Religious scholar Marlin Jeschke calls for a rethinking of holy
land in new book
GOSHEN, Ind. – Christian tradition has held that the lands
that make up modern Israel and Palestine are “holy.” It
was there, according to Scripture, that Abraham received
God’s promise of land, and where Jesus walked. Paul, the
apostle, studied and started out from there on his missionary
journeys during the first century of the Christian
church.
Marlin Jeschke, Goshen College professor emeritus of philosophy
and religion, having served on the faculty from 1961 to 1994,
believes this “holy land” is the location of important
events in salvation history, but is otherwise no holier than the
ground he walks on every day in Northern Indiana. In his recently
published book, “Rethinking Holy Land: A Study in Salvation
Geography” (Herald Press, 2005), Jeschke challenges readers
– particularly North American Christians – to
reconsider issues related to land acquisition and
possession.
“God is trying to coach humanity toward a new way of
possessing territory other than seizing it by conquest and then
defending it by violence and force,” Jeschke writes in
“Rethinking Holy Land.”
Jeschke proposes that salvation involves not only our hearts,
minds and souls, but also how believers think about the possession
of land. Land is a central theme in the Old Testament, the Hebrew
Bible. As Jeschke points out, the word “land” appears
2,504 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Although the Middle East is
traditionally referred to as the “holy land,” Jeschke
suggests that Christians be stewards and make holy any part of the
earth on which they live. This “biblical vision of salvation
geography,” he says, “is for the whole world to be
sanctified as holy land.”
“Salvation geography” is a term Jeschke coined to
refer to “a community living out the distinctive style of
possession of territory that salvation history teaches, receiving
land as a gift from God and stewarding it with respect for
neighbors and descendants, extending the reach of holy
land.”
A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, who has lived in
Goshen since 1961, Jeschke discusses the longstanding “Middle
East problem” as a point of departure for formulating his
view of the possibility for peaceful, nonresistant land ownership.
The battle over territory between Israelis and Palestinians has
become everyday news since the Arab-Israeli War of 1947. In
commenting on “Rethinking Holy Land,” Gary Burge, a
professor of the New Testament at Wheaton College, says Jeschke
“offers an important, compelling personal reflection on the
Israeli-Palestinian struggle.”
Jeschke and his wife Elizabeth visited Jerusalem in 1996,
spending four months at Tantur, the Ecumenical Institute for
Theological Studies, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which
is where he began to research and write this book. He also has
written “Discipling in the Church” (1988) and
“Believers Baptism for Children of the Church” (1983).
In his book, Jeschke reminds readers that next year will bring
the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State
of Israel, yet division and violence continue to plague it.
Israelis and Jews mark 1947 as the re-establishment of their own
nation, while the Palestinians mark it as the beginning of invasion
and occupation. Jeschke describes in “Rethinking Holy
Land” that as outsiders looking in, apocalyptic Christians
see the establishment of the State of Israel as an essential step
towards the second coming of Jesus Christ.
In “Rethinking Holy Land,” Jeschke claims that the
theme of “salvation geography” runs through both Old
and New Testaments. God provided the garden of Eden as a home for
Adam and Eve, promised Abraham a land as far as he could see, and
then gave the Israelites this promised land after their exodus from
Egypt. Jeschke reminds his readers that Jesus and the apostolic
church cherished yet redefined this promise to embrace the whole
earth, as Jesus says in Matthew 5:5 in the Sermon on the Mount and
the Apostle Paul says in Romans 4:13 – that God gave Abraham
the cosmos.
Jeschke calls readers to commit their lives to a new vision, a
vision of stewarding land as a gift instead of resorting to
conquest – or supporting one side or the other in the ongoing
conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. This vision is
“available to any Christian willing to listen, to not fight
over territory,” Jeschke said.
Christians are called to be stewards of the land in which they
live, to reject society’s “I’ll fight you for
it” mentality, as described by Fuller Theological Seminary
professor David Augsburger in the book’s foreword. Further,
God’s intention in the call to Abraham for people to possess
land in peace and nonviolence should encompass the whole world, not
just the Middle East.
Jeschke is interested in engaging thoughtful readers in
considering making this vision their own, no matter where they
live. “It would be easy,” he writes, “to make
moral judgments about both biblical and modern Israel/Palestine and
allow that to deflect attention from equally serious problems at
other times and places in the past and present, many of them closer
to home.”
Jeschke earned a bachelor’s degree from Tabor College, a
divinity degree from Garrett Theological Seminary (now
Garrett-Evangelical) and a doctorate from Northwestern University.
He is currently president of the Mennonite Historical Society and
resides in Goshen, Ind., with his wife Betty, where they are
members of College Mennonite Church.
– by Sheldon Good
Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an
interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau
Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.
###
Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential
Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite
tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values –
passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking
and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the
church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term
program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of
Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s
“America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named
Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.
