Gary M. Burge, Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to “Holy Land” Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic: 2010), 176 pages, ISBN 9780801038983.

Affirming the normal human practice of attaching oneself to land—of having a place to call home—Burge recognizes the practical and political challenges this desire poses for both Palestinians and Israelis. In agreement with D. Boyarin’s A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (1994), Burge says that “If the Jewish people are the indigenous people of this land, then the Palestinians are indigenous nowhere. And if the Palestinians are indigenous there, then the Jewish people are indigenous nowhere” (x, xi).

He addresses how he believes Christians can view the “competing land claims” of the Palestinians and Israelis by isolating and offering key questions for an ongoing discussion. What is the relationship between land and theology in the New Testament? What did Jesus and the New Testament writers think about the territorial claims of ancient Israel? Did they retain the view of the sanctity of Jerusalem and its Temple? Were they rethinking the relationship between faith and locale? Or were they confident that a sacred place was still to be held for believers?

Burge, of course, answers these questions. For example, he believes “the early Christians possessed no territorial theology; and “Early Christian preaching [was] utterly uninterested in Jewish eschatology [that] devoted [itself] to the restoration of the land” (59). In his view, for instance, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews would “never have been inclined to see the politics of Judaea as an appropriate venue for Christian interest” (107). This is because God’s focus is not the Land, but the world. The Land is but a small, though vital, part of that world.

While some readers may not feel comfortable with some of his amillennial leanings; nevertheless, his discussion pushes the conversation forward. Now we know the questions we should be asking.

Reviewed by Carolyn D. Baker

Publisher’s page: bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/jesus-and-the-land/322870

Charles P. Lutz and Robert O. Smith, Christians and a Land Called Holy: How We Can Foster Justice, Peace, and Hope (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006), 146 pages, ISBN 9780800637842.

Christians and a Land Called Holy is an appeal for action on the part of the wider Christian community in response to the vexing political situation in the Holy Land. This book was written in response to a visit of the authors to Israel/Palestine in 2002. They came away with a conviction that “Christian from elsewhere in the world have a faith-based interest in seeking a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and that they have a key role to play in pursuit of that peace” (ix).

Charles P. Lutz is a retired journalist who serves as Minnesota coordinator for Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of national church policy agencies. Robert O. Smith is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, who serves as Campus Pastor for the University of Chicago. Both have traveled often to Israel and regard themselves as emissaries for peace in the Holy Land.

The book is composed of two chapters each by the authors, an appendix featuring a short essay on the biblical politics of the Holy Land by Roman Catholic scholar Ronald D. Witherup, and a resource section with an annotated list of books, videos, and websites. The book also includes maps and twelve black and white photos.

The main argument of the book is that Western Christians should advocate for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The authors state four reasons in support of their argument. First, peace would assure safe passage for Christian pilgrims. Second, the indigenous Christians of Palestine are “begging us to become active in their struggle for a secure and just peace” (ix). Third, Christian ministries in Israel/Palestine are disrupted by outbreaks of violence. And fourth, America Christians should engage in citizen advocacy with their government, which has influence over the conflicting parties.

In chapter 1, Lutz poses the question, “What’s So Special about This Space?” His answer is that the religious meaning of the land called holy is significantly qualified by the universalizing love of Christ, in which “all lands become equally holy” (20). Based on his conviction that the gospel has shattered the privileged geographic significance of Israel/Palestine, Lutz argues that Christians should be primarily preoccupied with securing justice and peace for all of its inhabitants, including Muslims.

In Chapter 3, “Division in the Christian Family,” Smith assesses two opposing Christian views of state of Israel, evangelical Christian Zionism and mainline Christian Palestinianism. The former he denounces as indifferent to human suffering and the latter he upholds as the key to achieving genuine reconciliation and peace. Smith calls for a comprehensive strategy to accomplish “the marginalization of Christian Zionism it richly deserves” (80). He commends a recent appeal of the World Council of Churches for its member bodies to use economic pressures, such as disinvestment in Israel, to lobby against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

As the title indicates, this book is concerned with who owns the Holy Land. At the outset, Gary Burge explains how he struggles with rival biblical versus historical claims to the land by both Jews and Arabs, asking if it can really be justifiable to evict Arabs who have lived on the land for centuries on the basis of an ancient promise made in the book of Joshua. He also questions the eschatological zeal driving Christian Zionism which he believes ignores major ethical problems in Israel today. Hence, Burge is keen to provide an alternative view of the situation in the Middle East to Christians he believes are not being told the entire story. Yet despite championing Palestinian self-determination without Israeli interference, nonetheless he also believes Israel’s security and right to exist must be secured if there is to be lasting peace in the region. Moreover, while the Old Testament covenant has been abrogated, this “should not diminish the church’s respect for Judaism nor the rights of the Jewish people to live in the land of Israel” (xviii).

The book begins with a description and historical survey of the land, before moving on to theme of land ownership in the Old Testament. Burge demonstrates how the land is intimately connected to God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel. Yet control of the land was conditional upon Israel’s faithfulness: “Possession of the land is linked to covenant fidelity” (74). Israel does not actually own the land, rather she is a tenant entrusted with it only as long as she is in a covenant relationship with God. Thus, the promise of the land is indeed eternal, but only provided Israel remains faithful to God.

Burge then moves on to explore the theme of the land in the New Testament, noting how, by and large, it is absent there. Focusing on the abrogation of the Old Testament law, he argues that the promises made to Abraham are now spiritualised in and through Jesus, who is a new Moses:

Jesus himself becomes the locus of the holy space … Just as Moses was leading the people of Israel to their promised land, so too, Jesus leads God’s people. But now we learn that Jesus himself is in reality that which the land had offered only in form. To grasp after land is like grasping after bread—when all along we should discover that Jesus is ‘the bread of life’ (175).

Gary M. Burge is professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School.

Thus, the book argues, the true descendants of Abraham (that is, Christians rather than simply Jews) will inherit the whole world, rather than simply the tiny strip of land which is modern day Israel. Yet Burge cannot quite bring himself to reject fully the notion that the Jews and Judaism retain some special significance in the divine plan, stating that unbelieving Judaism is still beloved of God and retains an ‘enduring role’. “For the sake of their history, for the sake of the promises made to their ancestors, God will retain a place for Jews in history” (187). But whether Burge is simply suggesting Jewish believers are grafted onto the Church (cf Rom 11:17ff), or else something more substantial, is unclear. The book concludes with a brief survey of Palestinian Christianity, a critique of Christian Zionism (“Many of us within the evangelical church are offended by Christian Zionism”, 246), and highlights Evangelical organisations that reject Christian Zionism.