In volume one of this multi-volume series, Marc Ellis explores the essence of the prophetic by intertwining the context of ordinary life and the explosive reality of Jewish identity, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine. But Ellis's prophetic challenge extends to people of all faiths and backgrounds. For Jews, Christians and Muslims, where does the prophetic come from and how do we define it? Is the heartbeat of the prophetic, God or our own commitment? In our time where belief in God is more difficult does the prophetic suggest only the possibility of God? With or without God is the prophetic worth the suffering that comes the exile's way? Ellis's unfolding narration of the prophetic is unique and probing for those who take life, justice and faith seriously. ""Marc Ellis has demonstrated great courage, integrity, and insight in the very important work he has been doing for years. It has been an inspiration for all of us."" Noam Chomsky ""Marc Ellis is a brilliant writer, a deeply thoughtful and courageous mind, an intellectual who has broken the death-hold of mindless tradition and unreflective cliche to produce a superb account of post-Holocaust understanding with particular reference to the Palestinian people and the moral obligation of Israeli and diaspora Jews. He is a man to be listened to with respect and admiration."" Edward Said ""Anytime I think of my brother Marc Ellis, I think of quiet dignity, spiritual integrity, moral consistency, fierce fortitude, and an unstoppable determination to tell the truth, expose lies, and bear witness."" Cornel West Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He is the author and editor of more than twenty books including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time a, Future of the Prophetic: Israel's Ancient Wisdom Re-Presented and, Burning Children: A Jewish View of the War in Gaza. Professor Ellis's writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages and he has lectured around the world. Currently he is writing an almost daily commentary series, Exile and the Prophetic, which can be found at mondoweiss.net.

What religious values and ultimate vision would you wish to pass along to your children? How does one sort through what is authentic and inauthentic in a religious tradition today and forge its future? These are the questions Marc Ellis attempts to answer in this personal yet programmatic work. Ellis reflects on the encounters that have been decisive in his own religious realms: the personal and the political. His work is a meditation on what can be learned and retained from his encounters with the Catholic Worker movement, post-Holocaust theology, Latin America Liberation Theology, engagement with the Palestinian cause, and acknowledgment of Israeli violence.

Excerpt from Are the Germans the Chosen People?: Address Delivered at the Business Men's Club, Cincinnati, January 28th, 1918 The statement has been made frequently of late years that the modern Germans in their claim that they are God's chosen people are the latter day counterpart of the ancient Jews, who are thus termed in the Bible. Preachers and writers in Germany make the direct comparison in unmistakable terms as when one of these preachers declares unreservedly: As was Israel among the heathen, so is Germany amongst the nations, the pious heart of Europe, and another asserts no less apodictically: In a moment we, the children of modern humanity, have become the heir of Israel, the people of the Old Testament. We shall be the bearers of God's promises, the living proof that it is not man who creates history, but God through man. The conviction that they are the chosen people -of these latter ages has become a leading article of German belief; it has imbued the German peo ple with a feeling of superiority over all other nations; they have become obsessed with the idea that they are God's favorites; they speak of God as the. German God, implying thereby that other peoples are without the pale of His special concern. It is, however, not only Germans who have instituted the comparison between themselves and ancient Israel in this matter of being God's chosen people, but leading speakers and thinkers in other lands, when discussing the state of the modern German mind, are fond of adducing the same comparison. It was only recently that I heard a distinguished American professor say this emphatically and without modification. As I listened to his words the thought presented itself forcibly to my mind that this frequently reiterated statement could and should be subjected to careful examination. For I felt that this comparison was super ficial and far from the truth inasmuch as the term chosen peo ple received an entirely different interpretation by the leading spirits of ancient Israel, namely the prophets, from that given it by the spokesmen of modern Germany as revealed in the writings and utterances of the foremost framers of opinion in that realm in recent days. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.