Future of the Prophetic: Israel's Ancient Wisdom Re-presented

by Marc H. Ellis

Overview

Future of the Prophetic argues that in the persistence of the prophetic, the legacy of the ancient Jewish world spread beyond the boundaries of the Jewish community and took root throughout the world. As a way of wisdom and hope, this dual rootingits grounding in the tradition of ancient Israel and its uncontained itinerancyunveils a startling but promising new context: a re-presentation of the prophetic from outside the Jewish world to the Jewish community.

The new situation of contemporary prophetic challenges the fixed religious landscape by reversing traditional boundaries, eschewing power and privilege, and brokering peace through solidarity and common struggle in ecumenical and interfaith contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451472370
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	856 KB

About the Author

Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. Among his publications areEncountering the Jewish Future (2012), Reading the Torah Out Loud (2007), Practicing Exile (2001), Oh, Jerusalem! (1999), and Unholy Alliance (1997), all from Fortress Press. He is also a regular contributor on Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle Eastwith a series called Exile and the Prophetic

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Dream and Reality 19

Downward Spiral 25

The Birth of Israel and the Palestinian Catastrophe 31

Remembering Homeland Zionism for the Future 35

Rabbis of Conscience Speaking Passover Truth to Power 42

Chapter 2 Are the True Colors of the Jews Empire Blue? 49

Einstein's Theory of Zionist Relativity 51

When Salvation Knocks on Your Collective Door 55

A Covenantal God on the Empire Divide 64

When Conscience and Destiny Collide 72

Imagine There's No Empire 75

Chapter 3 Empire Boomerang 81

Jews Writing God's Part in America the Chosen 89

The People (and Their God) Who Dwell Al one 93

Surrounded by Others 98

Chapter 4 The Search for Jewish Identity 105

Exile, Israel's Safe Haven 111

The Heartbeat of the Prophetic 114

Ethnic Cleansing and Jewish Identity 120

The Commanding Voice of Palestine 126

Not in Our Name 132

Colonialism within Jewish Identity 135

Chapter 5 Thinking Israel's (and Palestine's) Anniversary 141

The State of Israel and the Nakba: Two Views 142

Zochrot: Jews Remembering the Nakba with Compassion 148

Jeff Halper: Rethinking Israeli Apartheid 156

Mazin Qumsiyeh: Israel's War Crimes, Nonviolent Resistance 163

Joseph Massad: Uprooting the Palestinian Judenrate 167

Chapter 6 Tunnel Vision 185

Elie Wiesel: Speaking Truth to Darkness 188

High-Speed Rail and the Messianic 195

Instrumentalizing Torah-True Judaism 201

A New Orthodoxy 208

Chapter 7 Unraveling God 213

When Israel and God Are Out of Sync 218

After the Holocaust Empire Collapse 224

Still/Former Jewish/Israelis 232

The No-Brainer Prophets Gathering Light 237

Chapter 8 Martyrological Imperialism 249

The Magnes Museum-(Mostly) Without Magnes 254

The Bloodlands Cycle 264

A Shared Solitude 273

Chapter 9 One Stave-One Future? 285

Teaching the (Bloodlands-Revised) Holocaust 286

Re-connecting Our Jewish Atheists and Rebels 294

Arguing Palestinian Statehood at the United Nations 300

Debating One State 308

Is Criticism of Israel Hate? 314

Chapter 10 The Jewish (Prophetic) Prison 321

A Prophetic Exorcism 322

Performing the Decolonized Prophetic 332

The Conscience of Humanity 340

Prophetic Shock Doctrine 347

Epilogue 361

Index of Names and Subjects 371