Ruth, the Canaanite Woman, and Outsiders
"The tree of life, the cross of Christ, the center of God’s world..." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall
Insider/Outsider Paradigm
The book of Ruth, as we’ve said, is subversive. It’s challenging the dominant narrative of the day as seen in people like Ezra and Nehemiah. Upon reading Deut. 23, Ezra and Nehemiah conclude that there are insiders and there are outsiders. God loves and accepts Israel, but he has excluded the gentiles like the Ammonites and Moabites.
Ezra/Nehemiah have set up what some sociologists have called a “bounded-set community.” Bounded-set communities are defined by…
The skinny
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