Postcolonial Interventions: Essays in Honor of R.S. Sugirtharajah
Published: Aug 2009
£60.00
This collection of essays, with contributions by many long-term colleagues and collaborators of R. S. Sugirtharajah, Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics in the University of Birmingham, is meant to review, evaluate, celebrate, and honour his many scholarly contributions. The title of the collection signifies that the volume focusses not only on how we read socio-political interventions, but also on how reading can itself be a form of intervention. This focus on reading and intervention is in many ways most fitting, as Professor Sugirtharajah's biblical and theological hermeneutics have indeed been a significant force of intervention. His work has confronted and challenged many to see beyond a parochial mainstream, to perceive imperial and colonial dynamics in the Bible and in biblical studies, and to remain open to the transformative possibilities of reading from new sites as well as with new sights.
Postcolonial Interventions: Essays in Honor of R.S. Sugirtharajah
£60.00
This collection of essays, with contributions by many long-term colleagues and collaborators of R. S. Sugirtharajah, Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics in the University of Birmingham, is meant to review, evaluate, celebrate, and honour his many scholarly contributions. The title of the collection signifies that the volume focusses not only on how we read socio-political interventions, but also on how reading can itself be a form of intervention. This focus on reading and intervention is in many ways most fitting, as Professor Sugirtharajah's biblical and theological hermeneutics have indeed been a significant force of intervention. His work has confronted and challenged many to see beyond a parochial mainstream, to perceive imperial and colonial dynamics in the Bible and in biblical studies, and to remain open to the transformative possibilities of reading from new sites as well as with new sights.
Nahum, Second Edition
Published: July 2009
£15.00 – £35.00
In its wanton celebration of violence, the book of Nahum poses ethical challenges to the modern reader. O'Brien offers the first full-scale engagement with this dimension of the book, exploring the ways in which the artfulness of its poetry serves the book's violent ideology, highlighting how its rhetoric attempts to render the Other fit for annihilation.
She then reads from feminist, intertextual and deconstructionist angles and uncovers the destabilizing function of the book's aesthetics.
Finally, she demonstrates how mining Nahum's ambiguities and tensions can contribute to an ethical response to its violence.
This is a reprint of the 2002 edition.
Nahum, Second Edition
£15.00 – £35.00
In its wanton celebration of violence, the book of Nahum poses ethical challenges to the modern reader. O'Brien offers the first full-scale engagement with this dimension of the book, exploring the ways in which the artfulness of its poetry serves the book's violent ideology, highlighting how its rhetoric attempts to render the Other fit for annihilation.
She then reads from feminist, intertextual and deconstructionist angles and uncovers the destabilizing function of the book's aesthetics.
Finally, she demonstrates how mining Nahum's ambiguities and tensions can contribute to an ethical response to its violence.
This is a reprint of the 2002 edition.
The Exposure of Infants Among Jews and Christians in Antiquity
Published: Apr 2009
£45.00
This practice, so distasteful to the modern conscience, and shocking when we encounter it in reading about the ancient world, was nevertheless a normal feature of life in classical antiquity. There can be little doubt that both Jews and Christians, like their neighbours, must have practised the exposure of infants, whether for economic reasons, or because the child was of the wrong gender, or because of its illegitimacy. Otherwise, one can hardly explain the rich variety of arguments against the custom in rabbinic and patristic literature.
In this novel and penetrating study, Koskenniemi reviews the evidence for the practice from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian sources, and then, in the major part of the book, examines the rejection of the custom by Jewish authors like Philo and Josephus and by Christian writers such as Clement, Justin, Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom and Augustine, many of whom adopted the arguments of their Jewish counterparts.
The Exposure of Infants Among Jews and Christians in Antiquity
£45.00
This practice, so distasteful to the modern conscience, and shocking when we encounter it in reading about the ancient world, was nevertheless a normal feature of life in classical antiquity. There can be little doubt that both Jews and Christians, like their neighbours, must have practised the exposure of infants, whether for economic reasons, or because the child was of the wrong gender, or because of its illegitimacy. Otherwise, one can hardly explain the rich variety of arguments against the custom in rabbinic and patristic literature.
In this novel and penetrating study, Koskenniemi reviews the evidence for the practice from Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian sources, and then, in the major part of the book, examines the rejection of the custom by Jewish authors like Philo and Josephus and by Christian writers such as Clement, Justin, Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom and Augustine, many of whom adopted the arguments of their Jewish counterparts.
With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich
Published: Nov 2008
£60.00
Professor Ida Fröhlich, Professor of Hebrew Studies and Ancient Near Eastern History in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, is a celebrated scholar who has been in the forefront of the remarkable development of Hebrew and Jewish studies in recent decades in Hungary. Among her important publications are 'Time and times and half a time': Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Literature of the Persian and Hellenistic Eras (1996), and, more recently, the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian. Her current major project is, in collaboration with a group of younger scholars, to prepare a Hungarian translation of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical materials.
In this very substantial volume, presented to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, the essays of 38 international scholars are arranged in three sections: (1) Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, (2) Apocrypha —Pseudepigrapha and Qumran, and (3) Jewish Studies / Christian Interpretation.
With Wisdom as a Robe: Qumran and Other Jewish Studies in Honour of Ida Fröhlich
£60.00
Professor Ida Fröhlich, Professor of Hebrew Studies and Ancient Near Eastern History in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, is a celebrated scholar who has been in the forefront of the remarkable development of Hebrew and Jewish studies in recent decades in Hungary. Among her important publications are 'Time and times and half a time': Historical Consciousness in the Jewish Literature of the Persian and Hellenistic Eras (1996), and, more recently, the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian. Her current major project is, in collaboration with a group of younger scholars, to prepare a Hungarian translation of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical materials.
In this very substantial volume, presented to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday, the essays of 38 international scholars are arranged in three sections: (1) Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, (2) Apocrypha —Pseudepigrapha and Qumran, and (3) Jewish Studies / Christian Interpretation.
Recent Research on the Major Prophets
Published: Oct 2008
£60.00
Given the many new methods and approaches for interpreting biblical literature that have appeared in the past several decades, it is hardly surprising that our understanding of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel has expanded and diversified at a rapid pace. Historical-critical understandings and perspectives have been challenged and often dramatically altered. New approaches, such as social-scientific criticism, rhetorical criticism, feminist criticism, reader response criticism, literary analysis, anthropological analysis, structuralist criticism, ideological criticism, and deconstructionist criticism have both challenged old approaches and shed new light on the texts being studied.
In this volume, Alan Hauser presents eleven articles, each with an extensive bibliography, that survey the variety and depth of recent and contemporary scholarship on these three prophets. Five of them are new to this volume. All are written by experts in each area of scholarship, including Marvin Sweeney, Paul Kim, Roy Melugin, Robert P. Carroll, Peter Diamond, Katheryn Pfisterer Darr and Risa Levitt Kohn. Hauser introduces the volume with a comprehensive summary and overview of the articles.
Recent Research on the Major Prophets
£60.00
Given the many new methods and approaches for interpreting biblical literature that have appeared in the past several decades, it is hardly surprising that our understanding of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel has expanded and diversified at a rapid pace. Historical-critical understandings and perspectives have been challenged and often dramatically altered. New approaches, such as social-scientific criticism, rhetorical criticism, feminist criticism, reader response criticism, literary analysis, anthropological analysis, structuralist criticism, ideological criticism, and deconstructionist criticism have both challenged old approaches and shed new light on the texts being studied.
In this volume, Alan Hauser presents eleven articles, each with an extensive bibliography, that survey the variety and depth of recent and contemporary scholarship on these three prophets. Five of them are new to this volume. All are written by experts in each area of scholarship, including Marvin Sweeney, Paul Kim, Roy Melugin, Robert P. Carroll, Peter Diamond, Katheryn Pfisterer Darr and Risa Levitt Kohn. Hauser introduces the volume with a comprehensive summary and overview of the articles.
Job
Published: Sep 2008
£15.00 – £35.00
This commentary on the book of Job is a non-technical commentary but it is full of Whybray's most mature reflections on the book.
The Introduction deals with the nature and purpose of the book, its specific and distinctive theology, its themes and its various parts and their mutual relationship. Thereafter, Norman Whybray, who is renowned for his insightful commentaries, usually comments on small sections of the text, and verse-by-verse in some especially difficult passages.
As a whole, his commentary is illustrative of the fact that the book of Job is more concerned with the nature of God than with the problem of suffering.
This is a reprint of the original edition in 1998.
Job
£15.00 – £35.00
This commentary on the book of Job is a non-technical commentary but it is full of Whybray's most mature reflections on the book.
The Introduction deals with the nature and purpose of the book, its specific and distinctive theology, its themes and its various parts and their mutual relationship. Thereafter, Norman Whybray, who is renowned for his insightful commentaries, usually comments on small sections of the text, and verse-by-verse in some especially difficult passages.
As a whole, his commentary is illustrative of the fact that the book of Job is more concerned with the nature of God than with the problem of suffering.
This is a reprint of the original edition in 1998.
Lions and Ovens and Visions: A Satirical Reading of Daniel 1-6
Published: Sep 2008
£55.00
Are the stories of Daniel at the court of the Persian king simply cheerful tales of a clever and successful courtier, as many assume? Valeta doubts it, insisting that the playful and fantastic storyline must have a more serious meaning.
The key to these narratives lies in their genre. These tales of lions and ovens and the like are examples of Menippean satire, argues Valeta, an ancient genre foregrounded in modern literary study by Bakhtin, who saw in the characteristic interplay of voices in the Menippean satire a prime instance of his 'dialogism'. Especially typical of the Menippean satire is an indecorous mixing of styles and elements, which may be the explanation why the Daniel narratives are both comic and serious, Hebrew and Aramaic, episodic and unified.
Viewed as satire, the Daniel narratives emerge in their true colours as resistance literature to the regime of Antiochus IV —and so form a perfect accompaniment to the visions of Daniel 7 —12.
Lions and Ovens and Visions: A Satirical Reading of Daniel 1-6
£55.00
Are the stories of Daniel at the court of the Persian king simply cheerful tales of a clever and successful courtier, as many assume? Valeta doubts it, insisting that the playful and fantastic storyline must have a more serious meaning.
The key to these narratives lies in their genre. These tales of lions and ovens and the like are examples of Menippean satire, argues Valeta, an ancient genre foregrounded in modern literary study by Bakhtin, who saw in the characteristic interplay of voices in the Menippean satire a prime instance of his 'dialogism'. Especially typical of the Menippean satire is an indecorous mixing of styles and elements, which may be the explanation why the Daniel narratives are both comic and serious, Hebrew and Aramaic, episodic and unified.
Viewed as satire, the Daniel narratives emerge in their true colours as resistance literature to the regime of Antiochus IV —and so form a perfect accompaniment to the visions of Daniel 7 —12.
Recent Releases: The Bible in Contemporary Cinema
Published: Aug 2008
£35.00
The relationship between theology and film has always been a complicated one. When film was invented at the end of the nineteenth century, it quickly gained its place in popular culture, far from the orthodoxies of the scholarly world and of the Church. For the better part of the twentieth century popular cinema was considered off limits for serious studies of Bible and culture. Recently, however, there has been a growing understanding of how the Bible is being used in popular culture —not as a historical document or as an authoritative canon, but as part of the cultural intertext.
Cinema is a vivid example of the role and impact of the Bible in contemporary society. In this well-theorized collection of essays the issue is treated from several angles. Using the methodology of theology, the question of the alleged escapism of popular cinema is explored. Using the methodology of media studies, the impact of the media on religious communication is analysed. And, using the methodology of religious studies, the influence of the cinema in the creation of new religions, religious behaviour and religious institutions is investigated.
In addition, the book offers fruitful analyses of the cinematic use of biblical themes such as Eden, salvation, Mary Magdalene and Jesus —as well as of the cinematic application of ethical themes such as truth-telling, personal growth, suffering, the accomplishment of good and the creating of meaning for human beings.
Recent Releases: The Bible in Contemporary Cinema
£35.00
The relationship between theology and film has always been a complicated one. When film was invented at the end of the nineteenth century, it quickly gained its place in popular culture, far from the orthodoxies of the scholarly world and of the Church. For the better part of the twentieth century popular cinema was considered off limits for serious studies of Bible and culture. Recently, however, there has been a growing understanding of how the Bible is being used in popular culture —not as a historical document or as an authoritative canon, but as part of the cultural intertext.
Cinema is a vivid example of the role and impact of the Bible in contemporary society. In this well-theorized collection of essays the issue is treated from several angles. Using the methodology of theology, the question of the alleged escapism of popular cinema is explored. Using the methodology of media studies, the impact of the media on religious communication is analysed. And, using the methodology of religious studies, the influence of the cinema in the creation of new religions, religious behaviour and religious institutions is investigated.
In addition, the book offers fruitful analyses of the cinematic use of biblical themes such as Eden, salvation, Mary Magdalene and Jesus —as well as of the cinematic application of ethical themes such as truth-telling, personal growth, suffering, the accomplishment of good and the creating of meaning for human beings.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
Published: May 2008
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Troublesome Texts: The Bible in Colonial and Contemporary Culture
£35.00
The nine substantial essays in this volume deal with three wide-ranging though interconnected issues: the perceived status and standing of the Bible today; aspects of the current state of biblical studies, especially the uneasy tension between the increasingly esoteric agenda of mainstream scholarship and the hermeneutical concerns of those occupied with marginal readings; the significance of postcolonial scholarship and pointers for its future at a time when empire has once again become a reality and a global subject of debate.
Among the essays here are an examination of Victorian reconstructions of the life of Jesus and of the Buddha, and how these discourses were moulded and motivated by orientalism, colonialism, race and issues of British national identity; the complexities of the use of the Bible in Sri Lanka, war-torn and beset with communal strife, when the Bible itself is rife with vengeance and punishment; the political and hermeneutical ramifications of the Asian tsunami, and the use of natural disasters for decolonization and recolonization; imperial intentions and a postcolonial sub-text evident in the Johannine letters; the fortunes of the English Bible as its promoters struggle to uphold its credibility in a market-driven culture; suicide-bombing and asylum-seeking. All of these are issues of global significance and concern, but they are hardly ever addressed by biblical scholars.
The essays contain both theoretical discussion and practical questions as to the usefulness of the Bible at a time when its contested role has been complicated by its tainted association with oppressive causes.
Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric, and Reader
Published: May 2008
£55.00
Until the late 1960s the scholarly consensus was that Chronicles —Ezra —Nehemiah was a single, unified literary work. Then arguments began to be mounted for treating Chronicles as a distinct composition, and the majority of scholars were swayed by these arguments, though others retained the older consensus view. In recent years, some scholars have begun to suggest that Ezra and Nehemiah are distinct literary entities.
This new debate is the occasion for the present volume. Here scholars from around the globe (Canada, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States) showcase current scholarly explanations for the final shape of this literary complex known as Ezra —Nehemiah. Fourteen scholars present their approach to the unity or disunity of this literature employing research methodologies that range from the diachronic to the synchronic.
Critical responses to this emerging research are provided by three reviewers (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Tamara Eskenazi and Hugh Williamson) whose work laid the foundation in earlier decades for much of the discussion today. The result is a rich conversation which provides an enlightening resource for the study of these biblical books in particular as well as for reflection on the impact of one's interpretive framework on the study of ancient literature in general.
Unity and Disunity in Ezra-Nehemiah: Redaction, Rhetoric, and Reader
£55.00
Until the late 1960s the scholarly consensus was that Chronicles —Ezra —Nehemiah was a single, unified literary work. Then arguments began to be mounted for treating Chronicles as a distinct composition, and the majority of scholars were swayed by these arguments, though others retained the older consensus view. In recent years, some scholars have begun to suggest that Ezra and Nehemiah are distinct literary entities.
This new debate is the occasion for the present volume. Here scholars from around the globe (Canada, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States) showcase current scholarly explanations for the final shape of this literary complex known as Ezra —Nehemiah. Fourteen scholars present their approach to the unity or disunity of this literature employing research methodologies that range from the diachronic to the synchronic.
Critical responses to this emerging research are provided by three reviewers (Joseph Blenkinsopp, Tamara Eskenazi and Hugh Williamson) whose work laid the foundation in earlier decades for much of the discussion today. The result is a rich conversation which provides an enlightening resource for the study of these biblical books in particular as well as for reflection on the impact of one's interpretive framework on the study of ancient literature in general.
David Observed: A King in the Eyes of His Court
Published: Mar 2008
£18.50 – £50.00
From his earliest anointing in 1 Samuel 16 until his deathbed discourse in 1 Kings 2, David is surrounded by a remarkable cast of supporting characters -- an ensemble whose varying perspectives on him create some of the complexity of this royal character in the biblical narrative.
David's older brother Eliab speaks only once to his younger sibling, but this conversation has significant implications for the larger narrative. The encounter with Ahimelech the priest in 1 Samuel 21-22 in many ways symbolizes the 'crossing fates' of David and Saul in the sanctuary at Nob. Abner is the rival general who wants to make a deal, but his actions are difficult to gauge: does he have his own set of royal ambitions? Joab is pre-eminently a man of action and a key commander of David's troops, but this military figure surprisingly turns out to be as well an innovative reader and royal exegete.
Nathan the prophet has a tendency to surface at pivotal moments in the story, as a decisive influence on the spiritual and political affairs of the king. Ahithophel is a senior counsellor in the Davidic administration who becomes mysteriously embittered against David in the rebellion of Absalom; in narratives about him there is a confluence of tangled motives and prophetic words. Finally, Solomon is the younger son who accedes to the coveted Davidic throne, and curiously shares traits with his ancestor Jacob and has a swearing problem in 1 Kings 1-2.
David Observed: A King in the Eyes of His Court
£18.50 – £50.00
From his earliest anointing in 1 Samuel 16 until his deathbed discourse in 1 Kings 2, David is surrounded by a remarkable cast of supporting characters -- an ensemble whose varying perspectives on him create some of the complexity of this royal character in the biblical narrative.
David's older brother Eliab speaks only once to his younger sibling, but this conversation has significant implications for the larger narrative. The encounter with Ahimelech the priest in 1 Samuel 21-22 in many ways symbolizes the 'crossing fates' of David and Saul in the sanctuary at Nob. Abner is the rival general who wants to make a deal, but his actions are difficult to gauge: does he have his own set of royal ambitions? Joab is pre-eminently a man of action and a key commander of David's troops, but this military figure surprisingly turns out to be as well an innovative reader and royal exegete.
Nathan the prophet has a tendency to surface at pivotal moments in the story, as a decisive influence on the spiritual and political affairs of the king. Ahithophel is a senior counsellor in the Davidic administration who becomes mysteriously embittered against David in the rebellion of Absalom; in narratives about him there is a confluence of tangled motives and prophetic words. Finally, Solomon is the younger son who accedes to the coveted Davidic throne, and curiously shares traits with his ancestor Jacob and has a swearing problem in 1 Kings 1-2.
1 Chronicles, Second Edition
Published: Oct 2007
£15.00 – £35.00
The books of Chronicles have a certain fantasy quality about them. They create an imaginary world in which things happen just so, and in which any potentially untidy loose ends in their narrative of the past are tied together in a highly systematic way. This is storytelling with the didactic purpose of inculcating a particular ideology, bombarding the reader with a kaleidoscopic procession of heroes and villains and presenting a frontierland of danger and opportunity.
John Jarick's focus on the literary world of Chronicles provides a fresh reading of the work, foregrounding the often unrecognized artistry in the telling of the tale —including at times a distinctly musical language and a careful mathematical precision. But at the same time he does not hide the dark underbelly of the writing, with its persistent note of conformity to the political and religious system advocated by the storytellers. This edition is a reprint of the original 2002 edition with different pagination. A companion volume on 2 Chronicles is published for the first time in 2007.
1 Chronicles, Second Edition
£15.00 – £35.00
The books of Chronicles have a certain fantasy quality about them. They create an imaginary world in which things happen just so, and in which any potentially untidy loose ends in their narrative of the past are tied together in a highly systematic way. This is storytelling with the didactic purpose of inculcating a particular ideology, bombarding the reader with a kaleidoscopic procession of heroes and villains and presenting a frontierland of danger and opportunity.
John Jarick's focus on the literary world of Chronicles provides a fresh reading of the work, foregrounding the often unrecognized artistry in the telling of the tale —including at times a distinctly musical language and a careful mathematical precision. But at the same time he does not hide the dark underbelly of the writing, with its persistent note of conformity to the political and religious system advocated by the storytellers. This edition is a reprint of the original 2002 edition with different pagination. A companion volume on 2 Chronicles is published for the first time in 2007.
Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History
Published: Jun 2006
£18.95 – £50.00
In the prevailing view, the Deuteronomistic History is the first and archetypical Western history, describing the creation of an Israelite state in Palestine as the origin of civilization in the region, a hegemonic culture rendering the other inhabitants of the country homeless in their own land. That view of Davidic domination over greater Palestine, fashioned under Josiah, has been given a modern nationalist reading by contemporary scholars, a reading consistent with the vast array of covert cultural confirmations of Euro-American imperial power.
How is it possible, Kim asks, given the all-encompassing sway of the colonialist reading of the Bible, to understand Josiah in other than colonialist terms? His answer: the historical imagination, making unfettered use of the tools of the critical historian, must be informed by the experience of those who have lived as the other, as the colonized, as not at home in their own land —which means, for Kim, the experience of being Asian American. The intellectual use of this experience creates his distinctive postcolonial perspective, as he draws attention to the connection between Western imperialism and the production of Western knowledge. Specifically, the author reads the story of Josiah intercontextually with the experience of Asian Americans from the space of liminality.
This is a passionate postcolonial reading of Josiah that, on one hand, critiques the failure of biblical studies to come to terms with its colonialist legacy and, on the other hand, connects the world of biblical studies to the world at large.
Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History
£18.95 – £50.00
In the prevailing view, the Deuteronomistic History is the first and archetypical Western history, describing the creation of an Israelite state in Palestine as the origin of civilization in the region, a hegemonic culture rendering the other inhabitants of the country homeless in their own land. That view of Davidic domination over greater Palestine, fashioned under Josiah, has been given a modern nationalist reading by contemporary scholars, a reading consistent with the vast array of covert cultural confirmations of Euro-American imperial power.
How is it possible, Kim asks, given the all-encompassing sway of the colonialist reading of the Bible, to understand Josiah in other than colonialist terms? His answer: the historical imagination, making unfettered use of the tools of the critical historian, must be informed by the experience of those who have lived as the other, as the colonized, as not at home in their own land —which means, for Kim, the experience of being Asian American. The intellectual use of this experience creates his distinctive postcolonial perspective, as he draws attention to the connection between Western imperialism and the production of Western knowledge. Specifically, the author reads the story of Josiah intercontextually with the experience of Asian Americans from the space of liminality.
This is a passionate postcolonial reading of Josiah that, on one hand, critiques the failure of biblical studies to come to terms with its colonialist legacy and, on the other hand, connects the world of biblical studies to the world at large.
I Have Written to the King, My Lord’: Secular Analogies for the Psalms
Published: Jun 2006
£12.95 – £35.00
The psalms in the Hebrew Bible have often been compared with the religious texts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Roger Tomes shows, in this incisive monograph, how the letters of the ancient Near East, from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Nimrud and Nineveh, are an equally rewarding analogue.
In them we find suppliants, caught in crisis situations, appealing to their rulers; they use the same arguments to persuade them to act as the psalmists in their appeals to God: protestations of innocence, confession of faults, promises of loyalty, descriptions of plight, appeal to the other's own interests, direct reproaches and quotation of the reproaches of enemies, and expressions of dependence. These are parallels that have much to teach us about the social position of the psalmists and their relationship to the cult.
I Have Written to the King, My Lord’: Secular Analogies for the Psalms
£12.95 – £35.00
The psalms in the Hebrew Bible have often been compared with the religious texts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan. Roger Tomes shows, in this incisive monograph, how the letters of the ancient Near East, from Mari, Amarna, Ugarit, Nimrud and Nineveh, are an equally rewarding analogue.
In them we find suppliants, caught in crisis situations, appealing to their rulers; they use the same arguments to persuade them to act as the psalmists in their appeals to God: protestations of innocence, confession of faults, promises of loyalty, descriptions of plight, appeal to the other's own interests, direct reproaches and quotation of the reproaches of enemies, and expressions of dependence. These are parallels that have much to teach us about the social position of the psalmists and their relationship to the cult.
Reframing Her: Biblical Women in Postcolonial Focus
Published: Jun 2006
£15.95 – £35.00
How does one read the story of Sarah and Hagar, or Jezebel and Rahab today, if one is a woman reader situated in a postcolonial society?
This is the question undergirding this work, which considers a selection of biblical texts in which women have significant roles. Employing both a gender and a postcolonial lens, it asks sharp questions both of the interests embedded in the texts themselves and of their impact upon contemporary women readers.
Whereas most postcolonial studies have been undertaken from the perspective of the colonized this work reads the texts from the position of a settler descendant, and is an attempt to engage with the disquietening and challenging questions that reading from such a location raises. Letters from early settler women in New Zealand, contemporary fiction, and personal reminiscence become tools for the task, complementing those traditionally employed in critical biblical readings.
Reframing Her: Biblical Women in Postcolonial Focus
£15.95 – £35.00
How does one read the story of Sarah and Hagar, or Jezebel and Rahab today, if one is a woman reader situated in a postcolonial society?
This is the question undergirding this work, which considers a selection of biblical texts in which women have significant roles. Employing both a gender and a postcolonial lens, it asks sharp questions both of the interests embedded in the texts themselves and of their impact upon contemporary women readers.
Whereas most postcolonial studies have been undertaken from the perspective of the colonized this work reads the texts from the position of a settler descendant, and is an attempt to engage with the disquietening and challenging questions that reading from such a location raises. Letters from early settler women in New Zealand, contemporary fiction, and personal reminiscence become tools for the task, complementing those traditionally employed in critical biblical readings.
Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll: Historical Calamity and Prophetic Response
Published: Jan 2006
£50.00
This exciting new study of the prophet Jeremiah attributes to him a pivotal significance in the historical period of Josiah's reign.
He was, so Leuchter argues, one of the central agents of Josiah's propaganda machine and was intimately involved with the king's political agenda. Jeremiah, himself originally a member of the scribal school that composed the Deuteronomistic literature, encouraged the Shilonites of Anathoth to become active in Josiah's programme in the North following the waning of Assyrian power. Dismayed by the Shilonites' rejection of him and Josiah, and by the king's death at Megiddo, Jeremiah came to a radically new understanding of the divine purpose, encapsulated in the famous Temple sermon of Jeremiah 7 and evidenced in the prophet's debates with the political establishment in Jerusalem in the years that followed.
In his thoroughgoing historical reconstruction, Leuchter outlines a very specific sequence of events that took their rise from the Shilonite rejection of Deuteronomic policy, and on that basis carefully demarcates the texts that would have been included in Jeremiah's first scroll (the Urrolle ). Leuchter's monograph will make an important contribution to the study of the history and the literature of the late seventh century BCE.
Josiah’s Reform and Jeremiah’s Scroll: Historical Calamity and Prophetic Response
£50.00
This exciting new study of the prophet Jeremiah attributes to him a pivotal significance in the historical period of Josiah's reign.
He was, so Leuchter argues, one of the central agents of Josiah's propaganda machine and was intimately involved with the king's political agenda. Jeremiah, himself originally a member of the scribal school that composed the Deuteronomistic literature, encouraged the Shilonites of Anathoth to become active in Josiah's programme in the North following the waning of Assyrian power. Dismayed by the Shilonites' rejection of him and Josiah, and by the king's death at Megiddo, Jeremiah came to a radically new understanding of the divine purpose, encapsulated in the famous Temple sermon of Jeremiah 7 and evidenced in the prophet's debates with the political establishment in Jerusalem in the years that followed.
In his thoroughgoing historical reconstruction, Leuchter outlines a very specific sequence of events that took their rise from the Shilonite rejection of Deuteronomic policy, and on that basis carefully demarcates the texts that would have been included in Jeremiah's first scroll (the Urrolle ). Leuchter's monograph will make an important contribution to the study of the history and the literature of the late seventh century BCE.
The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity
Published: July 2005
£25.00
The Older Testament is a radically new approach to many problems of both Old and New Testaments. It takes as a basis the theology of the book of Enoch, lost to western Christendom for many centuries, but here recognized as providing the most consistent set of clues to the nature of Israel's pre-exilic religion. Reformers and editors of the Second Temple period sought to remove from the biblical texts all traces of the older ways, which now survive only in the apparently bizarre themes and imagery of certain Pseudepigrapha.
Margaret Barker traces some of the ways in which the Deuteronomic standpoint came to dominate future readings of the Hebrew Bible as well as scholarly conceptions of Israel's religious development. Her reconstruction of the pre-Deuteronomic religion throws a startling light on much of the imagery of the New Testament and shows how closely the earlier Christian expectations were based upon the ancient royal cult in Jerusalem.
This book represents an important and original contribution to our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.
The Older Testament: The Survival of Themes from the Ancient Royal Cult in Sectarian Judaism and Early Christianity
£25.00
The Older Testament is a radically new approach to many problems of both Old and New Testaments. It takes as a basis the theology of the book of Enoch, lost to western Christendom for many centuries, but here recognized as providing the most consistent set of clues to the nature of Israel's pre-exilic religion. Reformers and editors of the Second Temple period sought to remove from the biblical texts all traces of the older ways, which now survive only in the apparently bizarre themes and imagery of certain Pseudepigrapha.
Margaret Barker traces some of the ways in which the Deuteronomic standpoint came to dominate future readings of the Hebrew Bible as well as scholarly conceptions of Israel's religious development. Her reconstruction of the pre-Deuteronomic religion throws a startling light on much of the imagery of the New Testament and shows how closely the earlier Christian expectations were based upon the ancient royal cult in Jerusalem.
This book represents an important and original contribution to our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.
Genesis, Second Edition
Genesis, Second Edition