Chosen? Quotes

“Clearly, it is not simply exegesis that determines how we read the Bible; rather, it is our vested interests, our hopes, and our fears that largely determine our reading. And because the reach of the gracious God of the Bible is toward the other, we ought rightly to be skeptical and suspicious of any reading of the Bible that excludes the other, because it is likely to be informed by vested interest, fears, and hopes that serve self-protection and end in self-destruction. Palestinians’ and Israelis’ fear of the other, said to be grounded in the Bible, has been transposed into a military apparatus that is aimed at the elimination of the other. It is wholly illusionary to imagine that such an agenda is congruent with the God of the Bible who is commonly confessed by Jews and Christians.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“every uncompromising ideology reduces faith to an idolatry,”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“People of faith can read the Bible so that almost any perspective on a current issue will find some support in the Bible. That rich and multivoiced offering in the Bible is what makes appeals to it so tempting—and yet so tricky and hazardous, because much of our reading of the Bible turns out to be an echo of what we thought anyway. THE ISSUE OF LAND The dispute between Palestinians and Israelis is elementally about land and secondarily about security and human rights.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“Clearly, it is not simply exegesis that determines how we read the Bible; rather, it is our vested interests, our hopes, and our fears that largely determine our reading. And because the reach of the gracious God of the Bible is toward the other, we ought rightly to be skeptical and suspicious of any reading of the Bible that excludes the other, because it is likely to be informed by vested interest, fears, and hopes that serve self-protection and end in self-destruction.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“We know that how we read the Bible and where in the Bible we read is largely determined by our vested interest, our hopes, and elementally our fears—in many cases, our fear of the other.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“One compelling alternative to land theology is the recognition that Judaism consists most elementally in interpretation of and obedience to the Torah in its requirements of justice and holiness.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“The Exile In July 587 BCE, Babylonian soldiers broke through Jerusalem’s walls, ending a starvation siege that had lasted well over a year. They burned the city and Solomon’s temple and took its king and many other leaders to Babylon as captives, leaving others to fend for themselves in the destroyed land. Many surrounding countries disappeared altogether when similar disasters befell them. But Judah did not. Instead, the period scholars most often call the “Babylonian exile” inspired religious leaders to revise parts of Scripture that had been passed down to them. It also sparked the writing of entirely new Scriptures and the revision of ideas about God, creation, and history. Much of what is called the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament was written, edited, and compiled during and after this national tragedy.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved until the human rights of the other are recognized and guaranteed.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“It is my hope that the Christian community in the United States will cease to appeal to the Bible as a direct support for the state of Israel and will have the courage to deal with the political realities without being cowed by accusations of anti-Semitism.”
― Walter Brueggemann, Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict