Practicing Exile: The Religious Odyssey of an American Jew

by Marc H. Ellis

Faith and struggle, pain and promiseAs 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 exile -- and 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, Ellis's 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 yesterday's 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".

Genres: Jewish

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

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.

Reviews

[Bradley]

Read for a course at Baylor University entitled: Hitler and the Holocaust, taught by Marc Ellis.