Founding God’s Nation

Earlier this month, Yale Books release Founding God’s Nation by Leon Kass. This looks at the influence that the Torah’s Book of Exodus has on American politics at the time of the founding of the United States. At a time when many who look to overturn democratic processes while claiming devotion to Judeo-Christian princples this could be an interesting read. The publisher’s description says:

“In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses’s leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.”

Leon R. Kass is the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago. His books include The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis.