God’s Politics
The Lessons of the Hebrew Bible
Article Summary and Author Biography
For centuries, all sorts of political movements have claimed the Hebrew Bible as their guide. But as Michael Walzer argues in his new book, the Bible offers no consistent political program. Better to read it, suggests the United Kingdom’s chief rabbi, as a text on how to run a society.
JONATHAN SACKS is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
With its commandments and parables, its kings and its prophets, the Hebrew Bible has served as a reference point for Western politics for centuries. Almost every kind of political movement, it seems, has drawn its own message from the text. For the contemporary left, it inspires calls for social justice and the redistribution of wealth. The right, meanwhile, uses it to preach adherence to traditional social values and family structures. But what does the Hebrew Bible actually have to say about politics? Is there a consistent set of political principles to be found in it? In God’s Shadow, a recent book by the philosopher Michael Walzer, attempts to tackle these questions. As Walzer observes, there’s a good reason why so many opposing movements claim the Hebrew Bible as their own: the book’s stories, messages, and political arrangements are simply too diverse to fit under any unified theory of government. In fact, they give credence to many.
AN ALMOST DEMOCRACY
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