Poetic Justice

So I have started to write my book review for Father Daniel Berrigan’s book The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power. Berrigan breaks all the rules of a conventional biblical commentary (quite eloquently unconventional). Because of this – I decided to read and read again the text. It is merely two hundred some pages, but can be quite the stumbling block. Moreover, the reading is quite difficult because of its poetry and verbosity. For every reading a dictionary, thesaurus, and bible were necessities. And why am I such a proponent of this work? The book itself is a contemporary biblical commentary on the kings, prophets, and citizen alike. For Berrigan the pen is mightier than the sword; poetic justice is reaped and sown. He gives a voice to the voiceless in the biblical witness. He makes low the high – those “Arthurian” kings of the Hebrew Bible: David, Solomon, etc. He interrogates prophet, priest, king, and citizen: none are spared from the hot seat.

The book itself is a contemporary biblical commentary on the kings, prophets, and citizen alike. For Berrigan the pen is mightier than the sword; poetic justice is reaped and sown. He gives a voice to the voiceless in the biblical witness. He makes low the high – those “Arthurian” kings of the Hebrew Bible: David, Solomon, etc. He interrogates prophet, priest, king, and citizen: none are spared from the hot seat. His work is a sobering testament to our current sociopolitical situation—for ours is an inherited legacy of blood. I will likely conclude my review this weekend. Good luck, right? I wish you a wonderful evening. Be productive!

-Dan