WE ARE LIVING in shouty times. The pandemic has raised the decibels of public debate, as we bellow and bark at each other across social media. And while we initially may have imagined that the coronavirus would bring us together—and in some ways it has—in many ways our civic life has only become more fractured and fragile. The murder of George Floyd last year unleashed a well of public grief and a wave of protests that revealed a widening political divide in the U.S., as did the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. And now vitriol over vaccines from an anti-science contingent threatens the hope of achieving herd immunity.
Perhaps, amid all this noise and tumult, the quiet biblical Book of Ruth has something powerful and profound to say, some reassuring balm and redemptive truth to offer our polarized world. Indeed, in the skilled hands of gifted poet Pádraig Ó Tuama and the late theologian Glenn Jordan, it is made new for our times. In Borders and Belonging, these two Irish men orbit the ancient narrative of a Moabite woman and her Jewish family, asking how “this apparently simple book situates itself at the very places where the tectonic plates of conflicted communities threaten to crack and split apart whole nations and societies.” With an eye to how Brexit-related tensions in Ireland threaten to reignite old conflicts and destroy a delicate peace, and as white nationalism gives rise to horrors in the U.S., Ó Tuama and Jordan explore the Book of Ruth’s extraordinary capacity to move us toward a different way of being in relation to one another, suggesting that “it offers us a way towards the healing of our fractures and the building of new and healthy relationships in the aftermath of trauma.”
Many will come to this story without an awareness of its multifaceted layers. Maybe we know it only for those lines of love and loyalty (1:16-17) professed as part of wedding liturgies. With Ó Tuama and Jordan as guides, however, we engage with the story in a deeper way, meeting its rich commentary on questions of migration and border crossings and its applicability to the most pressing issues of our day. This is a narrative that challenges us to practice radical hospitality, encounter the “other” with compassion, dismantle our stereotypes, rewrite our laws, reject aggression and toxic masculinity, and protect the vulnerable minorities in our midst.
Borders and Belonging is a delightful mix of accessible and erudite prose. Through compelling storytelling, the authors revive the dramatic tale of a displaced, widowed woman whose courage returns a people to themselves. And through thoughtful, informed analysis, Ó Tuama and Jordan illuminate how this biblical text invites us into difficult but necessary conversations across differences. If there is a book in the Hebrew Bible that most resonates in this moment, it may be Ruth. In this fresh reading, it bursts with new meaning.
Julie McGonegal, author of Imagining Justice: The Politics of Postcolonial Forgiveness and Reconciliation, is a Canadian writer and editor.
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