Note (2023): I have recently re-read Talbott’s book and am re-issuing my original synopsis and review on a topic that remains as relevant as ever.This post was originally published in 2008, and includes comments from then.
Published in 1999, Thomas Talbott’s thesis has just come swashbuckling over my horizon. In it he attempts to present a Universalist reading of the Bible, and especially Paul, an ambition that for most evangelicals at least, would appear doomed from the outset.
Having been recently caught in the metaphorical “cross-fire” of one of the most intractably divisive contexts, namely the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this intra-Jewish conversation came as a stunningly inventive proposition on what many have simply written off as impossible.
Three “Rabbis” including author Dr. Rabbi Tirzah Firestone and Gabor Mate, the Canadian-based, Hungarian-born medical doctor and now spiritual healer, delved into the Jewish dilemma in a way that is fully inclusive and relevant to all.
Having being brought into this perspective by Gabor Mate’s work especially the feature film “The Wisdom Of Trauma“, and now Rabbi Firestones book “Wounds Into Wisdom“, we get a glimpse into a possible way forward through the fractures of our age when we step away from the zero-sum game of retribution and retributive justice, into the investigation of our trauma.
By replacing the judgmental question “What have you done?” with the investigative “What happened to you?”, and acknowledging the shared nature of human trauma, starting with ourselves, we enter a way of holding our problems that is different to an ideologically-based clash of incompatible ideas.
Two particularly Jewish traits mentioned in the talk are chosen-ness and victimhood, and Rabbi Firestone addresses these in such a way that anyone, even the “non-Jew” (i.e. the majority us) can relate to and find useful.
This line of dialog and conversation is I believe, our way forward at this very dark time when conflicts imagined and real, spiritual and material, near and far, relentlessly dominate our spaces, and refuge seems very remote.
I encourage all to listen to this universal wisdom and see how it might apply not only to questions of Muslim-Jewish or Interfaith relations, but far more broadly as well. If one person can truly countenance their trauma or the trauma of their inherited history, then anyone who is willing can as well.
“Human possibility is almost infinite. So I don’t have to believe in hope: I know the possibilities.”
From a spiritual and interfaith point of view, this year has been for me a roller coaster ride. Downwards.
What looked like a promising beginning proceeded in descending steps, shedding connections and friendships, some in a blaze of incandescence, and others with the proverbial whimper.
What I have been called or depicted is pretty far reaching. These include, from a wide array of contexts:
An “unconscious anti-Semite”
A Zionist collaborator, and apolitical (not a compliment)
“completely wrong”, a toxic leader, autocratic, narcissistic, manipulative, competitive, discriminatory and intimidating
Seduced by a Gnostic worldview, influenced by Richard Rohr (not a compliment), ignoring the words of Jesus, adding to revelation, having mystical mentors (not a compliment)
Heretical, lost, hell-bound, and denigrating Christianity, considering myself more enlightened than others
Sound and Silence 