The Chosen : The History of an Idea, the Anatomy of an Obsession

The Chosen explores Judaism s key defining concept and inquires why it remains the central unspoken and explosive psychological, historical, and theological problem at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations. Crisscrossing the twin cultural and theological divides between Judaism, Christendom, and Islam, The Chosen explains how the Jews, of all people, have come to represent at once the epitome of both the good and the odious. Beker covers not only the great stories of how the Jews came to be chosen and the Christian, Muslim, and Nazi efforts to appropriate the title, but also the key role "chosenness" plays in contemporary anti-Semitism and in the current Middle East conflict over the Land of Israel and the chosen city of Jerusalem. Everybody knows the expression "The Chosen People" but very few--Jews or non-Jews--are able to speak intelligently about it. The Chosen examines the idea of chosenness for the first time in a work for a readership of Christians, Jews, and others for whom the concept is an important but ill-understood marker for how we, as individuals and communities, distinguish ourselves from each other. What does it mean for Jews to be the "Chosen People"? How is Jewish chosenness perceived by non-Jews? Why does this idea of chosenness still inform new views of anti-Semitism? The Chosen looks at the concept from the Old and New Testaments to the Arab-Israeli conflicts to popular culture references to end-of-time beliefs of evangelicals, and highlights what all of us can learn from this very complex and controversial label. --From publisher's description Front Matter....Pages i-xii Confronting the Issue of the Chosen....Pages 1-14 How Were “The Chosen” Chosen?....Pages 15-37 The Gentile Replacement of the Chosen....Pages 39-68 Global but Apart....Pages 69-87 Hating the Chosen....Pages 89-108 Shoah....Pages 109-129 Israel....Pages 131-156 Jerusalem....Pages 157-176 Epilogue....Pages 177-192 Back Matter....Pages 193-240