Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all believe that God, at least at some point in time, had a special relationship with the ‘Children of Israel’. He reportedly freed them from slavery in Egypt and revealed the Torah to them through Moses, His prophet. The Jews are a remnant of the Biblical Children of Israel, and Judaism is a religion which traditionally presents itself as the Divine calling of that remnant. Understanding the doctrine of the election involves charting the terms and conditions of the special relationship that God is said to have with Israel. Once those terms and conditions are understood, a picture of the purpose of Judaism comes into focus, with its own understanding of what the Jews have been called upon to achieve. Grappling with the relevant Biblical and Rabbinic sources, and exploring the various understandings of the election that Jewish philosophers have developed over the centuries, this book seeks to provide compelling answers, on behalf of Jewish theology, to a number of thorny questions. Is the doctrine of the election inherently xenophobic and objectionably exclusionary? Is the doctrine compatible with belief in a just and loving God? Why were the Jews chosen? And why were all other people left out? What is Judaism’s attitude to those who were not chosen? What is Judaism for, and how might contemporary Jews better live up to the calling of their election? These questions, and more, form the backbone of this daring work of constructive analytic Jewish theology.</jats:p>