Religious identity and discourse of the other: A narrative analysis of the subordinate role of the Jew in the apocalyptic texts of two Christian groups

This study is a discourse analysis of the apocalyptic narratives of two contemporary Christian groups, both of which see Jews as central to the unfolding of end-of-time events. The research questions focus on how the hermeneutical practice of the reading of the identity of the other—the Jew—through sacred apocalyptic scripture serves as a basis for the construction of the identity of the self—in the cases examined here, the white supremacist movement called Christian Identity, and the dispensationalist movement known as Christian Zionism. The one group (Christian Identity) demonizes Jews and sees them as the enemy to be destroyed, while the other group (Christian Zionists) contributes money to Orthodox Jews in the belief that they will rebuild the Third Temple in Jerusalem, thus making way for Christ's Second Coming. The narratives of both groups portray Jews as players in a predetermined script fulfilling scriptural prophecy. The rhetorical analysis examines how the grounding texts of a group's religious faith are used in identity constructions, especially in contexts of ethnic or racial difference, tension, and conflict. From a more theoretical orientation, this study engages theories of identity and narrative from the perspective of interpretive communities, proposing that narratives can be analyzed for their plays of power that subordinate other groups in the interest of constructing superior identities of the authoring communities. In particular, the ideas of Paul Ricoeur on time and emplotment are used to connect Heidegger's notion of the hermeneutical circle with the kind of knowing of the other and the self that were found in the apocalyptic narratives examined.