This commentary has classroom use written all over it, so putting Paul M. Joyce's Ezekiel: A Commentary into paperback was a no-brainer. At $49.95, this edition will certainly be more attainable to students, who are struggling to get through this most complex and controversial book of the prophets. Here's what some have already said:
"Paul Joyce's commentary on Ezekiel is warmly commended. It is unique in the way that it concentrates on Ezekiel's theology, thereby bringing his thought to life."
[The Imp I didn't see]
Anna and I have just returned from a wonderful SOTS (linked with EABS and OTW) in Lincoln. Despite the heavy rain it was a good conference for proposals and book sales, and the papers that I attended all held things to interest. Axel Knauf's paper on the 'End of History' (?), which opened the SOTS programme being particularly good. Although, alas, I did not understand the German quotations he made. Bob Becking spoke on 'David from Evidence to Archaeology', which was very interesting, but I could have done with a bit more on ideology.
It was good to catch up with authors and to meet with new possible authors. Some good proposals might come from this conference - more on that anon.
There was just time on the last day to brave the rain and rush up to the cathedral. Extremely impressive vaulting, and nice to see the base of the shrine which held the head of little St Hugh of Lincoln. However the building as a whole felt strangely soul-less for some reason. Perhaps it was the rain? Unfortunately I failed to spot the famous ‘imp’ as we had to rush back for our train. Next time.
Upon returning to London I took advantage of the late opening of the Henry VIII exhibition at the British Library. It is quite astonishing, and I strongly urge anyone who has an interest in the Reformation to see it. Most wonderful to see was Henry’s Defensor Fidei medal, just a few yards away from the Act of Supremacy. However seeing the exhibition one does get the very definite feeling that Henry was not merely intent on getting a pretty new wife and a male heir in his desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon (although of course that had something to do with it!), but convinced that he was being punished for Leviticus 18.16 and thus needed to be free from divine condemnation.
The following day I had another brief moment of holiday in Oxford, doing some reading myself, and had a cup of tea with Sister Benedicta Ward, whose new book on Anselm of Canterbury is published by SPCK. Sr Benedicta is of course the author of our OCT book on the Venerable Bede.
I am personally very excited to announce the release of Jeremy Schipper's important LHBOTS Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story in paperback. For the last few years, Schipper has been on the cutting edge of considering the intersection of disability studies and biblical studies and we are very happy to make his important work more easily available to both the scholar and student. He has also received some stellar endorsements for this book:
"Jeremy Schipper has written an exceedingly important, thoughtful, disciplined book that will concern anyone who notices the toxic “social constructions” that go on in our society. His study is acute in its attention to the biblical text while at the same time it carefully probes contemporary disability theory. Schipper offers a model for interpretation and a summons to engagement."
-Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
"There is nothing tame about minor biblical characters or about this exceptional book. Such an analysis does more than complicate the ideologies of disability and kingship; it forever changes the way you read the Deuteronomistic History."
-Gina Hens-Piazza, Professor of Biblical Studies, Jesuit School of Theology at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
"This is a remarkable book that is destined to set new standards for the study of disability in the Bible."
-Dr. Hector Avalos, Professor of Religious Studies, Iowa State University
Professor Schipper has also written a guest post for our Authors Circle, which I am sure you will enjoy:
A few years have passed since I wrote Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible. I am flattered at the reception that it has received since its original publication in 2006 and am very happy to see it in paperback this year. Regarding the books of Samuel and Kings, biblical scholarship has shown how certain motifs and themes (Zion, kingship, covenant, family, and so on) do more than just describe particular institutions and conceptions. Instead, these themes and motifs help to articulate, interpret and organize Israelite identity. Along these lines, Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible shows that when the Hebrew Bible addresses disability it usually does more than just describe or diagnose a particular physical, mental or emotional trait. Rather, when read alongside images of Zion and kingship, disability provides a frequent, but often overlooked, means of articulating, interpreting, and organizing Israelite identity. My book uses the story of Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s disabled son (2 Samuel 4, 9, 16, 19) to show how disability functions as a means of social or ideological commentary rather than an objective and clear depiction of the everyday experience of disability in the ancient world. A close study of Mephibosheth as a point of entry into these larger set of issues surrounding disability imagery allowed me to emphasize the complicated and nuanced manner in which the Hebrew Bible represents disability.
Continue reading ""Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible" LHBOTS PB Released" »
Just released is Jeremiah W. Cataldo's LHBOTS, A Theocratic Yehud?: Issues of Government in a Persian Province. I met Professor Cataldo at our very well-attended LHBOTS mixer at SBL last year and we eagerly look forward to more great scholarship from him. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Classics at Grand Valley State University.
Please enjoy his contribution to our Authors Circle!
The Question That Became a Title
Why the question of theocracy? The catalyst for this question was two-fold: on one hand, I had become increasingly frustrated by the lack of any real, substantive definition of the term. On the other, I had become increasingly unsatisfied with what seemed to be a general tendency in scholarship to rely upon the Persian-period biblical texts (especially Ezra-Nehemiah) as accurate portrayals of an entire, complex provincial society. To accept that Yehud was a theocracy based almost entirely on the testimony of such texts is to drastically and cavalierly reduce the analyzable context of Yehud. After all, the biblical texts from the Persian period are quite reductive in nature. They offer not objective historiography but describe a geographic, but also apparently religious, space wherein only one “true” society could exist. That society, of course, was comprised solely of exiled Judeans, otherwise the golah community--one whose membership was both codified and enforced (even violently, in Nehemiah).
Continue reading "[LHBOTS] "A Theocratic Yehud?" released [Authors Circle]" »
RBL has posted a review of Mary E. Mills' LHBOTS volume Alterity, Pain, and Suffering in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, Vol. 479 written by Hallvard Hagelia of Ansgar College and Theological Seminary in Kristiansand, Norway.
A quick excerpt...
Is this kind of postmodern Bible reading really valid? Of course! But I will still argue that the basis for all biblical theology should be detailed exegesis, a close and expository reading of the texts. On this basis, a more subtle application could be excerpted. Mills will probably say that this close reading has already been done; it was her homework, before this book was written. Nevertheless, this is a book bridging in a postmodern way exegesis, ethics, and philosophy of religion. Here is much material for further work and investigation into life’s difficult questions—alterity, pain and suffering—questions that someday will catch up with all of us.
The book is very well written, in fluent language that nonetheless demands close attention
by the reader, at least readers not so accustomed to its rather philosophical or
phenomenological language. This is a deep dive, a rather underneath-the-actual-text
analysis. Already the first word of the title, “alterity,” is not found in, for example, The
New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language (2003),
but linked with pain and suffering, the idea soon emerges.
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