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The Kings and Their Gods The Kings and Their Gods, a new book by Dan Berrigan, continues his interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures casting a light on our times, providing inestimable insights, focusing on the pathology of power. This time it’s first and second Books of Kings, looking deeply into the souls of David and Solomon, among others. We can look at them and their profligate ways and at our times, our leaders, ourselves and think, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We “undergo a harsh and shaming pedagogy.” (Berrigan) Tweak your memory of David’s ending, so much blood. Joab, his chief of staff who offered a lifetime of service with a relentless sword, must die for treachery and betrayal, the murder of Amasa, David’s nephew, among others. “No place for forgiveness, Let Solomon start afresh....Joab must die.” And then Shimei, who had cursed David but was spared and promised a secure life. David’s compassion evaporated at the memory of his betrayal. Solomon, David’s son, must avenge his father’s honor. Shimei must die; so much killing before David breathes his last. Fruitless to try and say it better, let Berrigan:
Berrigan asks what many of us have wondered about these many years, why our Bible, Word of God, is so besotted with bloody violence? Where were the prophets, perhaps imprisoned or worse, put to death. Nathan, who confronted David with his adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband Uriah, is busy with Bathsheba cementing Solomon’s inheritance of the throne, lest another son lay claim to the crown. Solomon, the wisest of men, late in life, fell into idolatry; perhaps his seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines clouded his thinking. Let’s hear it for monogamy! “ Solomon has scuttled the original covenant, the solemn and sublime compact that incised social justice on tablets of stone, that insistently joined matters of justice to integrity of worship.” Berrigan suggests we are offered the vision of humanity gone woefully astray to bring us to our senses, shock treatment. He is unsparing in affirming the titanic sins of the past are no worse than what the Christian world proffered in the 20th century and continues unabated into the 21st. Wars and rumors of wars, no less brutal than our ancestors, are our breakfast reading, with a dose of torture and a bit of greed of unsurpassed dimensions. It is enough to bring us to our knees, to seek the living Word of God, not the lesser shadow gods that seduced Solomon. The narrative of our present kings is to be prepared for unending war! While knowing well my own capacity for the despicable, there is another way via the transforming power of grace. I wouldn’t believe that possible except for witnessing regularly the transparent goodness in some of my sisters and brothers. Thank God for them. Amen! Joe Bradley |