The Ten Commandments: Booklist Starred Review!

I just received word that Booklist has given The Ten Commandments a Starred Review! Here's what they wrote:

In the Supreme Court’s legalistic rulings on public display of the Ten Commandments, Hazony finds disturbing evidence that even when the Decalogue stirs up controversy, it does not receive serious scrutiny. Dispelling the common misconception that it is an irrelevant artifact of a theocratic age, Hazony shows that this set of biblical commandments fosters social health in ways that should matter even to the secularly minded. Even the first commandment—the warning against putting any god above the God of Abraham—yields a social imperative when Hazony draws from it a humane moral vision that will sustain redemptive action in an oppressive world. Similarly insightful readings open up the second commandment’s prohibition against graven images into an invitation into the richer life that awaits those who will smash the narcissistic idols of wealth and fashion; similarly, Hazony converts the fifth commandment’s injunction to honor our parents into a basis for intergenerational moral understanding. And in the final commandment’s admonition against covetousness, readers will discover a shelter against insecurity and a harbor of peace. Ultimately, Hazony finds in the Ten Commandments not a reason for discouragement because of our inevitable individual failings but, rather, a source for renewal of vibrant communities. A timely reappropriation of ancient moral wisdom.

— Bryce Christensen

Comments

[Tjacobson]

Having read the book, I couldn't say it any better..."A timely reappropriation of ancient moral wisdom." Great Review.