Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine

by Daniel Berrigan

Overview

The renowned poet, priest, and activist brings to life his namesake and role model, the biblical prophet Daniel.

Daniel Berrigan’s powerful, poetic commentary on the biblical book of Daniel brings to life a prophet who has as much to say to our hedonistic, warring world as he did to the people of Old Testament times. Continuing the series he began with Isaiah and Ezekiel, Berrigan fuses social critique, Jewish midrash, and political commentary to bring us a book of stylistic distinction and spiritual depth.

A bold and unorthodox application of the Old Testament to current political and social discourse, Daniel is not simply a book about a bygone prophet, but a powerful charge to all people of conscience. As Berrigan writes, “There are principalities of today to be confronted, their idols and thrice-stoked furnaces and caves of lions, their absurd self-serving images and rhetoric. Someone must pink their pride, decode the handwriting on the wall. Who is to stand up, to withstand?”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874860269
Publisher:	Plough Publishing House, The
Publication date:	04/30/2017
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

A renowned poet, Jesuit priest, and antiwar activist, Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016) has been called “the conscience of a generation.” He became a household name in 1968, when he seized draft records at Catonsville, Maryland, and burned them with napalm, galvanizing a protest movement and igniting widespread religious opposition to the Vietnam War. “Better the burning of paper than of children,” he told the judge. Berrigan published over fifty books of poetry, essays, and scripture commentaries in his lifetime. He was also arrested more than fifty times for creative acts of nonviolent civil disobedience and spent several years in prison.

Table of Contents

Introit: Under the Siege of the Divine vii

Taming the Beasts and the King of the Beasts 1

The Book Of Daniel, Chapter 1

The Rock That Grew and Filled the Earth 19

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 2

Who Shall Perish, and Who Be Delivered 45

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 3-4

The Writing on the Wall 73

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 5

Daniel and the Two Decrees 87

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 6

Daniel Also Dreams; The Four Beasts 107

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 7

The Time of Indignation, the Time of the End 129

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 8

The Borrowing and Lending of Prophecy 151

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 9

Daniel, Sent 169

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 10-11

The End Is Not Yet, But Nears 189

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 12

Editorial Reviews

The Book of Daniel is here retold in a way that highlights its contemporary significance…Berrigan does a remarkable job of opening up for us a text only rarely studied in the synagogues. —Tikkun Magazine

From the Publisher

These are barbed-wire words that protect truth’s heart. Who can be a more apt scribe to write such an account than Daniel Berrigan, who has walked in the ancient Daniel’s footsteps in lion’s den and prison cell?

Megan McKenna

To read this book is to risk every comfortable excuse one has to postpone resistance and reform.

John Francis Kavanaugh

Berrigan brings alive the biblical Book of Daniel in an astonishing way. We learn of the power of faith when joined to the courage of disobedience. The line between prose and poetry is erased as is the line between the past and the present.

Howard Zinn

I recommend this book to all who want to understand the Bible and their own lives in the light of it.

Richard T. McSorley

The subversive call to Daniel the Prophet and the writing call of Daniel Berrigan both shine forth in this brilliant book.

Richard Rohr

Berrigan’s encounter with his namesake makes for lively, challenging reading. This is commentary not so much on the biblical book as on the world.

Booklist

This is Berrigan at his best. If he had written only one book, I would have wanted it to be this one.

Joan Chittister

Who better to read Daniel’s political poetry and stories of resistance than a contemporary Daniel who has recited just such poetry and practiced just such resistance? Less a commentary than a re-narration, this makes Daniel’s Daniel dangerously relevant.

Ched Myers

Once again, Daniel Berrigan uncovers the revolutionary mix of rage and wisdom of the biblical prophets. His meditation on Daniel shows how people of spirit and conscience can “lay siege” to the empires of today.

Mark Lewis Taylor

A modern prophet’s commentary on an ancient prophet’s words, this book tells more truth about our times than many want to hear.…Berrigan’s reflections will be difficult for those whose instincts are compromise and timidity.

John K. Stoner

Daniel reveals Berrigan as a priest who has been on the front lines as both an antiwar dissenter and writer for so long that he has become the line. He stands all but alone among contemporary writers trying to make connections between the demands of practicing biblical faith and crafting powerful literature.

Colman McCarthy

The Book of Daniel is here retold in a way that highlights its contemporary significance…Berrigan does a remarkable job of opening up for us a text only rarely studied in the synagogues.

Tikkun Magazine

Poet, priest and activist Daniel Berrigan brings the biblical book of Daniel alive in this narrative and commentary. Written probably in the fourth century B.C., the book of Daniel tells the story of Daniel's great obedience to his faith even in the face of persecution. Although Jews do not read the book as prophecy, many Christians believe the book is a foretelling of the end times. Berrigan's eloquent and poetic reading, however, emphasizes the political and religious character of the book, and he applies the message of Daniel to contemporary culture. Each chapter opens with a lengthy passage from the biblical book itself and is followed by Berrigan's commentary and reflections on the passage. His meditations are dominated by questions like, "Shall we claim one another in God's name, renouncing the world's tactics--murder, hatred, and injustice?" Berrigan tries to show how the book reveals that "emptiness lies behind the fearsome brows of the powerful." Berrigan's fiery prose illuminates both his own passion and that of the book of Daniel. (July)

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