Practicing Exile: The Religious Odyssey of an American Jew

(Paperback)-Faith and struggle, pain and promise As a post-Holocaust Jewish thinker, Marc Ellis inhabits the land between homes that we call exile. In this intensely personal work he explores how the religious landscape looks from the perspective of an exileand how religious searching continually leads away from the domestic comforts of received Jewish and Christian platitudes and into new struggles for religious authenticity. At once a memoir and an examination of conscience, Elliss autobiographical starting points spark reflections on Jewish-Christian relations, liberation theology, religion and politics, and issues of justice in Israel and Palestine. His experiences also occasion meditations on solitude and solidarity, gratitude and alienation, memory and responsibility. They exemplify how religiously committed persons, though exiled forever from yesterdays certitudes, can yet practice covenantal fidelity. In the end, for Ellis and for the reader, there is no going back. Exile is not simply a fact; it is a religious imperative. At stake is the integrity of the religious search as a truly ecumenical adventure. Marc Ellis is emerging as perhaps the most important contemporary Jewish theologian. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 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 of Technology