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Word: israelism (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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...beginning - or near the beginning - was King Solomon. Israel's third King, he reigned in the 10th century B.C.E. (before the common era). In addition to being famously wise, he was flagrantly polytheistic. The Bible handles this awkward fact by blaming it on his many wives of foreign extraction, who "turned away his heart after other gods...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Decoding God's Changing Moods | 6/15/2009 | See Source »

Solomon believed Israel could benefit - economically and otherwise - by staying on good terms with nearby nations. As game theorists say, he saw relations with other nations as non-zero-sum; the fortunes of Israel and other nations were positively correlated, so outcomes could be win-win or lose-lose. His warmth toward those religions was a way of making the win-win outcome more likely...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Decoding God's Changing Moods | 6/15/2009 | See Source »

...flip side is that perceptions of a zero-sum dynamic - of a game in which one side will win and one side lose - can foster intolerance of other religions and their gods. Indeed, a close look at the Bible shows how this worldview helped move Israel from the polytheism of Solomon's time toward monotheism - a monotheism that (contrary to the standard story of Christians and Jews) doesn't seem to have taken root until the middle of the first millennium B.C.E...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Decoding God's Changing Moods | 6/15/2009 | See Source »

Paving the way for this eventual triumph of monotheism was a series of prophets who cried out for exclusive devotion to Yahweh, railing against the polytheistic ways of Israel. These prophets aren't necessarily monotheists; they don't deny the existence of gods other than Yahweh. They seem to be what scholars call monolatrists, insisting that Israelites worship only one God. (See the top 10 religion stories...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Decoding God's Changing Moods | 6/15/2009 | See Source »

Among the earliest of these prophets is Hosea, who is thought to have written in the 8th century B.C.E. Rejecting a Solomonic view - that immersion in the larger world could make Israel richer - Hosea insists the game is zero-sum: when Israel "mixes himself with the peoples ... foreigners devour his strength." Hosea's suspicion of the foreign isn't surprising. Israel, a small nation in a tough neighborhood, often did get pushed around...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Decoding God's Changing Moods | 6/15/2009 | See Source »

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