First Light: Encountering Edward Said and the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic in the New Diaspora

by Marc H. Ellis, Alicia Beebe (Designer)

Encountering Edward Said on Yom Reflections on the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic is a fascinating and controversial collection of journals and meditations on the plight and possibility of the prophetic witness in the modern world.  In these pages, the Jewish theologian, Marc H. Ellis, explores the prophetic through his encounters with the late Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said, as a way of thinking through the stakes of contemporary Jewish history. His unexpected encounter with Said on Yom Kippur provides a fascinating window to explore the dangers and possibilities of present-day Jewish life and its future. Ellis applies Said’s idea of late-style to the Jewish prophetic – what Ellis names the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic – to mean the reappearance and coming home of the Jewish prophetic as it undergoes its own deconstruction and re-emergence. At turns deeply personal and creatively theoretical, Ellis doesn’t shy away from the forbidden terrains of self questioning and progressive posturing, even with people and movements he identifies with. The result is a sensitive and provocative exploration filled with questions and responses rather than definitive answers.
 

296 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2023

About the author

Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. Among his publications are Encountering the Jewish Future (2012), Reading the Torah Out Loud (2007), Practicing Exile (2001), Oh, Jerusalem! (1999), and Unholy Alliance (1997), all from Fortress Press. He is also a regular contributor on Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East with a series called Exile and the Prophetic.