Review of ’Til Kingdom Come (2020)
Seen in 2020.
Netanyahu-era US evangelical Christian support for Israel on the basis of doomsday prophecies anticipating a war between Israel and its neighbours, to benefit Christians.
Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Lutheran priest, is especially good. If he ever engaged in a theological debate about the Olivet Discourse and the perennial foolishness of immanentizing the eschaton, that got cut. He comes off as more reasonable simply because—by virtue of being on site—his contact surface with reality is large enough that he cannot ignore the consequences of trying to trigger the end of the world, as his Christian “brothers” in the US were doing. His inclusion adds a nice touch of sanity to what is otherwise an overly polite study of wishful thinking at other people’s expense, with limited explanatory value to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. The exception is the US Binghamtown congregation, itself in a state of near cataclysm with post-coal poverty and addiction, still fundraising to help what it believes is a superior race. Here, wishful thinking happens at the thinker’s expense. There is a little of the vile prosperity gospel to this sacrifice, but it seems distinct from the televangelist fools, and more like a genuine act of faith with the internal logic of fundamentalism.
References here: Praying for Armageddon (2023).