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Chosen?

Reading the Bible amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
ISBN: 9780664261542
Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Page Count: 114
Weight: 5 ozs
Binding: paper
Product Number: 066426154X
Publication Date: 09/02/2015
Availability: 7-10 days processing

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Description

“The conflict is only `seemingly’ beyond solution, because all historical-political problems have solutions, if there is enough courage, honesty, and steadfastness.”

In Chosen?, Walter Brueggemann explores the situation in modern-day Israel that raises questions for many Christians when reading biblical accounts of God’s saving actions with the Israelites. Are modern Israeli citizens the descendants of the Israelites in the Bible whom God called chosen? Was the promise of land to Moses permanent and irrevocable? What about others living in the promised land? How should we read the Bible in light of the modern situation? Who are the Zionists, and what do they say?

In four chapters, Brueggemann addresses the main questions people have with regards to what the Bible has to say about this ongoing issue. A question-and-answer section with Walter Brueggemann, a glossary of terms, study guide, and guidelines for respectful dialogue are also included. The reader will get answers to their key questions about how to understand God’s promises to the biblical people often called Israel and the conflict between Israel and Palestine today.

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Reviews

This book is written for Christians and Jews who take seriously God’s promises to Israel in the Hebrew Scripture but who are troubled by how contemporary Palestinians are being treated by modern Israelis. It is simply the best book on its subject that I have read.

—Dr. Duncan Hanson, area supervisor for the Middle East, Europe and India for the Reformed Church in America

No matter what you think about who God’s chosen people are, Professor Brueggemann is clear and starkly honest in his assessment of the untenable nature of the modern State of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. This book is a welcome refocusing of a faith lens that has been too often used in the past-especially in the context of the Israelis and Palestinians-to exclude and appropriate, rather than include and edify.

—Dr. Peter Makari, Executive for the Middle East and Europe, Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and author of Conflict and Cooperation: Christian-Muslim Relations in Contemporary Egypt.

Indeed God cares to see that everybody lives with dignity and security, and in a home. The promised land is indeed a land of promise, where God is honored and freely worshiped, and justice is followed, and God is pleased to dwell in. I thank God for courageous scholars like Dr. Brueggemann that read the Bible in the light of the Truth of God.

—Dr. Mary Mikhael is past President of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon and professor of Christian Education. She is the first and only woman to occupy such a position in the Middle East. She authored the popular 2010 Horizons Bible study, Joshua: A Journey of Faith, where she touches on many of these themes.

It is an evenhanded effort to enable a fresh conversation among all of us who share his unequivocal commitment to the strength and security of Israel with an equal commitment to a viable, secure future for the Palestinian community.

—Rev. Vernon S. Broyles, III, Representative for Public Witness, Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

This important volume could be a “game changer” for pastors, congregational study, denominational policy, the academy, religious journals, and hopefully elected officials who continue to fail the Palestinians, Israelis, and their own constituents with decades of misguided Middle East policies.

—Rev. Dr. Don Wagner, National Program Director, Friends of Sabeel-North America

Can the church discuss volatile issues? And among those topics, few are as volatile as the conflict between Israel and Palestine. In this small book, Walter Brueggemann serves as courageous prophet and irenic guide, providing us with summary positions on the scriptures, their application to modern Israel, and careful questions for group discussion. This may be the best guide yet to help the church talk about a matter of enormous importance for our generation.

—Gary M. Burge, Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College & Graduate School and author of Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to Holy Land Theology.

Author Bio

Walter Brueggemann was a beloved and prolific writer, astute biblical theologian and Old Testament scholar, and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He was the author of dozens of books, including Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out, and Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age. Often heralded as a prophetic voice in our time, Brueggemann constantly reminded readers of God’s covenantal love and God’s call to speak truth to power, to remember that grace abounds, and to loosen the bonds of injustice.

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