[Bilimsel Haber] Book review: Chosen Peoples: Sacred Sources of National Identity

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Anthony D. Smith. Chosen Peoples: Sacred Sources of National Identity.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. x + 330 pp. Maps, notes
bibliography, index. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-19-210017-3.
*
Reviewed by:* Irving Hexham, Department of Religious Studies, University
of Calgary.
*Published by:* H-SAfrica <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/%7Esafrica>
(October, 2006)


Two types of book are particularly hard to review: those with which one
strongly disagrees and those with which one strongly agrees. This book
falls in the latter category. Anthony D. Smith is Emeritus Professor in
Ethnicity and Nationalism at the London School of Economics and a former
student of Ernst Gellner who developed his own theory of ethnosymbolism
to understand the dynamics between traditional views of nationalism and
modern interpretations. Smith's first book, Theories of Nationalism
(1971), laid the foundation that he has elaborated on in numerous other
publications.

Smith's latest work, Chosen Peoples, is a tour de force that brings
together the results of almost forty years' reflection on the complex
relationships between ethnicity, nationalism, and religion. The book has
nine tightly written chapters: "Nationalism and Religion"; "The Nation
as a Sacred Communion"; "Election and Covenant"; "Peoples of the
Covenant"; "Missionary Peoples"; "Sacred Homelands"; "Ethnohistory and
the Golden Age"; "Nationalism and Golden Ages"; and "The Glorious Dead."
They are preceded by a lively introduction and end with an excellent
conclusion.

To establish his case Smith uses a wide array of carefully chosen
examples. The countries he discusses include Armenia, England, Scotland
and Wales, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Turkey, and
the United States of America. In each instance he uses well-chosen
secondary sources that provide strong evidence to support his argument.
The well-thought-out chapter structure reinforces his case by
approaching his topic from a variety of mutually supportive angles.
Consequently, the reader is left with the feeling that Smith is a master
of his trade who is providing a summary of his life's work in an easily
digestible form.

There are some weaknesses in this approach, however. For example, on
page 81, after an excellent discussion of the dynamics of Afrikaner
Nationalism in South Africa he writes: "It was here, of course, that
another myth came into play, that of the genealogy of Ham, which
legitimated the servitude of the non-white 'heathen' to the
Judeo-Christian children of Shem."

In all my time in South Africa I have never heard an Afrikaner
Nationalist use this type of argument or even hint at it. More
importantly, although I examined Afrikaans archival documents, printed
books, magazines, and newspapers for almost eighteen months, I did not
find a single example of an Afrikaner using this type of argument. The
only example of the Ham theory that I found was in a pamphlet published
in the United States by British Israelites. This was in a private
collection shown to me by an opponent of Afrikaner Nationalism. On
another occasion an English-speaking member of the Plymouth Brethren put
forward the Ham theory as a Biblical defense of segregation even though
he claimed to reject apartheid and despise Afrikaner Nationalists.

The book also seems to assume that Christian Nationalisms are nourished
by covenant theologies that develop from preachers concentrating on Old
Testament themes (pp. 41, 80). Although the idea of a covenant is rooted
in the Old Testament, the idea that Afrikaner Nationalism was created by
an overemphasis on the Old Testament to the neglect of the New, as some
writers explicitly state and as Smith implies, is mistaken. An
examination of collections of sermons published by leading Afrikaner
Nationalist theologians show that the New Testament, not the Old,
dominated their thinking. Therefore, there is a need to examine the role
of the New Testament more carefully to find in it sources of Christian
Nationalism.

Another issue that Smith and other writers on this topic overlook is the
direct influence of Jewish converts to Christianity on the development
of Christian Nationalism in the nineteenth century. In both the
Netherlands and South Africa converted Jews wrote highly nationalistic
poetry and polemic works that saw their newly adopted nations as a "new
Israel." For example, in the Netherlands both Abraham Capadosa
(1795-1874) and Isaac de Costa (1798-1860) were key figures in creating
the Christian Nationalism of the neo-Calvinist movement. Similarly, in
South Africa another Jewish convert, Jan Lion Cachte (1838-1912), was a
key figure in the early Nationalist movement.

Probably the most exciting chapter in the book is the ninth, "The
Glorious Dead," which opens a whole range of possibilities for future
research. One of the most overlooked aspects of modern nationalism is
its curious link to forms of ancestor veneration that seem to have
intellectual links to the theories of Ludwig Feuerbach. Although Smith
does not explore this aspect of ancestor cults he does draw attention to
their importance to nationalist movements, a fact that invites further
investigation.

Overall this is an excellent book that ought to be in all university
libraries. It will also make a fine text for senior undergraduate
courses in a variety of disciplines from history and political science
to religious studies.



Citation: Irving Hexham. "Review of Anthony D. Smith, Chosen Peoples:
Sacred Sources of National Identity," H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews, October,
2006. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=310861169670647.