Land Flowing with Milk and Honey: Visions of Israel from Biblical to Modern Times

"A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey" examines how the promised land of Israel has been seen and interpreted differently over the course of Jewish history by those who call it home and by the many other individuals and cultures it has affected. The first glimpse of the promised land was God's description to Moses of "a land flowing with milk and honey." Since that time, the land has been more than a geographical or political entity. Visions of Israel have proliferated - uniting, dividing, and inspiring individuals and societies for thousands of years. The fourteen contributors to this volume draw upon a variety of scholarly disciplines to consider how and why Israel has been interpreted in so many different ways.The topics include the transplanting of the idea of Zion to a sacred mountain in New Zealand; the roles of archaeology and cartography in shaping perceptions of Israel; the understanding of classical Islamic followers; the multiple meanings of "milk and honey"; the vision of noted engraver and photographer E. M.
Lilien; how the land inspired two German-born Jewish women poets; the current meaning of Israel to the political right there; the distinct visions of Israeli sculptors and of artist Hermann Struck; images of Israel that appear in Egyptian films; the perceptions of first-time American Jewish tourists to Israel; old stereographic photo tours of the land; and the perspectives of British millenarian missionaries in nineteenth-century Palestine.Leonard Jay Greenspoon holds the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. Ronald A. Simkins is an associate professor of theology and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at Creighton University.