The Politics of Freedom

“Covenant is the most radical attempt ever undertaken to create a politics of freedom by taking all sovereignty out of human hands altogether. Whoever governs in Israel does so only under the authority delegated by God on the one hand, the people on the other, and can be criticised, and dethroned, for exceeding that authority. That is why, simultaneous with the birth of monarchy in biblical Israel, prophecy was born: the right to criticise kings in the name of God and the people. That right of opposition, first embodied in the prophet as the man or woman mandated to speak truth to power in the name of God, is fundamental to the free society.”

The Great Partnership, Chapter 7, p. 116