… the account of the journey now required of the faithful in the move from a culture of anxiety to a practice of neighborliness.  (Introduction)

The narrative of the book of Exodus is organized into a great contest that is, politically and theologically, an exhibit of the ongoing contest between the urge to control and the power of emancipation that in ancient Israel is perennially linked to the God of the exodus.  (p. 7)

That is, the narrative pertains to a one-time remembered social upheaval caused by God’s holiness; but the narrative looks beyond that one-time memory to see that the same transactions of oppression and emancipation continue everywhere to evoke holy power. The exodus narrative concerns the passion of holy power in response to human cry.2 Israel is always in the context of cry; and Israel is always departing from such context. The narrative moves out beyond Israel to see that this is the narrative quality of the entire human historical process.  (p. 38)