What is Zionism? Does psychology of religion have anything to offer to the understanding of Zionism?
What Is Zionism?
The term Zion has traditionally been viewed as synonymous with Jerusalem (Roth and Wigoder 1971). The most commonly understood use of the term Zionism is the belief that the land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, and every effort is to be made to return Jewish people to the land. There is a detailed biblical definition of the territory in Numbers 34: 1–15, and the territory was then expanded in the time of David and Solomon.
The historical precursors of Zionist ideology are to be found in Jewish history from biblical times, including promises that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) will inherit the land of Canaan, the process of Jewish settlement of the land, and various persecutions and forced movements of population. Despite the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the creation of diaspora Jewish communities in the former...
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Loewenthal, K.M. (2017). Zionism. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_764-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_764-7
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