The deeply politico-theological questions of shame as an act, guilt as an affect, and redemption as an aspiration remain, to my mind, under-examined in genealogies of modern political ideas, especially regarding the narration and critique of imperial history.

The Exodus tradition is built on a hope for a world free from military violence and economic exploitation. The Song of the Sea looks forward to a world where the machines of war, banished to the bottom of the sea, can no longer threaten us.