Biblical texts have been one of the most potent sources in the Western
political imagination. Presenting a new account of how the Bible's
liberationist texts were deployed and disputed at critical junctures
in British and American history from the Reformation to the Civil
Rights Movement,_ Exodus and Liberation_ argues that the Exodus story
carried one of the big ideas in Anglophone political culture - the
idea of deliverance. In the sixteenth century, Calvinist rebels and
reformers identified with Old Testament Israel as they sought
liberation from "popish bondage." The Puritan Revolution of 1640-60
was depicted as England's Exodus, provoking a fierce contest for
control of the biblical story. In the Glorious Revolution and the
American Revolution, Protestants turned the Exodus narrative and
deliverance language against "political slavery." Revolutionary
rhetoric exposed the contradiction between libertarian ideology and
black chattel slavery. Abolitionists forged a theology of liberation,
articulated in resonant biblical mottoes: "Let my People Go!",
"Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land," "Break every Yoke", "Release
the Oppressed." African Americans cast themselves as the Children of
Israel, forging a distinct identity and throwing into question the
scriptural construction of the United States. Black migrations to the
North were imagined as journeys to the Promised Land, and black Exodus
politics climaxed in the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. Among
American statesmen, foreign policy rhetoric continued to yoke
Providence to Liberation. By the twenty-first century, both George W.
Bush and Barack Obama laid claim to the Exodus story. Using sermons,
speeches, pamphlets, song, verse, and iconography, _Exodus and
Liberation_ documents the extraordinary reach of these biblical
traditions, demonstrating how the political reading of scriptural
texts powerfully informed Protestant debates over slavery and liberty.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780199334247
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter