OVERVIEW
William Eugene Blackstone is a largely forgotten figure of 19th century American life, but his
particular brand of Christian faith subsequently helped to launch an important movement of
evangelical America in the 20th century, namely, Christian Zionism. A unique mix of traditional
evangelical piety, Bible prophecy, dispensational eschatology (end times teaching), and a belief
in (facilitating) the restoration of Jews back to their ancestral lands (in his day then known as
Palestine), WEB combined all of these elements to become a public humanitarian voice for
Jewish relief from persecution in Europe (Russia in particular) and full restoration to Palestine.
Once engaged in this process, he would spend the rest of his adult life lobbying important
American public and political figures to save Jews and promote their restoration. Your task in
this assignment is to explain the ideas, beliefs, and events that would shape his life and influence
as a Christian Zionist, including his impact on the Jewish Zionist movement that would find its
most popular base of American support, like today, among evangelical Christians like him. You
are also encouraged to comment on what you believe are some of the more important
consequences of his thought and theology on US foreign policy in the Middle East today.
INSTRUCTIONS
Length: 5-7 double spaced pages (not including additional pages for title and references).
You may write more pages if necessary.
Format: Turabian
Citations: At least 7 sources must be used and may include the course text, Bible, and
scholarly articles.
Answer the following 3 prompts below separately in a single document.
What religious ideas, beliefs, and historic events motivated him to support Jewish
restoration? Be specific enough to help the reader understand what he believed and
why. **Caution: Do not confuse this William Eugene Blackstone with the famous
English jurist, Sir William Blackstone.
What were some of the longer-term consequences of his beliefs and policy
recommendations for Diaspora Jewry on the one hand, and USFP in the Middle East
on the other? Be critical here—does it seem that WEB really understood the
consequences of his ideas for the Palestinian locals—Jewish, Muslim, or Christian?
Are his beliefs and policy recommendations still relevant to USFP today? WEB
clearly left a legacy in the US and Palestine. Can you talk about this whether positive,
negative, or both?
PPOG
641
Midterm Exam Assignment Instructions
Overview
Both questions below emphasize different aspects of American interest and involvement in the Middle East before the Civil War. The first focuses on faith and fantasy, often a blurry line when these overlap with politics or foreign policy. Be sure to capture the diverse theological roots of American Christian interest and influence in the region and those movements of a secular nature that are related. In this vein, American popular culture and literature came to mirror some of the false beliefs, romantic ideas, and other prejudices that formed at least some of the first impressions Americans had of the Middle East and its peoples. Can you identify some of these impressions?
The second question focuses on geopolitical interests that more directly reflect the strategic and commercial interests that would become the staple motive of most Middle East involvement up to the present. This is your opportunity to identify some of these activities. Yet even here faith was never absent a mixed motive for doing business with the region, and in this period commercial relationships developed in tandem with missionary interests to produce not just Bibles and evangelism but institutional contributions as well. Can you discuss what some of these institutional contributions were and why they happened as readily as they did?
Instructions
· Length: 6-8 double spaced pages total for both questions (no title page necessary). You may write more pages if necessary
· Format: Turabian
· Citations: At least 7 sources must be used and may include the course text, Bible, and scholarly articles. You need not use other sources than the text but may if necessary or desirable and should cite page numbers of the text if necessary. The exam is open-book/open-note/open-research and focuses on the assigned readings, the Discussion topics, and other research related to the course content.
· Answer the following 2 questions below separately, yet in a single Word document.
Essay Questions [Answer both]:
1. Briefly explain the role that faith played in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East prior to the Civil War, including the religious ideas and movements that informed USFP during this period. Staying with Oren’s template of power, faith, and fantasy, can you distinguish which American views expressed faith, and which fantasy?
2. Identify and explain primary U.S. geopolitical interests in the Middle East prior to 1900, even if those interests happened on occasion to overlap with religious motives and interests. Among other counter-intuitive developments, can you identify what Oren considers the positive humanitarian consequences of American failure to successfully evangelize most local Jews, Eastern Christians, and Muslims?
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
