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More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism. By Robert O. Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 284 pp. $29.95.
Smith, program director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America/Middle East and North Africa and co-moderator of the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum of the World Council of Churches, correctly traces the roots of American Christian Zionism to English Puritanism and Calvinism and the theology of pre-millennial dispensationalism. This influential hermeneutic of scriptural interpretation gained momentum through the popular writings of Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHay then was further propelled by Rev. John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel.
Unfortunately,...