Thursday, May 08, 2008

ROOTS AND ROUTES

Land of hope and glory? Ekklesia, 08 May 2008, 18:07. -- The notion and shape of 'the land' means many things to many people, as the contradictory responses to this 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel are showing. Simon Barrow looks at the relationship between rootedness and aspiration.

3 comments:

ChrisC said...

I don't really understand this much but I do agree that a particular place as well as particular time is significant to what God calls us to do and that this gets discarded often in our calling to a universal kingdom. Have you read Oliver O'Donovan on the importance of the land to Israel in the OT or, with relevance to our own time and place, 'Real England' by Paul Kingsworth?

Simon Barrow said...

Yes to Donovan - with whom I have a number of disagreements, as you'd imagine. Walter Brueggemann's book 'The Land' gives a good overview of the biblical material. On its use and abuse in modern disputes, see especially Colin Chapman, 'Whose promised land?' and the work of Donald Wagner and Gary Burge. Not familiar with Kingsworth, and I can find only one reference (and no details) for this book.

ChrisC said...

I've only started reading it myself, but interestingly, Kingsworth comes at an appreciation of his native land from an environmental/anti-globalisation activist perspective. So far so good,however, as I was anticipating a number of disagreements...as you'd imagine!