Motsatta förväntningar på «Guds folk» i Palestina

Abstract

This article describes two ways of assessing the State of Israel among Swedish intellectuals in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The institution in focus is the Swedish Theological Institute (STI) in Jerusalem and the intellectuals studied are all involved in its work. One of the identified ways of assessing the State of Israel quotes Ezekiel 37 and argues that the Jewish state is the fulfilment of promises expressed in that text. The other line of thought quotes St Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians 1:20 and argues that all biblical promises are fulfilled in Jesus as Christ. The first line is exemplified by the Rev. Birger Pernow, Director of Svenska Israelsmissionen, STI’s founding organisation. The second line of thought is exemplified by the Rev. Dr Harald Sahlin, the first director of STI. Birger Pemow argues that God was behind the flight of the Palestinian refugees and hence the way the Jewish state incorporated Palestinian land could not be criticised. God was acting. Harald Sahlin, on the other hand, argued that Zionism was not illegitimate, but that Jews ought to follow the advice of a sophisticated Zionist like Judah Magnes, and settle the land only after having been accepted by the Palestinian population.

The article argues that the two different theologies described are compatible with different national ideals vis-à-vis Palestine/Israel. Birger Pembow’s national ideal for this area resembles a romantic national concept according to which the ideal is a vertical, almost exclusive, union between land, people, state and God. Sahlin, on the other hand, argues against such an ideal, and emphasises that Christians ought to express God’s love and justice, and not allow their theology to support any political ideology.