{"product_id":"gods-favorites-isbn-9780807001943","title":"God's Favorites","description":"\u003cb\u003eA noted biblical scholar explores how the claim of divine choice has been used from ancient times to the present to justify territorial expansion and prejudice.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bible describes many individuals and groups as specially chosen by God. But does God choose at all? Michael Coogan explains the temporally layered and allusive storytelling of biblical texts and describes the world of the ancient Near East from which it emerged, laying bare the power struggles, the acts of vengeance, and persecutions made sacred by claims of chosenness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJumping forward to more modern contexts, Coogan reminds us how the self-designation of the Puritan colonizers of New England as God’s new Israel eventually morphed, in the United States, into the self-justifying doctrines of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism. In contemporary Israel, both fundamentalist Zionists and their evangelical American partners cite the Jews’ status as God’s chosen people as justification for taking land—for very different ends. Appropriated uncritically, the Bible has thus been used to reinforce exclusivity and superiority, with new myths based on old myths.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, in place of the pernicious idea of chosenness, Coogan suggests we might instead focus on another key biblical concept: taking care of the immigrant and the refugee, reminding the reader of the unusual focus on the vulnerable in both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.CHAPTER 1\u003cbr\u003ePresuppositions\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMap of the Near East\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 2\u003cbr\u003eAbraham and Sons\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTimeline\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 3\u003cbr\u003eHis Name Is Jealous\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMap of Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 4\u003cbr\u003eDivinely Chosen Kings and Kingdoms\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 5\u003cbr\u003eWhich Survivors Were Chosen?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 6\u003cbr\u003eChristians as a New Chosen People\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 7\u003cbr\u003eBeyond the Bible: Sacred Texts and  Sacred Places\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 8\u003cbr\u003eGod Shed His Light on Thee?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 9\u003cbr\u003eFundamentalist Zionisms\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 10\u003cbr\u003eImmigrants and Refugees, Ideals and Realities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 11\u003cbr\u003eBeyond Tribalism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex“Coogan’s rigorous work deserves a wide audience.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Those interested in biblical interpretation and in American religious history will find this to be a helpful work.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Coogan has produced an extremely valuable book. Read it, and you will never read the Bible in quite the same way again.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eReligion Dispatches\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What does it mean to be chosen by God? The biblical promise of the covenant has become the basis for remarkable political movements, both of liberation and xenophobia, freedom, and oppression. Tracing the history of this key concept from the Bible to the present day, Michael Coogan brilliantly brings to life the extraordinary journey of this complex religious idea.”\u003cbr\u003e—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College, and author of \u003ci\u003eThe Aryan Jesus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eGod’s Favorites\u003c\/i\u003e traces the negative effects of the idea of the divine chosenness of a particular people. Starting with an overview of ideas about divine chosenness in the Bible, the book shows the concrete, violent, and oppressive ways this idea of chosenness has been used. It has shaped exclusive ideas of American exceptionalism, undergirded the beliefs of fundamentalist Zionists, and inflamed debates about immigration up to the present day. A timely and important book.”\u003cbr\u003e—David M. Carr, author of \u003ci\u003eHoly Resilience: The Bible’s Traumatic Origins\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With eye-opening revelations on almost every page, \u003ci\u003eGod’s Favorites\u003c\/i\u003e brilliantly illuminates biblical verse by placing it in the context of biblical history. That is Michael Coogan’s unequaled specialty. Instead of God choosing a group of people based on their bloodlines or the particulars of their practice—a view that has fueled pogroms by the powerful and terrorism by the weak—Coogan argues that, in reality, people choose their (interpretation of) God. Let us choose, then, deliberately and with humility, what and how we worship, conscious of our relative insignificance within the grandeur that is creation.”\u003cbr\u003e—Sarah Chayes, author of \u003ci\u003eThieves of State\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Coogan\u003c\/b\u003e is Lecturer on Old Testament\/Hebrew Bible at Harvard Divinity School and Director of Publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Old Testament: A Very Short Introduction\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eA Reader of Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Sources for the Study of the Old Testament\u003c\/i\u003e. His most recent book is \u003ci\u003eThe Ten Commandments: A Short History of an Ancient Text\u003c\/i\u003e. He is currently a professor of religious studies at Stonehill College.","brand":"Beacon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304787497189,"sku":"NP9780807001943","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780807001943.jpg?v=1767728261","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/gods-favorites-isbn-9780807001943","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}