Marc Ellis: `Reading the Torah Out Loud'

Reading the Torah Out Loud: A Journey of Lament and Hope is a new work by Marc H. Ellis - http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=187276&productgroupid=0&isbn=0800662105


Foremost Jewish Theologian Forging a New Religious Identity

"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, Massachusetts Institute for Technology

Minneapolis (July 24, 2007) — In his latest book, Reading the Torah Out Loud: A Journey of Lament and Hope, Marc H. Ellis asks the following questions: What religious values and ultimate vision would one wish to pass along to his or her children? How does one sort through what is authentic and inauthentic in a religious tradition in an attempt to forge its future? He attempts to answer these questions in this quite personal, yet programmatic work.

As he reflects on the encounters that have been decisive in his own religious odyssey, Ellis oscillates continuously between two intertwined religious realms: the personal and the political. His work becomes a meditation on what can be learned and retained from his encounters with the Catholic Worker movement, from post-Holocaust theology, from Latin American Liberation Theology, from engagement with the Palestinian cause and acknowledgement of Israeli violence.

In all this, he argues, and despite all that there is to lament in “Constantinian” Judaism and Christianity, Ellis still resonates with and is committed to a living Torah modeled in prophetic figures, nourished by the Bible, and incarnated in action for justice. It is, he believes, a way of conscience and integrity for faith in the future. It will enable us to “read the Torah out loud.”

In this important work, Ellis not only gives voice to a critique of contemporary Judaism and Christianity; he also eloquently articulates the need for and shape of a new spirituality.

“Marc Ellis is a brilliant writer, a deeply thoughtful and courageous mind . . ."
—Edward Said, Columbia University

“Marc Ellis is emerging as perhaps the most important contemporary Jewish theologian.”
—Rosemary Radford Ruether, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Marc H. Ellis is University Professor of American and Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University. One of today’s foremost Jewish theologians, he has also taught at Maryknoll School of Theology and Florida State University and served as a Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. A pioneer in Jewish liberation theology, he is author of many works, including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation (1987), Beyond Innocence and Redemption (1990), Ending Auschwitz (1994), Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time (Fortress Press, 1997), O, Jerusalem! (Fortress Press, 1999), and Practicing Exile: The Religious Odyssey of an American Jew (Fortress Press, 2001.)

Reading the Torah Out Loud
By Marc H. Ellis
Item Number: 978-0-8006-6210-3
Price: $20.00 / CAN $24.00 / UK £10.99Specs: 5.5” x 8.5”, paperback, 176 pages

To order Reading the Torah Out Loud call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com

To inquire about speaking opportunities and interviews with the author please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or e-mail toddb@augsburgfortress.org

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