In this volume, Norman Gottwald reconstructs the politics of ancient Israel within the larger political environment of the ancient Near East. He questions the prevailing view that the Hebrew Bible, supported by archeological evidence when necessary, should be the primary source to diagram the evolution of Israel's political history. Along with a thorough and nuanced discussion of the matrix of ancient Near Eastern politics, Gottwald suggests how the monarchies of Israel and Judah developed. With imaginative and masterful insight, Gottwald tackles head-on the problems of religion, power, and politics in the history of ancient Israel.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of the people behind the Hebrew Bible and interprets these insights for a wide variety of readers.

CONTENTSPART 1: METHODS, MODELS, AND COMPARATIVE STUDIESWhat Does Sociology Have to Do with The Bible?The Bible and Economic EthicsSocial Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical StudiesSocial Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian ReadingIdeology and Ideologies in Israelite ProphecyPeriodization, Interactive Power Networks, and Teleogical Constraints in Hebrew Bible StudiesIcelandic and Israelite Beginnings: A Comparative ProbeStructure and Origin of the Early Israelite and Iroquois "Confederacies"PART 2: TRIBUTES TO COLLEAGUESJames Muilenburg: Superlative TeacherDavid Jobling: Fearless Frontiersman Marvin L. Chaney, Master Social CriticJack Elliott: Breacher of Boundaries

This brief volume brings together three of Norman Gottwald''s classic essays that address issues of social class and ideology as they pertain to the interpretation of the biblical documents. The small format makes them useful for classroom and small-group use, providing definitions, theoretical concerns, and applications to specific texts. The author has been a leader in the social-scientific analysis of the Bible for almost fifty years.ContentsSocial Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical StudiesSocial Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian ReadingIdeology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy

CONTENTSPART 1: THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ISRAELEarly Israel as an Anti-Imperial CommunityThe Origins of Israel as a TextualModels for Envisioning Early IsraelTriumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and DeverHistorical Description versus Historical Representation and SymbolThe Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient IsraelProto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient IsraelRevisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five YearsPART 2: THE POLITICS OF ANCIENT ISRAELReligion and Politics: Early Israel and JudaismThe Puzzling Politics of Ancient IsraelThe Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual TheologiesPART 3: REVIEW AND REFLECTIONSForward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on TerrorReflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah''s Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and The Bible and the Third Way: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial EncountersReview of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical YahwismReview of Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient IsraelReview of Philip R. Davies, The Origins of Biblical IsraelPanel Presentation on Joshua A. Berman, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought

PART 1: EXAMINING TEXTS1. Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament2. Kingship in the Book of Psalms 3. Abusing the Bible: The Case of Deuteronomy 154. Do not Fear What They Fear: A Post-9/11 Reflection(Isaiah 8:11-15)5. The Expropriated and the Expropriators in Nehemiah 56. How Do Extrabiblical Sociopolitical Data Illuminate Obscure Biblical Texts? The Case of Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 [Heb. 5:7-8]7. On the Alleged Wisdom of Kings: An Application of Adorno''s Immanent Criticism to EcclesiastesPART 2: ENGAGING PRACTICES8. Framing Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary: A Student Self Inventory on Biblical Hermeneutics9. Theological Education as a Theory-Praxis Loop: Situating the Book of Joshua in a Cultural, Social Ethical, and Theological Matrix10. The Bible as Nurturer of Passive and Active Worldviews11. Biblical Scholarship in Public Discourse12. On Framing Elections: The Stories We Tell Ourselves13. Values and Economic Structures

When published, this work on the Book of Lamentations opened a new wave of studies on that much neglected biblical book. After a fresh translation, followed by acute analyses of the acrostic form and literary genres, the author develops the two-fold theology of "e;doom"e; and "e;hope"e; that reverberates through the five laments composed during the exile to cope with the fall of Jerusalem. Created for public performance, the poems artfully alternate the voices of the poet and the community, personified by turns as a forlorn widow (Fair Zion) and as an afflicted man (Jacob/Israel). The book attributes the catastrophe in part to the moral and social failures of Judah's leadership, but it also finds the enormity of the suffering beyond moral or theological explanation.

In this volume, Norman Gottwald reconstructs the politics of ancient Israel within the larger political environment of the ancient Near East. He questions the prevailing view that the Hebrew Bible, supported by archeological evidence when necessary, should be the primary source to diagram the evolution of Israel's political history. Along with a thorough and nuanced discussion of the matrix of ancient Near Eastern politics, Gottwald suggests how the monarchies of Israel and Judah developed. With imaginative and masterful insight, Gottwald tackles head-on the problems of religion, power, and politics in the history of ancient Israel.Volumes in the Library of Ancient Israel draw on multiple disciplines--such as archaeology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and literary criticism--to illuminate the everyday realities and social subtleties these ancient cultures experienced. This series employs sophisticated methods resulting in original contributions that depict the reality of the people behind the Hebrew Bible and interprets these insights for a wide variety of readers.

CONTENTSPART 1: METHODS, MODELS, AND COMPARATIVE STUDIESWhat Does Sociology Have to Do with The Bible?The Bible and Economic EthicsSocial Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical StudiesSocial Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian ReadingIdeology and Ideologies in Israelite ProphecyPeriodization, Interactive Power Networks, and Teleogical Constraints in Hebrew Bible StudiesIcelandic and Israelite Beginnings: A Comparative ProbeStructure and Origin of the Early Israelite and Iroquois "Confederacies"PART 2: TRIBUTES TO COLLEAGUESJames Muilenburg: Superlative TeacherDavid Jobling: Fearless Frontiersman Marvin L. Chaney, Master Social CriticJack Elliott: Breacher of Boundaries

This brief volume brings together three of Norman Gottwald''s classic essays that address issues of social class and ideology as they pertain to the interpretation of the biblical documents. The small format makes them useful for classroom and small-group use, providing definitions, theoretical concerns, and applications to specific texts. The author has been a leader in the social-scientific analysis of the Bible for almost fifty years.ContentsSocial Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical StudiesSocial Class and Ideology in Isaiah 40-55: An Eagletonian ReadingIdeology and Ideologies in Israelite Prophecy

CONTENTSPART 1: THE ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ISRAELEarly Israel as an Anti-Imperial CommunityThe Origins of Israel as a TextualModels for Envisioning Early IsraelTriumphalist versus Anti-Triumphalist Versions of Early Israel: A Response to Articles by Lemche and DeverHistorical Description versus Historical Representation and SymbolThe Interplay of Religion and Ethnicity in Ancient IsraelProto-Globalization and Proto-Secularization in Ancient IsraelRevisiting the Tribes of Yahweh after Twenty-five YearsPART 2: THE POLITICS OF ANCIENT ISRAELReligion and Politics: Early Israel and JudaismThe Puzzling Politics of Ancient IsraelThe Role of Biblical Politics in Contextual TheologiesPART 3: REVIEW AND REFLECTIONSForward to Jeremy Young, The Violence of God and the War on TerrorReflections on R. S. Sugirtharajah''s Asian Biblical Hermeneutics and Postcolonialism. Contesting the Interpretations and The Bible and the Third Way: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial EncountersReview of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical YahwismReview of Marty E. Stevens, Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient IsraelReview of Philip R. Davies, The Origins of Biblical IsraelPanel Presentation on Joshua A. Berman, Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought

PART 1: EXAMINING TEXTS1. Social Drama in the Psalms of Individual Lament2. Kingship in the Book of Psalms 3. Abusing the Bible: The Case of Deuteronomy 154. Do not Fear What They Fear: A Post-9/11 Reflection(Isaiah 8:11-15)5. The Expropriated and the Expropriators in Nehemiah 56. How Do Extrabiblical Sociopolitical Data Illuminate Obscure Biblical Texts? The Case of Ecclesiastes 5:8-9 [Heb. 5:7-8]7. On the Alleged Wisdom of Kings: An Application of Adorno''s Immanent Criticism to EcclesiastesPART 2: ENGAGING PRACTICES8. Framing Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary: A Student Self Inventory on Biblical Hermeneutics9. Theological Education as a Theory-Praxis Loop: Situating the Book of Joshua in a Cultural, Social Ethical, and Theological Matrix10. The Bible as Nurturer of Passive and Active Worldviews11. Biblical Scholarship in Public Discourse12. On Framing Elections: The Stories We Tell Ourselves13. Values and Economic Structures

When published, this work on the Book of Lamentations opened a new wave of studies on that much neglected biblical book. After a fresh translation, followed by acute analyses of the acrostic form and literary genres, the author develops the two-fold theology of "e;doom"e; and "e;hope"e; that reverberates through the five laments composed during the exile to cope with the fall of Jerusalem. Created for public performance, the poems artfully alternate the voices of the poet and the community, personified by turns as a forlorn widow (Fair Zion) and as an afflicted man (Jacob/Israel). The book attributes the catastrophe in part to the moral and social failures of Judah's leadership, but it also finds the enormity of the suffering beyond moral or theological explanation.