Center for Theology and Social Analysis--Reviews

Mobilizing the Bible

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:43:02 GMT

Thursday 1 May 2008 The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Israel-Palestine, by Nur Masalha. New York and London: Zed Books, 2007. 321 pages. Notes to p. 335. Bibliography to p. 354. Index to p. 366. $126.00 cloth; $36.00 paper. This review is forthcoming in the summer edition of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Among the most prominent of the ideological weapons deployed in service of Israel�s...

Towards a Post-Civilizational Praxis

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:19:13 GMT

A Reflection on John Dominic Crossan, God & Empire: Jesus against Rome, Then and Now [2007] In the past few awful, maleficent years of the Bush Administration, a spate of books has appeared in which the word �empire� is used as applicable to the United States itself. In his latest work, Scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan brings his research on the historical Jesus to bear on this timely, troubling matter of empire.

The Power of Example

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:46:24 GMT

For Michelle Conley For years in my Social Justice course at Saint Louis University, I assigned the 1993 paperback by Cao Ngoc Phuong entitled, Learning True Love: How I Learned & Practiced Social Change in Vietnam. Phuong�s story is of a young woman growing up in Vietnam during the 1950s and 1960s. From a young age, her passion is to be of assistance to poor people; she also wanted to be a Buddhist, but didn�t have very inspiring teachers. This changed when...

Dialogue and Solidarity

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 03:59:49 GMT

A shorter version of this article will be published in the winter 2007 issue of Journal of Palestine Studies. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, by Sandy Tolan. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006. xiv + 264 pages. Bibliography to p. 282. Notes to p. 348. Index to p. 362. $24.95 cloth. Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, by Anna Baltzer....

Fear and Hatred in Postwar Poland

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:11:52 GMT

Review of Jan T. Gross, Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz. New York: Random House, 2006. 303 p. $25.95. Forthcoming in Shofar. In Fear, historian Jan Gross explores a seemingly baffling phenomenon. How is it that there was aggressive anti-Semitism in Poland, after the Holocaust? How is that even thinkable? After all, did not ethnic Poles and Polish Jews both suffer horrifically during the Nazi years? Did not Poles...

The Politics of Shame

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:18:21 GMT

I recall Rabbi Michael Lerner once describing Zionism as �the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.� And doesn�t that sound noble and necessary? And I sometimes hear Palestinians use the word �Zionist� as a sneering insult, for the base and ignoble enterprise against Palestinians (assumed in this sneer is that Zionists must necessarily be Jews, which isn�t true, of course; see my review of Stephen Sizer�s text, Christian Zionism).

The Christian Contribution to Ethnic Cleansing

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 03:13:19 GMT

This review is forthcoming in the summer issue of Journal of Palestine Studies. Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon?, by Stephen Sizer. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004. 264 pages. Glossary to p. 269. Appendix to p. 272. Bibliography to p. 283. Index to p. 295. n.p. In her study entitled The Question of Zion, Jacqueline Rose stated that �it has become commonplace for critics of Israel responding to the charge...

Romero: A Bishop for the Third Millennium

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 20:19:27 GMT

The Violence of Love (reprint). By Oscar Romero. Translated and compiled by James R. Brockman, S.J. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. Pp. xvii, 214. Notes. $15.00 paper. Monsignor Romero: A Bishop for the Third Millennium. By Robert S. Pelton, C.S.C., ed. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004. Pp. vii, 128. Notes. Bibliography. $22.50 cloth. for Dianne Lee, who is ever willing to be inconvenienced March 24,...

Mobilizing the Holocaust

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 16:57:20 GMT

The following review is forthcoming in the spring issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Israel�s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood, by Idith Zertal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cambridge Middle East Studies 21. 208 pages. Biographies to p. 216. Glossary to p. 222. Bibliography to p. 230. Index to p. 236. $30.00 cloth. In late summer of 2005 on the order of Ariel Sharon�s government, several thousand Israeli...

Cultural Disarmament

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 05:41:43 GMT

A Meditation after Reading Raimundo Panikkar's book, Cultural Disarmament. Cultural disarmament means not idolizing our own way of life as superior, incomparable, unique. Cross boundaries, explore other lands, learn other tongues. Study Islam, Arabic, and Cairo. Cultural disarmament means ceasing to act like omniscient teachers and instead adopt the curiosity of eager learners. Raise more questions than answers, fast from issuing ex cathedra pronouncements.