Paul Merkley draws on the published literature of the World Council of Churches, the Middle East Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and other Christian organizations that have an interest in the question of Israel's past, present, and future, and on interviews with numerous key figures within the government of Israel, spokesmen for the Palestine Authority, and leaders of all the major pro and anti-Zionist Christian organizations to demonstrate that Christian attitudes towards Israel remain remarkably polarized. To most evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, loyalty to Israel is a kind of second patriotism, nurtured by the conviction that Israel's restoration is a part of God's plan for history. However mainstream Protestantism champions "Palestinian nationalism" and, drawing on the rhetoric of the Middle East Council of Churches, does not hesitate to portray Israel as an Aoppressor." Merkley concludes that Christian attitudes towards Israel reflect fundamental theological attitudes that must be studied against the long historical background of Christian attitudes towards Judaism and Islam.

Paul Charles Merkley is professor emeritus, history, Carleton University, and the author of The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891-1948.

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"This book is a remarkable achievement ... I am most impressed with the scope of Merkley's research. He is a diligent and thorough scholar who seems to have gathered all conceivable information on the topic and is very fluent with the literature on the different aspects of the subject ... his is the first comprehensive work on the subject." Yaakov Ariel, Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill