Hartmann von Aue
05-29-2008, 03:13 AM
MICHAEL OREN: The idea of America and the idea of a Jewish state are very closely interwoven. It goes back to the time of the Puritans who conceived themselves as the new Jews and the New World as the New Canaan. That immediately established a sense of kinship between them and the old Jews and the old Promised Land. Since then, many Protestants in the United States have seen it as their religious and national duty to help fulfill God’s promises to rescue the Jews from exile and repatriate them to their ancestral homeland. Take, for example, a book published in 1844, The Valley of Visions, that became a bestseller and which called on the United States to lead the way in recreating a Jewish state in Palestine. The book was written by the head of New York University’s bible department, George Bush . . .
. . .
The proposition that the United States should actively assist the Jews in returning to Palestine was neither new nor, in the antebellum period, considered especially radical. The restorationist ideas once prevalent among the evangelical churches of colonial America had deeply penetrated the mainstream. . . .
Restorationism found its broadest antebellum exposition in an 1844 treatise, The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived, by the biblical scholar and distinguished professor of Hebrew at New York University, George Bush. Denouncing “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them to the dust,” Bush called for “elevating” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by re-creating their state in Palestine. Such restitution would benefit not only the Jews but all of mankind, forming a “link of communication” between humanity and God. “It will blaze in notoriety,” Bush foretold. “It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth.”
http://jpundit.typepad.com/jci/2007/01/bush_43_and_bus.html
Bush graduated from Dartmouth College in 1818 and went on to study at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Bush was ordained at the Salem Presbytery, Indiana in 1825 and was appointed pastor of a church in Indianapolis. There his 'liberal' or 'progressive' religious views into conflict with those of his more conservative parishioners, leading to the termination of his services for the church. From 1831 to 1847, Bush was Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at what is now New York University. His first published work, Life of Muhammad, was the first American biography of the founder of Islam. He also began works including: A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (1835), an extensive series of commentaries on books of the Old Testament, and the highly controversial Anastasis: or, the doctrine of the resurrection of the Body, rationally and scripturally considered (1844). He argued for restoring Jews to Palestine. Oren [2007]. "6", Power, Faith, and Fantasy: AMERICA in the MIDDLE EAST: 1776 to the PRESENT. (in English). 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110: W.W. Norton&Company, Inc., 141-142. ISBN 978-0-393-05826-0. After his death, Bush was remembered for his dedication to the search for knowledge and his large collection of books (Widmer 2007). Mr. Bush was also a committed advocate for the abolishment of slavery. His 1847 "The Valley of Vision," which became an antebellum best seller, called on the U.S. government to militarily wrench Palestine from the Turks and return it to the Jews.
In 1845 Bush converted to the General Church of the New Jerusalem. He quickly became a prominent spokesman of the church, and helped the spread of the church's magazine. Bush served as editor for the New Church Review and the spiritualist magazine, The Hierophant, and he authored and helped disseminate a large number of Swedenborgian tracts, including the widely read Statement of reasons for believing the doctrines and disclosures of Emanuel Swedenborg (1846) and Mesmer and Swedenborg (1847). Bush continued his promotional work for the New Church until his death, following a protracted and debilitating illness, in 1859.
[edit] Family
Bush was the grandson of Timothy Bush, thus a first cousin four times removed of President George H.W. Bush and a cousin five times removed of President George W. Bush. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Muslim extremists, Bush's Life of Mohammed was noted in the news media in both Western and Islamic countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bush_(biblical_scholar)
No previews available, alas.
Biography of George Bush (http://books.google.com/books?id=yurvGAAACAAJ&dq=woodbury+m.+fernald&client=firefox-a)
Valley of Vision, or the Dry Bones of Israel Revived (http://books.google.com/books?id=8vRHGQAACAAJ&dq=dry+bones+of+israel+revived&client=firefox-a)
. . .
The proposition that the United States should actively assist the Jews in returning to Palestine was neither new nor, in the antebellum period, considered especially radical. The restorationist ideas once prevalent among the evangelical churches of colonial America had deeply penetrated the mainstream. . . .
Restorationism found its broadest antebellum exposition in an 1844 treatise, The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived, by the biblical scholar and distinguished professor of Hebrew at New York University, George Bush. Denouncing “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them to the dust,” Bush called for “elevating” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by re-creating their state in Palestine. Such restitution would benefit not only the Jews but all of mankind, forming a “link of communication” between humanity and God. “It will blaze in notoriety,” Bush foretold. “It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth.”
http://jpundit.typepad.com/jci/2007/01/bush_43_and_bus.html
Bush graduated from Dartmouth College in 1818 and went on to study at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Bush was ordained at the Salem Presbytery, Indiana in 1825 and was appointed pastor of a church in Indianapolis. There his 'liberal' or 'progressive' religious views into conflict with those of his more conservative parishioners, leading to the termination of his services for the church. From 1831 to 1847, Bush was Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at what is now New York University. His first published work, Life of Muhammad, was the first American biography of the founder of Islam. He also began works including: A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (1835), an extensive series of commentaries on books of the Old Testament, and the highly controversial Anastasis: or, the doctrine of the resurrection of the Body, rationally and scripturally considered (1844). He argued for restoring Jews to Palestine. Oren [2007]. "6", Power, Faith, and Fantasy: AMERICA in the MIDDLE EAST: 1776 to the PRESENT. (in English). 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110: W.W. Norton&Company, Inc., 141-142. ISBN 978-0-393-05826-0. After his death, Bush was remembered for his dedication to the search for knowledge and his large collection of books (Widmer 2007). Mr. Bush was also a committed advocate for the abolishment of slavery. His 1847 "The Valley of Vision," which became an antebellum best seller, called on the U.S. government to militarily wrench Palestine from the Turks and return it to the Jews.
In 1845 Bush converted to the General Church of the New Jerusalem. He quickly became a prominent spokesman of the church, and helped the spread of the church's magazine. Bush served as editor for the New Church Review and the spiritualist magazine, The Hierophant, and he authored and helped disseminate a large number of Swedenborgian tracts, including the widely read Statement of reasons for believing the doctrines and disclosures of Emanuel Swedenborg (1846) and Mesmer and Swedenborg (1847). Bush continued his promotional work for the New Church until his death, following a protracted and debilitating illness, in 1859.
[edit] Family
Bush was the grandson of Timothy Bush, thus a first cousin four times removed of President George H.W. Bush and a cousin five times removed of President George W. Bush. After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Muslim extremists, Bush's Life of Mohammed was noted in the news media in both Western and Islamic countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bush_(biblical_scholar)
No previews available, alas.
Biography of George Bush (http://books.google.com/books?id=yurvGAAACAAJ&dq=woodbury+m.+fernald&client=firefox-a)
Valley of Vision, or the Dry Bones of Israel Revived (http://books.google.com/books?id=8vRHGQAACAAJ&dq=dry+bones+of+israel+revived&client=firefox-a)