Out of Stock
The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered
Published: Feb 2012
£75.00
‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3.14) has been an exegetical puzzle to many generations of biblical scholars as well as theologians: is it about the present or the future, is it about God’s presence or his hiddenness? Den Hertog argues that such exegetical questions
have been framed too narrowly, and that this deeply suggestive statement about God needs to be set in a broader context.
Firstly, the statement must be understood within the narrative of Moses’ call as an answer to his problem: how can his being launched on a radically new, prophetic mission be reconciled with the features of the God of the patriarchs? This book
substantiates the view that the meaning of the statement is deliberately indefinite: ‘I may be who I may be’. In its context, it points to Yhwh’s other face, the possibility of his manifesting himself differently from the way he is thought to be.
Secondly, the after-history of this text should also be considered, since it has shaped our understanding in one way or another. This book pays particular attention to the renderings by the ancient and early modern versions (including the King James Version). The point of departure is the Septuagint rendering ‘I am the one being’, which has traditionally been associated with the Greek philosophical concept of absolute Being. This rendering, however, appears to have originally signified God’s active
presence: ‘I am the one who shows himself to be there’.
Thirdly, this fundamental theological statement invites further a psychoanalytic interpretation. Den Hertog adopts a Lacanian perspective, according to which ‘I am that I am’ represents an irruption of an ‘I’ from nowhere, from beyond usual thought and
expectation. In its context this means that in a situation of crisis a new orientation is born, one that undermines the pharaonic powers.
Out of Stock
The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered
£75.00
‘I am that I am’ (Exodus 3.14) has been an exegetical puzzle to many generations of biblical scholars as well as theologians: is it about the present or the future, is it about God’s presence or his hiddenness? Den Hertog argues that such exegetical questions
have been framed too narrowly, and that this deeply suggestive statement about God needs to be set in a broader context.
Firstly, the statement must be understood within the narrative of Moses’ call as an answer to his problem: how can his being launched on a radically new, prophetic mission be reconciled with the features of the God of the patriarchs? This book
substantiates the view that the meaning of the statement is deliberately indefinite: ‘I may be who I may be’. In its context, it points to Yhwh’s other face, the possibility of his manifesting himself differently from the way he is thought to be.
Secondly, the after-history of this text should also be considered, since it has shaped our understanding in one way or another. This book pays particular attention to the renderings by the ancient and early modern versions (including the King James Version). The point of departure is the Septuagint rendering ‘I am the one being’, which has traditionally been associated with the Greek philosophical concept of absolute Being. This rendering, however, appears to have originally signified God’s active
presence: ‘I am the one who shows himself to be there’.
Thirdly, this fundamental theological statement invites further a psychoanalytic interpretation. Den Hertog adopts a Lacanian perspective, according to which ‘I am that I am’ represents an irruption of an ‘I’ from nowhere, from beyond usual thought and
expectation. In its context this means that in a situation of crisis a new orientation is born, one that undermines the pharaonic powers.
Reading Ideologies: Essays on the Bible and Interpretation in Honor of Mary Ann Tolbert
Published: Sep 2011
£75.00
Mary Ann Tolbert has been a pioneering voice in what we have now come to call 'interdisciplinary reading' of the Bible. In the early stages of her career, Tolbert used New Testament parables to push biblical scholarship beyond the traditional confines of historical-critical methods. Over the past four decades, she has made significant contributions to psychoanalytical, narrative, rhetorical, feminist, and queer readings of the Bible, and has interrogated the social location of biblical interpreters as well as the ideological implications of reading and reading methodologies.
Divided into three main sections, this collection of essays from biblical scholars around the world to honor Tolbert engage the very issues that have driven and defined Tolbert's scholarship: reading between the historical and the literary; reading between biblical authority and social location; and reading between gender and sexuality. The title of the collection focuses on an often-used but arguably under-examined term in biblical studies: 'ideology'. Together, essays in this volume not only perform ideological criticism of the Bible but also profess the ideological nature of criticism itself, since —regardless of 'what' and 'how' one is reading —the act of reading is always already infused with ideology. By highlighting the work of ideology in interpretation, this volume ultimately suggests that while ideology impacts interpretation of meaning, the meaning of ideology itself also needs to be interpreted.
Reading Ideologies: Essays on the Bible and Interpretation in Honor of Mary Ann Tolbert
£75.00
Mary Ann Tolbert has been a pioneering voice in what we have now come to call 'interdisciplinary reading' of the Bible. In the early stages of her career, Tolbert used New Testament parables to push biblical scholarship beyond the traditional confines of historical-critical methods. Over the past four decades, she has made significant contributions to psychoanalytical, narrative, rhetorical, feminist, and queer readings of the Bible, and has interrogated the social location of biblical interpreters as well as the ideological implications of reading and reading methodologies.
Divided into three main sections, this collection of essays from biblical scholars around the world to honor Tolbert engage the very issues that have driven and defined Tolbert's scholarship: reading between the historical and the literary; reading between biblical authority and social location; and reading between gender and sexuality. The title of the collection focuses on an often-used but arguably under-examined term in biblical studies: 'ideology'. Together, essays in this volume not only perform ideological criticism of the Bible but also profess the ideological nature of criticism itself, since —regardless of 'what' and 'how' one is reading —the act of reading is always already infused with ideology. By highlighting the work of ideology in interpretation, this volume ultimately suggests that while ideology impacts interpretation of meaning, the meaning of ideology itself also needs to be interpreted.
Hosea, Second Edition
Hosea, Second Edition