In God's Shadow
Politics in the Hebrew Bible
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
In this eagerly awaited book, political theorist Michael Walzer reports his findings after decades of reading and thinking about the politics of the Hebrew Bible. Attentive to nuance while engagingly straightforward, Walzer examines the commentary of the ancient biblical writers and discusses the implications for such urgent modern topics as the nature of political society, hierarchy and justice, the use of political power, the justification for and rules of warfare, and the responsibilities of clerical figures, monarchs, and their subjects.Because there are many biblical writers, and because they represent different political views, pluralism is a central feature of biblical politics, Walzer observes. Yet pluralism is never explicitly defended in the Bible—indeed it couldn't be defended since God's word is one. There is, however, an anti-political teaching which recurs in biblical texts: if you have faith in God, you have no need for particular political institutions or prudent political leaders or deliberative assemblies or loyal citizens. And, Walzer finds a strong moral teaching common to the Bible's authors. He identifies God's decree for ethics and investigates its implications for just policymaking in our own times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Hebrew Bible, a multifaceted, nuanced, and often confusing document, ostensibly relays the unitary and definitive word of God, while compiling the contributions of dozens of authors with strikingly different viewpoints. Walzer (Just and Unjust Wars), a prominent social scientist who notably has little background in biblical languages or archeology, sets out to determine the political theory embedded in the text, "reading the Bible in much the same way as read John Locke, or The Federalist Papers, or Rousseau, or Hegel." His slim volume posits many compelling theories and raises interesting questions, but is forever circling back on itself as its source text offers contradictory evidence. From the nature of political authority the Israelites petitioned the prophet Samuel to establish a kingship for them so they would be like the other nations, an act of volition which, Walzer points out, makes them very different from the other nations to the establishment of a common national identity or just-war theory, he mines the scriptures for their insight on subjects that continue to vex world leaders today. If there is a common thread, it is perhaps that great power inevitably "tempts kings and emperors to put themselves in God's place," while blinding them to the fact that, often, "human beings are better off not doing what God does."
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