Touchstones of Moral Possibility? Ethics, Idolatry, and the Christian Community

The paper argues that though we usually think of the prophets as social or moral critics, their principal concern is idolatry. They oppose the unique God YHWH to the Ba’alim – still familiar to us in terms of a particular community, nation, religion, money, sex, and so forth. YHWH's particularity required in response a community committed to the world made otherwise than taken-for-granted norms suggest. This calls in question the idea that the prophets were drawing on the consensus gentium in their warnings. If we are looking for contemporary prophets, I suggest some contemporary meteorological scientists qualify. However, according to Paul, following Num 11, all the Lord's people are prophets. The burden is laid on the community as a whole, but it is laid alongside a commitment to reconciliation, and being both prophets and reconcilers is a complex task in which the Quaker witness has something to teach us.