Modern Gnosis and Zionism

Modern Gnosis and Zionism reveals the compound connection between Life Philosophy (Lebensphilosophie) – a post- Nietzschean common approach that proliferated in the German culture of the turn of the nineteenth century – and Zionist thought. The book closely discusses Life Philosophy, its cultural and philosophical background, yet focuses mainly on Life-Philosophy as a modern version of Gnostic theology. It further demonstrates how Life Philosophy as modern Gnosis provided emerging Zionist thought with the metaphysical basis for the Zionist political argument. Zionist ideology, revealed through the analysis of a wide range of Zionist thinkers from the early twentieth century, is consequently argued to be a political-theological strategy, a type of argumentation in which political concepts are founded in (modern Gnostic) theology.
Within this framework Modern Gnosis and Zionism, takes issue with a wide range of topics, such as the history of modernity and secularization, the theory of psychology, modern research on Gnostic theology, concepts of time, aesthetics and gender, as well as Zionist interpretation of history and of Jewish identity, its dialogue with Anti-Semitism and an inner-Zionist messianic impulse. As such this innovative book echoes the new rise of scholarly interest in the relations between politics and theology, the 'secular' and the 'religious