“America itself had religious meaning to the colonists from the very beginning,”as is evident in events such as the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, and of over 700colonists in 1630,headed by Governor John Winthrop who is thought to have delivered the famous “City upon a Hill”sermon. In calling themselves “God’s new Israel,”the colonists perceived themselves as a chosen people, a sense they shared with the ancient Hebrews. For them, Europe was Egypt and America their “promised land.” God had again led his people to found a new nation that should be a light to the world.
This self-image of being God’s chosen people, one they shared with the Israelites,entailed for Christian American a mission to save the world,a sense of being specially selected to accomplish that mission in God’s plan, and a belief in an eschatology that included Armageddon. The 17th Century Puritans who fled from oppressive England to New England brought with them this Christian eschatology, a sense of themselves as a chosen people, and a prophecy of the advent of the millennium.
The influence of this interpretation of Scripture can be detected throughout American history:in the American Revolution,the Civil War,the Spanish -American War of the 19th Century, the Two World Wars, the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. It is also apparent, overtly or covertly, in the language of successive presidents in their Inaugural Addresses and State of the Union Addresses to Congress. By projecting the image of “Israel”as an archetype onto America itself, this interpretation of Scripture created the unique nature of American Civilization.
When the archetype of “Israel”present in American Civilization was given material form in the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948, individual Americans and their government started giving direct financial aid and moral support to that nation. Cumulatively, Israel has received more financial aid from the U.S. government than any other foreign country since the end of World War II. In addition,the American people has also strongly supported Israel: surveys show that a majority of them favor and morally support Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.
This paper aims to explain why the U.S. government has provided so much financial aid, and American people so much moral support, to Israel. To this end, it seeks to elucidate the meaning of “Israel” in American Civilization by way, firstly, of outlining the origin of the Americans’concept of “chosen-ness,”then by tracing its history from the perspective of the eschatological millennium,and finally by describing the process and clarifying the reasons for the popular support of Israel in the U.S.
雑誌名
比較文明研究
雑誌名(英)
Journal for the Comparative Study of Civilizations
アメリカ文明とイスラエル ユダヤ・キリスト教の聖書解釈を手がかりに
.png)
073-101 タテ p.69-97
(2.04MB)
