 Walking on the Pages of the Word of God Self, Land, and Text Among Evangelical Volunteers in Jerusalem Aron Engberg 3 Coverphoto by Aron Engberg Coverphoto layout by Catharina Hansson Copyright 2016 Aron Engberg The Faculties of Humanities and Theology Centre for Theology and Religious Studies ISBN 978-91-88473-11-0 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University Lund 2016 4 To Liv and Lovisa 5 Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 13 Walking on the Pages of the Word of God ................................................................ 16 Towards an Ethnography of Christian Zionism ......................................................... 20 “Christian Zionism”: Belief and Practice ................................................................... 23 Biblical Literalism ............................................................................................ 27 Christian Zionism as Narrative and Process ..................................................... 30 Meaning, Language, and Narrative ............................................................................ 33 Meaning & Symbol ......................................................................................... 33 Language Ideology ........................................................................................... 38 Religious Language & Narrative Performance .................................................. 40 The Scene in Jerusalem ............................................................................................. 42 The Volunteers ................................................................................................ 43 Interviews ........................................................................................................ 46 Self, Land, and Text .................................................................................................. 49 2. Evangelical Zionism in Jerusalem ................................................................................ 53 History of the Organizations ..................................................................................... 55 Restorationism and Dispensationalism ............................................................. 56 Jerusalem in the 1970s ..................................................................................... 60 Connecting Israel with the Evangelical World ................................................. 64 Practical Support and Founding Organizations ................................................ 66 Navigating the Socio-Political Space ................................................................ 70 Covenantal Theology ...................................................................................... 76 Going Mainstream .......................................................................................... 79 The Ministries Today ...................................................................................... 84 At the Embassy 2012 ................................................................................................ 87 3. Self: Calling, Agency & Transformation ...................................................................... 91 Narratives, Performance, and Transformation ........................................................... 93 The Calling ............................................................................................................... 96 “It Wasn’t Our Idea” – Calling and Agency ................................................... 104 Suspension of Agency .................................................................................... 105 Narrative Non-Sense Making ........................................................................ 108 Agency in Abeyance ....................................................................................... 110 6 Self-Transformation ................................................................................................ 117 Realizing Israel’s Spiritual Significance ........................................................... 118 Becoming Ruth ............................................................................................. 122 Continuous Conversion – Faith Walk ........................................................... 124 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 128 4. Land: Israel, Place & Presence ................................................................................... 129 Space, Place and the “Holy Land” ........................................................................... 130 The “Land of the Bible” and the Evangelical Gaze ......................................... 134 Where Miracles Happen ................................................................................ 139 “God’s Fire is in Zion, but His Furnace is in Jerusalem” ................................ 143 The Cosmic Center ....................................................................................... 149 A Locative Thrust .......................................................................................... 152 Tensions ................................................................................................................. 154 Another Problem of Presence ......................................................................... 157 Can Israel Fall Apart? .................................................................................... 161 “To Live Between the Tensions” .................................................................... 165 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 167 5. Text: Literalism, Prophecy & Authenticity ................................................................ 169 An Ideology of Literalism ........................................................................................ 171 Ambiguities of Prophecy Belief ..............................................................................
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