Marc H Ellis

Encountering Edward Said on Yom Kippur: 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.

Encountering Edward Said on Yom Kippur: 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.

I Am Who Loves the Prophets is a beautiful and haunting meditation on exile, a central experience in the history of the Jewish people but now experienced by diverse peoples and faiths around the world. For Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis, exile began when he found his voice of dissent after the Holocaust and after what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinian people. In these meditations, Ellis brings us to an intimate encounter with God as his exile deepens and he finds meaning in the everyday joys and anxieties of life. Ellis's meditations are also conversations with exiles of all stripes, an eclectic group of writers--Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, Adrienne Rich--and spiritual guides--Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Simone Weil, Shunryu Suzuki. Shall we join the conversation?

I Am Who Loves the Prophets is a beautiful and haunting meditation on exile, a central experience in the history of the Jewish people but now experienced by diverse peoples and faiths around the world. For Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis, exile began when he found his voice of dissent after the Holocaust and after what Israel has done and is doing to the Palestinian people. In these meditations, Ellis brings us to an intimate encounter with God as his exile deepens and he finds meaning in the everyday joys and anxieties of life. Ellis's meditations are also conversations with exiles of all stripes, an eclectic group of writers--Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, Adrienne Rich--and spiritual guides--Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Simone Weil, Shunryu Suzuki. Shall we join the conversation?

This book develops an understanding of prayer from a liberation-theological perspective. "Praying with" offers a distinctive way of praying that can help orient our prayers around the "where" we pray and "with whom" we pray as the locus of the body's and heart's theological praxis. The book helps create language to pray with people and in situations we are not used to praying with; it insists on praying amidst racism, poverty, violence, and suffering; it calls us to pray at night and at the end of the world when we are overcome by fear, hurt, climate disaster, or economic impoverishment; it ventures into interfaith prayer settings; and it claims a sense of "self" that is not discrete, encapsulated in its own thinking or feeling-rather, it understands the notion of the self as entangled with the whole earth and each sentient and nonsentient being. Thus, to "pray with" in this book is to take the location of one's prayer more seriously and, individually and collectively, to gain an awareness of our grounding and positionality, therefore creating a theological structure that assumes both the listening of our own heart and the voices of everything around us.

Since 1987, with the publication of his groundbreaking book, now classic, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Marc H. Ellis has been touring the world with a prophetic global message of peace and justice, and especially in relation to Israel and Palestine. During these tours, Ellis has kept journals describing his encounters, some of which are deep and decisive, others of which are funny, even absurd. Traveling Jewish is rarely neutral. In a hybrid format-diary, journal, memoir-with stunning photographs, we follow Ellis as he embarks on a tour of the Philippines, and then back home to San Francisco, Houston, Tallahassee and Chicago.

Since 1987, with the publication of his groundbreaking book, now classic, Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Marc H. Ellis has been touring the world with a prophetic global message of peace and justice, and especially in relation to Israel and Palestine. During these tours, Ellis has kept journals describing his encounters, some of which are deep and decisive, others of which are funny, even absurd. Traveling Jewish is rarely neutral. In a hybrid format-diary, journal, memoir-with stunning photographs, we follow Ellis as he embarks on a tour of the Philippines, and then back home to San Francisco, Houston, Tallahassee and Chicago.

Influenced by the Jewish ethical tradition and the dissonance of Jewish life after the Holocaust, Professor Marc H. Ellis has sought to revive the Jewish ethical tradition in the face of the demands of the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In his early career, he examined the ways Holocaust Theology and Liberation Theology facilitated Jewish and Christian ethical engagements with the violent political and economic crises emerging alongside international markets and forms of government. Over the course of his career, Professor Ellis has translated this broad engagement into his own understanding of the Jewish ethical tradition as tethered to and endangered by the increasing identification of Jewishness with politics in the United States and Israel. Within this trajectory, Professor Ellis has developed further insight into the complex ways Jews, Christians, and Muslim relate in the contemporary period. Since then, he has used his position, influence, and writings to further examine these issues, and been welcomed by a wide variety of audiences, from university forums to faith-based groups seeking justice and peace in interfaith settings. He has given endowed and keynote lectures in the United States, Israel, Canada, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines. Professor Marc H. Ellis has authored and edited more than twenty-five books, including Peter Maurin: Prophet in the Twentieth Century, Ending Auschwitz: The Future of Jewish and Christian Life, Out of the Ashes: The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century, Encountering the Jewish Future with Wiesel, Buber, Heschel, Arendt, and Levinas, and Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, now in its third edition.

Finding Our Voice is a series of meditations on how to express the deepest sense of who we are in a troubled world. What is the core of our being? How do we find the language to name that core? If the core of our faith is identifying and embodying the prophetic for our time, surviving that naming is as challenging as finding our voice. Often as not, the prophetic lands us in hot water. We feel alone and abandoned. Recognizing others in the same situation is crucial to our ability to hold fast. With others our voice grows more certain and finds a home, even in exile. Soon the community we left is replaced by a new community of fellow travelers. We are not alone. ""A fierce meditation about the quest for meaning in our lives that goes far beyond the happy smiley faces of empty redemption. Ellis's reflections are haunting to Jews and non-Jews alike, as he ruminates on the forces of injustice that make meaning seem such a game of luxury. His considerations about being Jewish in the era of Jewish-state empowerment are a must-read for anybody worried about the ubiquitous network of oppressive power, politics, and religion."" --Susanne Scholz, Southern Methodist University ""Finding Our Voice is a beautiful and dismaying song of the prophetic. In yet another groundbreaking work, Marc Ellis offers an articulated interrogation of the complexities of theological justice, interreligious conversations, and Jewish identity. Excavating the buried responsibilities of peoplehood, he offers to the next generation of fighters the sparks that can lead to another future. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Jewish thought, social justice, coloniality and religion, Palestinian studies, and interreligious conversations."" --Santiago Slabodsky, Hofstra University ""Audacious, provocative and essential, Finding our Voice is classic Marc Ellis. He is truly among the most important Jewish thinkers of our time."" --Brant Rosen, American rabbi, journalist, author, and blogger for Shalom Rav ""Ellis is a prophet that comes back to us time and again, haunting our religious commitments and the ins and outs of our faith. In this new book, Ellis's poetry is riveting, rendering the prophetic even more complex, difficult, and challenging. Where do we go now that we have this religious consciousness? Our task is to decide what to do with our faith the same way Father Paneloux did in Camus's novel The Plague. Definitely not an easy task."" --Claudio Carvalhaes, Associate Professor of Worship, Union Theological Seminary, New York City Marc H. Ellis is Professor of History and Jewish Studies, formerly of the Maryknoll School of Theology and Baylor University. He is founding Director of the Center for the Study of the Global Prophetic and author and editor of twenty-five books, including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation and Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time.

This book of photographs, accompanied by poetic insights, shed light on our search for meaning in the contemporary world. The backdrop is exile, that ancient and modern reality that afflicts many in our search for justice and compassion. Whether our leave-taking is geographic, political, cultural or religious, exile is our plight. The prophetic, our difficult guide, is also our companion. Those in exile find hope in what the author calls the New Diaspora, the community whose exiles gather and find new life. The New Diaspora seeks a vision of beauty amid the ruins, hope among despair. Walking the beach of Cape Canaveral and traveling to troubled spots around the world, the author's images of the New Diaspora are startling. We are encouraged to reflect on our own journey and join our prophetic exile with others around the world. Marc H. Ellis is an educator, author, public speaker and photographer who shares his journey in exile and beyond with those who are already on the journey and those who are just embarking. Coming from the Jewish tradition, Professor Ellis is open to other traditions as they expand our view of the world and ourselves. He has two children, Aaron and Isaiah, who are on their own journey in the New Diaspora.

This collection of commentaries, written during the recent Gaza war as it unfolded, represents an attempt of one Jew on behalf of Jews of Conscience everywhere, to come to grips with the state of Israel as it is rather than what it purports to be. Though written from a geographic distance, one feels the pain Palestinians experienced as a challenge to Jewish history. Have Jews survived the Holocaust only to recreate scenes of horror Israel now visits upon the Palestinian people? Or is there a way forward for Jews and Palestinians beyond mutual recrimination, displacement and war? Using the burning children of the Holocaust as the core of Jewish ethical post-Holocaust life, these commentaries ask Jews, the state of Israel and all those in solidarity with Jews and Jewish history, to hold Israel accountable for its assault on Gaza and provide a vehicle for a future where Jews and Palestinians live together in justice and peace.

This collection of commentaries, written during the recent Gaza war as it unfolded, represents an attempt of one Jew on behalf of Jews of Conscience everywhere, to come to grips with the state of Israel as it is rather than what it purports to be. Though written from a geographic distance, one feels the pain Palestinians experienced as a challenge to Jewish history. Have Jews survived the Holocaust only to recreate scenes of horror Israel now visits upon the Palestinian people? Or is there a way forward for Jews and Palestinians beyond mutual recrimination, displacement and war? Using the burning children of the Holocaust as the core of Jewish ethical post-Holocaust life, these commentaries ask Jews, the state of Israel and all those in solidarity with Jews and Jewish history, to hold Israel accountable for its assault on Gaza and provide a vehicle for a future where Jews and Palestinians live together in justice and peace. ""Anytime I think of my brother Marc Ellis, I think of quiet dignity, spiritual integrity, moral consistency, fierce fortitude, and an unstoppable determination to tell the truth, expose lies, and bear witness."" Cornel West Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He is the author and editor of more than twenty books including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time a, Future of the Prophetic: Israel's Ancient Wisdom Re-Presented and, Burning Children: A Jewish View of the War in Gaza. Professor Ellis's writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages and he has lectured around the world. Currently he is writing an almost daily commentary series, Exile and the Prophetic, which can be found at mondoweiss.net.

In volume one of this multi-volume series, Marc Ellis explores the essence of the prophetic by intertwining the context of ordinary life and the explosive reality of Jewish identity, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine. But Ellis's prophetic challenge extends to people of all faiths and backgrounds. For Jews, Christians and Muslims, where does the prophetic come from and how do we define it? Is the heartbeat of the prophetic, God or our own commitment? In our time where belief in God is more difficult does the prophetic suggest only the possibility of God? With or without God is the prophetic worth the suffering that comes the exile's way? Ellis's unfolding narration of the prophetic is unique and probing for those who take life, justice and faith seriously.

In volume one of this multi-volume series, Marc Ellis explores the essence of the prophetic by intertwining the context of ordinary life and the explosive reality of Jewish identity, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine. But Ellis's prophetic challenge extends to people of all faiths and backgrounds. For Jews, Christians and Muslims, where does the prophetic come from and how do we define it? Is the heartbeat of the prophetic, God or our own commitment? In our time where belief in God is more difficult does the prophetic suggest only the possibility of God? With or without God is the prophetic worth the suffering that comes the exile's way? Ellis's unfolding narration of the prophetic is unique and probing for those who take life, justice and faith seriously. ""Marc Ellis has demonstrated great courage, integrity, and insight in the very important work he has been doing for years. It has been an inspiration for all of us."" Noam Chomsky ""Marc Ellis is a brilliant writer, a deeply thoughtful and courageous mind, an intellectual who has broken the death-hold of mindless tradition and unreflective cliche to produce a superb account of post-Holocaust understanding with particular reference to the Palestinian people and the moral obligation of Israeli and diaspora Jews. He is a man to be listened to with respect and admiration."" Edward Said ""Anytime I think of my brother Marc Ellis, I think of quiet dignity, spiritual integrity, moral consistency, fierce fortitude, and an unstoppable determination to tell the truth, expose lies, and bear witness."" Cornel West Marc H. Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He is the author and editor of more than twenty books including Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time a, Future of the Prophetic: Israel's Ancient Wisdom Re-Presented and, Burning Children: A Jewish View of the War in Gaza. Professor Ellis's writings have been translated into more than a dozen languages and he has lectured around the world. Currently he is writing an almost daily commentary series, Exile and the Prophetic, which can be found at mondoweiss.net.

""Beyond the immediate issues of politics and economics lie the larger and deeper realities of history and fidelity. As a Jew I am asking in these essays traditional religious questions in light of our present circumstances: What does it mean to be Jewish after the Holocaust and the consolidation of our empowerment in Israel/Palestine? Coming from a situation of oppression, what does it mean for Jewish history and theology to continue oppressing the Palestinian people? Has our empowerment in Israel brought us the freedom we so urgently needed, or has our abuse of power in Israel brought us a new enslavement and ghettoization which we did not seek, but now pursue almost blindly? Can we be healed of our trauma of Holocaust by finalizing the trauma of the Palestinian people which we as Jews have inflicted? At the lighting of the Shabbat candles, shall we bless our endeavor and thank God for making us into a warrior people?"" --From the Introduction