In this volume, Arieh Saposnik examines the complicated relations between nationalism and religious (and non-religious) redemptive traditions through the case study of Zionism. He provides a new framework for understanding the central ideas of this movement and its relationship to traditional Jewish ideas, Christian thought, and modern secular messianisms. Providing a longue-duree and broad view of the central themes and motivations in the making of Zionism, Saposnik connects its intellectual history with the concrete development of the Zionist project in Israel in its cultural, social, and political history. Saposnik demonstrates how Zionism offers lessons for a politics in which human perfectibility continues to serve as a guiding light and as a counter-narrative to the contemporary politics of self-interest, self-promotion and 'post-truth.' This is a study that bears implications for our understanding of modernity, of space and place, history and historical trajectories, and the place of Jews and Judaism in the modern world.

Zionism combined dialogues with Jewish, Christian, and secular messianisms to create a politics based in redemptive visions of its own.

About the Author
Arieh Saposnik is Associate Professor at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Reviews
'... evocative exploration of overlooked corners of the Zionist past ...' Allan Arkush, Jewish Review of Books



Book Information
ISBN 9781316517116
Author Arieh Saposnik
Format Hardback
Page Count 300
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 490g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 158mm * 18mm