The excerpt below was extracted from one of three reviews with permission from the Editors of Presbyterian Outlook in its February 1, 2016 edition. There were three reviews of the book in the article. This review is a brief tasting of the one submitted by Bill Plitt, Executive Director/Co-founder of FOTONNA.
“With great respect and deep appreciation for the work of Walter Brueggemann, theologian and biblical scholar, I respond to his recent work as an activist, a person of faith and a pragmatic realist. “Chosen? Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” is work of love and biblical scholarship.
Love of humankind is reflected by Brueggemann’s challenge to the reader to respond to some of the most critical questions of our times, questions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Who is our neighbor? What is our responsibility, especially as people of faith, to the people in Israel and in the occupied territories?
Simply put, Brueggemann lays out an aria that includes the theme of our faith and the staff lines upon which to build the reader’s own score on the two questions posed above; these provide the bass line for all of us who are concerned about the issue. He doesn’t resolve the melody, but he provides the rhythm and the structure for developing our own response to the call for harmony of land and its people. He posits that the issue is about land, security and human rights.
