The Subversive Bible

Book excerpt: The Hebrew Bible is subversive, even dangerous, and we take a risk When we read it. It is not just a pious document to be handled with kid gloves; to do so is to forget its wide sweep of concerns, its overarching humanity and its extraordinary power to move and challenge. To do so is also to forget that on some levels it is folk literature which in its origins spoke directly to people and has continued to do so over the millennia. That is the challenging argument of Jonathan Magonet's new book. In it he invites readers to take another look at the different materials to be found within the Bible, recognizing just how unconventional they are once freed from our prejudices against it. After an opening chapter developing the main theme, he discusses a series of central topics: Abraham and Justice, Exodus and Liberation, The Chosen People and the Peoples, and the Book of Jonah and the Day of Atonement. A chapter on The Biblical Roots of Jewish Identity' forms a bridge to the final section, consisting of eight unconventional sermons delivered over the years at the Hedwig Dransfeld Haus, Bendorf, Germany, which has proved a unique place for encounter between Jews, Christians and Muslims. Here a Jewish Rabbi who has already gained a wide readership among Christians reaches out yet further and makes an important contribution to inter-faith understanding.