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Essays

The Politics of Property—Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 (J. Leavitt Pearl)

The practice of gleaning, commanded in Leviticus and illustrated in the narrative of Ruth, disrupts the sort of connection we may suppose exists between the ownership and the use of property. The principles of economic justice it implies can guide us in our contemporary politics.

The Politics of Scripturing—Matthew 5:21-37 (D. Mark Davis)

Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount unsettles many biblicist ways of understanding Scripture. It may even be better to move from speaking of ‘the Scriptures’ as a noun, to speaking of ‘Scripturing’ as a verb.

The Politics of Saltiness—Matthew 5:13-20 (Amy Allen)

Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What would these metaphors have meant to his first hearers?

The Politics of Confrontation and Promise—Micah 6:1-8 (Benjamin Kautzer)

True worship has little to do with the ‘commodification’ of liturgy; it has everything to do with the performative embodiment of God’s redemptive narrative through justice, mercy and fidelity.