This book explores why English Christians from the early modern period onwards believed that
their nation had a special mission to restore the Jews to Palestine. It examines English
support for Jewish restoration from the Whitehall Conference in 1655 through to public debates
on the Jerusalem Bishopric in 1841. Rather than claiming to replace Israel as God's elect
nation England was chosen to have a special but inferior relationship with the Jews.
Believing that God blessed those who bless the Jewish people this national role allowed
England to atone for ill-treatment of Jews read the confusing pathways of providence and
guarantee the nation's survival until Christ's return. This book analyses this mode of national
identity construction and its implications for understanding Christian views of Jews the self
and the other. It offers a new understanding of national election and of the relationship
between apocalyptic prophecy and political action.
