Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia
£45.00
Although environmental amnesia may be the underlying diagnosis of our contemporary ecological problems, in Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia Raymond Person argues that environmental amnesia has roots in ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, and that ancient forms of environmental amnesia are evident in the book of Deuteronomy.
Modern Westerners suffer from environmental amnesia, our failure to remember properly our intimate connections to the places in our lives and to the other inhabitants of these places, both human and non-human. Although environmental amnesia may be the underlying diagnosis of our contemporary ecological problems, in Deuteronomy and Environmental Amnesia Raymond Person argues that environmental amnesia has roots in ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, and that ancient forms of environmental amnesia are evident in the book of Deuteronomy.
Raymond Person combines the ecological hermeneutics of the Earth Bible project for the first time with an emerging approach in environmental philosophy —that is, environmental hermeneutics which draws significantly from the works of Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas and Ricoeur. As he explores the presence of ancient forms of environmental amnesia in Deuteronomy, he draws extensively from other approaches to the ancient Near East and the Bible that emphasize the interactions between material culture and text and that take seriously the Other as portrayed in the Bible, especially household archaeology, zooarchaeology, feminist approaches, and postcolonial approaches. His analysis discovers not only forms of environmental amnesia that the Deuteronomic school suffered from and promoted ideologically, but also partial remedies for forms of ancient environmental amnesia in some of the Deuteronomic legislation. His reflection on environmental amnesia and its partial remedies in the text of Deuteronomy provides insights into our modern forms of environmental amnesia and how we may begin to lessen its effects on the Earth community.
Between the introduction and conclusion, the volume contains two parts. The first part consists of chapters on how environmental amnesia exists in various themes in Deuteronomy: the family household, land versus wilderness, Israel versus the nations, clean versus unclean animals, and urban versus rural. The second part is somewhat more like a traditional commentary, focusing on themes in selected passages, including herem in Deut. 7.1-26, the sabbath year in Deut. 15.1-18, war in Deut. 20.1-20, first-fruits and the third-year tithe in Deut. 26.1-19, and eschatology in Deut. 28.1-68 and 30.1-20.
Additional information
| Table of Contents | Introduction PART I: DEUTERONOMY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AMNESIA AS REVEALED IN ITS DICHOTOMIES 1. Family Household 2. Land versus Wilderness 3. Israel versus the Nations 4. Clean versus Unclean Animals 5. Urban versus Rural PART 2: COMMENTARY ON SELECTED PASSAGES IN DEUTERONOMY AS INFORMED BY ENVIRONMENTAL AMNESIA 6. Deuteronomy 7 7. Deuteronomy 15.1-18: The Sabbath Year 8. War and the Environment in Deuteronomy20 9. Deuteronomy 26: Firstfruits and the Third-Year Tithe 10. Eschatology Conclusions: Implications for Overcoming Environmental Amnesia |
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Deborah W. Rooke, Society for Old Testament Study Book List –
Environmental amnesia can be defined as a distorted, oppositional understanding of the relationship between nature and culture that comes about when humans become divorced from the land and forget their dependence on it. In this non-traditional commentary on Deuteronomy, P. avers that such amnesia, a consequence of urbanization, was present not only in the great Mesopotamian civilizations of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE but also among the urbanized elites who were responsible for producing Deuteronomy, and their amnesia is reflected in the dichotomies that are identifiable in Deuteronomy.… This is a chilling, challenging and highly relevant reading of a foundational biblical text.
Thomas W. Mann, Interpretation. –
Person’s thesis is that the members of the Deuteronomic school were elite, urban literati who had no memory of a rural, agrarian lifestyle and were thus divorced from an intimate connection with nature. … [H]is employment of an environmental hermeneutic in analyzing Deuteronomy is a welcome addition to biblical studies, and the conclusion offers helpful suggestions for “overcoming environmental amnesia” in the contemporary world.