William P. Brown is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. Bill has also taught at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and at Emory University. He is the author of several books and numerous essays in biblical studies, including The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder, Seeing the Psalms: A Theology of Metaphor, and Psalms.

This handbook, as described above, serves its purpose as a good first orientation for those who want to delve into the world of the Psalms and it is to be hoped that a less expensive paperback edition will be out soon.

• Contents ; Preface ; Abbreviations ; List of Contributors ; 1. The Psalms: An Overview - William P. Brown ; Part I. Ancient Near Eastern Backgrounds ; 2. Mesopotamian Parallels to the Psalms - Anna Elise Zernecke ; 3. Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms - Mark S. Smith ; 4. Egyptian Backgrounds to the Psalms - Bernd U. Schipper ; Part II. Language of the Psalms ; 5. Poetry of the Psalms - F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp ; 6. The Psalms in Poetry - Peter S. Hawkins ; 7. Language of Lament in the Psalms - Carleen Mandolfo ; 8. Praise and Metonymy in the Psalms - Travis J. Bott ; 9. Wisdom Language in the Psalms - Diane Jacobson ; Part III. Translating Psalms ; 10. The Aramaic Psalter - David M. Stec ; 11. The Septuagint Psalter - Joachim Schaper ; 12. Jerome's Psalters - Scott Goins ; Part IV. Composition of the Psalms ; 13. The Levites and the Editorial Composition of the Psalms - Susan E. Gillingham ; 14. On the Ordering of Psalms as Demonstrated by Psalms 136-150 - Yair Zakovitch ; 15. Unrolling the Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls - Peter W. Flint ; Part V. History of Interpretation and Reception: A Sampling ; 16. Some Aspects of Traditional Jewish Psalms Interpretation - Alan Cooper ; 17. Psalms in the New Testament - Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll ; 18. Psalms in the Qur'an and in the Islamic Religious Imagination - Walid A. Saleh ; 19. Reception of the Psalms: The Example of Psalm 91 - Brennan Breed ; Part VI. Interpretive Approaches ; 20. Psalms and the Question of Genre - William H. Bellinger, Jr. ; 21. Psalms of the Temple - Richard J. Clifford ; 22. Non-Temple Psalms: The Cultic Setting Revisited - Erhard S. Gerstenberger ; 23. The Shape and Shaping of the Psalter: Psalms in their Literary Context - J. Clinton McCann, Jr. ; 24. The Meta-Narrative of the Psalter - Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford ; 25. Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Psalms - Joel M. LeMon ; 26. Rhetoric of the Psalms - Robert L. Foster ; 27. Poetic Attachment: Psychology, Psycholinguistics, and the Psalms - Brent A. Strawn ; 28. Feminist Interpretation of the Psalms - Melody D. Knowles ; 29. Kingship in the Book of Psalms - Norman K. Gottwald ; Part VII. Culturally Based Interpretations ; 30. Singing a Subversive Song: Psalm 137 and "Colored Pompey" - Rodney S. Sadler, Jr. ; 31. Rising from Generation to Generation: Lament, Hope, Home, and Dream - John J. Ahn ; 32. Psalms in Latin America - Edesio Sanchez ; Part VIII. Theologies of the Psalms ; 33. Jewish Theology of the Psalms - Marc Zvi Brettler ; 34. Christian Theology of the Psalms - Rolf A. Jacobson ; Part IX. Anthropologies of the Psalms ; 35. On "Being Human" in the Psalms - Walter Brueggemann ; 36. The Righteous and the Wicked - Jerome F. D. Creach ; Part X. Practicing the Psalms ; 37. The Psalms in Christian Worship - Kimberly Bracken Long ; 38. Preaching Psalms - Thomas G. Long ; 39. Singing the Psalms - Michael Morgan ; 40. Psalms as Resources for Pastoral Care - Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer ; 41. The Psalms: A Monastic Perspective - Edmee Kingsmill SLG ; 42. Ecological Use of the Psalms - David Rensberger ; Appendix I "Apocryphal" Psalms in the Psalms Scrolls and in Texts Incorporating Psalms - Peter W. Flint ; Appendix II Contents of the Psalms Scrolls and Related Manuscripts - Peter W. Flint ; Subject Index ; Scriptural Index