"Return to the Promised Land" was the last religious-themed album Cash would release in his lifetime; a collection of hymns recorded for American, "My Mother's Hymn Book" was released posthumously in late 2003 as part of the "Unearthed" box set and as a 2004 standalone issue.The "Return to the Promised Land" video project, filmed entirely in Israel in 1990, was a "20 years later" follow-up to Cash's successful film "Gospel Road" (which in turn had been inspired by the similarly formatted 1968 album "The Holy Land".