Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses’s leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.
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- Explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions.
- Tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt.
- Instills empathy for the poor and the suffering.
Using the techniques of close reading and ‘living with the text’ that have made him such a revered teacher, Kass has come to understand Exodus as more than a narrative of national formation.
—Matthew Continetti, Washington Free Beacon
Despite its many confusions, our era has somehow contrived to produce the ideal teacher in Leon Kass . . . Out of [an] open-minded reading of Exodus, a familiar story takes on fresh meaning: Now, through Kass’s commentary, Exodus offers us a profound reflection on what it means to be a true people, not merely an aggregate of individuals or a network of families.
—George Weigel, First Things
Exodus wants not merely to be heard but to be heeded—understood in soul-forming ways. Kass responds to this imperative with a keen sense of the spiritual and political drama of Exodus. He registers in warm, clear prose the rich resonances and emotional and intellectual tones of the book’s essential events and themes.
—Jacob Howland, Jewish Review of Books
- Title: Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus
- Author: Leon R. Kass
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Pages: 752
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- ISBNs: 9780300253030, 0300253036
- Resource ID: LLS:FNDNGGDSRDNGXDS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-15T20:44:44Z