SESSION 6Exclusivism, Ethnocentrism, and Racism Schwartz explores what she describes as the "violent identity formation" of the Hebrew nation. She links that collective identity to monotheism and its exclusivist claims which became codified in an "understanding of ethnic, religious, and national identity as defined negatively, over against others. We are 'us' because we are not 'them.' Israel is not-Egypt." (p. x) The violence spawned by the Hebrews' distinctive identity Schwartz derives from a principle of scarcity, which she says pervades most thinking about identity. "When everything is in short supply, it must all be competed for--land, prosperity, power, favor, even identity itself." (p. xi) Although she finds an alternative vision in the Bible of richness, plenitude, and multiplicity, yet, she asserts, "scarcity is encoded in the Bible as a principle of Oneness (one land, one people, one nation), and in monotheistic thinking (one Deity) it becomes a demand of exclusive allegiance that threatens with the violence of exclusion." (p. xi). At the very end of her book (p. 176), Regina Schwartz places herself in the tradition of Luther, Milton, Blake, and Freud, creative thinkers who re-read the Bible through new lenses. She suggests a re-vision of the Bible that would replace violence and scarcity with an ideal of plenitude and generosity. Against the backdrop of Schwartz's argument and your own knowledge of history, how do you see the relationship of Biblical teachings to the rise of Christian ethnocentrism, colonialism, imperialism, and racism? Is Christianity inherently exclusivist, ethnocentric, and racist or does Schwartz's discussion of plenitude, multiplicity, and generosity provide the foundation for another more egalitarian Christian identity? Discuss. Read:
Post your comments for discussion to "VI. Exclusivism, Ethnocentrism, and Racism" in the Discussion Board.
|