The Ten Commandments
How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life
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According to polls, less than half of all Americans can even name more than four of them. For most of us, agnostics and faithful alike, they have been relegated to the level of a symbol, their teachings all but forgotten. In Western life today, the Ten Commandments are everywhere—except where we need them most.
In The Ten Commandments, David Hazony offers a powerful new look at our most venerable moral text. Combining a fresh reading of the Bible's most riveting stories with a fearless exploration of what ails society today, Hazony shows that the Ten Commandments are not just a set of obscure laws but the encapsulation of a valuable, relevant approach to life.
The Ten Commandments begins with a daring claim: Although they have become a universally recognizable symbol of biblically based religion, they are not, strictly speaking, a religious text. Rather than addressing faith or mystical realms, they contain a coherent prescription for how to make a better world. At their core stands what Hazony calls the "spirit of redemption," which he describes as one of the two basic spiritual components of Western civilization. While the Greeks gave us the "spirit of reason," teaching that we should be free to explore and express our views, the spirit of redemption teaches that every individual can, and should, act to improve the world. This spirit reached us from ancient Israel and has stood at the heart of the greatest social movements in our history.
Going through the commandments one by one, Hazony shows how each represents a poignant declaration about honesty, the self, life, love, freedom, community, and inner peace. Each commandment adds another piece to the puzzle of how the redemptive spirit may help us become more caring, world-changing individuals.
Part memoir, part scholarship, part manifesto for a vital approach to life, The Ten Commandments tackles some of the most painful human questions that stand at the heart of who we are as modern, thinking people—and offers answers that are sure to start a new discussion about the meaning of one of our most enduring, yet least understood, traditions.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 7, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781400199303
- File size: 242347 KB
- Duration: 08:24:53
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 12, 2010
Born in the United States, Hazony now lives in Israel, where he formerly edited Azure, a journal of Jewish thought. In this, his first book, Hazony uses the biblical text as a point of departure for 10 wide-ranging essays, examining each commandment as a contribution to constructing the good society. He calls this effort the "spirit of redemption," which requires individuals to help make the world better. While he sticks to the text, he also imaginatively roams far afield, broadening our comprehension of the commandments. For example, the Second Commandment ban of graven images is seen as prohibiting idolatry and fostering the search "for honesty, truth, and personal integrity." Similarly, the Fifth Commandment, to honor one's parents, provides Hazony with the opportunity to recount the story of Solomon's wise solution to the problem of two women who claim the same child. His major message, however, is that honoring and loving one's parents needs to be broadened to all humanity. Hazony has succeeded in extending the Ten Commandments to an impressive vision of how to attain the good society.
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