Topics in Political Theology and Ethics: Decalogue, the Ten Words (Moses, Jesus, and Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Perhaps the most important “founding” document for the meaning of justice (law, ethics, moral action) in the “western” world is a text from the Hebrew Bible called the “Decalogue” or “Ten Commandments” or “Ten Words of Freedom.” The narrative context in Exodus (often overlooked) has Moses going up a mountain (Sinai) into the divine presence to receive a revelation of social justice and the nature of shalom after being freed from slavery. Jesus is a famous interpreter of the Decalogue, represented as a kind of “second Moses” in the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7. Why does it read more like a series of poetic sayings and provocative parables about law, love and justice? Finally, the Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowski produced a quite famous Polish TV series called “Dekalog” (Criterion Collection, 1988-89): Ten (of course!) episodes of everyday human stories related to goodness and evil, slavery and freedom—the everyday meanings of love and justice in contemporary culture. We will reflect closely on these diverse narrative settings and their political-ethical implications.