The Lazarus Project is a collection of poems based on photos found in antique stores, junk shops, and over the internet, separated from their history, lost in boxes, drawers, or attics until their families are gone or whoever finds them no longer knows who they were or what they did. In a sense they represent the history which the poet Thomas McGrath said we threw out the back of the wagon train on our way out west. K.C. Hanson gives voice to the people in the pictures—rescues them, and us...

While history, literature, and theology are important in biblical studies, it is fundamental to recognize that the biblical texts convey meanings derived through a specific culture with distinctive values and particular social arrangements. Ancient documents like the Bible refer to their contemporary social systems only indirectly for the most part. They assume that their readers share their world and know what they mean by "tribute," what sort of marriage arrangements were employed, or ho...

Biblical faith is passionately and relentlessly material in its accent. This claim is rooted in the conviction that the creator God loves and cares for the creation and summons creation to be in sync with the will of the creator God. This collection of essays is focused on the bodily life of the world as it is ordered in all of its problematic political and economic forms. The phrase of the title, "all flesh," in the flood narrative of Genesis 9, refers to all living creatures who are in c...

Contents 1 The Practice of Homefulness 2 A Myriad of "Truth and Reconciliation" Commissions 3 Bragging about the Right Stuff 4 A Culture of Life and the Politics of Death 5 Elisha as the Original Pentecost Guy 6 The Stunning Outcome of a One-Person Search Committee 7 The Non-negotiable Price of Sanity 8 The Family as World-Maker

"Walter Brueggemann is the master of finding fresh and compelling dimensions of meaning in texts so familiar they barely scratch the surface of our consciousness. In this exciting collection, Brueggemann finds that when we admit we are dust, we can be liberated. Why? Because we are free from acting like God. We are free to choose obedience to the one living, true Sovereign. The idols lose their grip on us and we live faithfully and in authentic joy." --Ronald J. Allen, Christian Theologica...

"Like athletes, preachers carry inside them the voices of their most challenging coaches--people who have encouraged them to dig deeper, stretch farther, and more faithfully pursue their craft and calling. In these crystalline essays, Walter Brueggemann is that voice again, shaking us free of the dust of our own diminished expectations, bolstering our best instincts, and consistently pointing us toward a gospel that would make the powers and principalities tremble." --Scott Black Johnston,...

"Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal is a masterpiece presented with authority by a twentieth-century accomplished and unsurpassed exegete. It is now translated by a disciple, whose elegant rendition sounds as if Hermann Gunkel had originally written himself the book in English." --Andre LaCocque, The Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL "Written a century ago for a church audience eager to learn how the best scholarship of the day could illuminate one of the Bible's most absorbing stories, this...

This collection of essays is drawn from a series of previous collections to which the author has contributed that were designed to honor senior scholars in the discipline of Old Testament study. Each of these essays reflects a distinct intention depending on the nature of the original collection in which they appeared and the scholar who was being honored. Taken together, however, this collection amounts to an articulation of Brueggemann's distinctive approach to theological interpretation...

"Those who serve as truth-tellers in the church, like those who listen to the truth-telling in the church, are a mix of yearning and fearfulness, of receptiveness and collusion. In the end, the work of truth-telling is not to offer a new package of certitudes that displaces old certitudes. This truth to be uttered and acted, rather, is the enactment and conveyance of this Person who is truth, so that truth comes as bodily fidelity that stays reliably present to the pain of the world." --fr...

Through careful analysis of sources, especially Josephus, Horsley explicates the deep divisions between rulers and the ruled, emphasizing the role of Galilean peasants in uprisings that would eventually culminate in the Great Revolt against Rome. Rich in historical detail, Galileans under Jerusalem and Roman Rule offers readers a nuanced understanding of the social and political dynamics that shaped this pivotal region, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of rel...

Table of Contents 1 The Dynamics of Praise in the Ancient Near East, or Poetry and Politics 2 The Power of Praise in the Psalter: Human-Divine Synergies in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Scriptures 3 Praise in the Realm of Death: The Dynamics of Hymn-Singing in Ancient Near Eastern Lament Ceremony 4 "World Dominion" in Yahweh Kinship Psalms: Down to the Roots of Globalizing Concepts and Strategies 5 Psalms and Sumerian Hymns 6 Navajo Chants, Babylonia Incantations, Old Testament Psal...

For six decades, Erhard Gerstenberger was a leader in the study of the Psalms and ancient Israelite poetry. The essays in this volume bring together some of his key contributions reflecting on two fundamental forms of prayer in the biblical tradition: praise and petition. Both the student and the experienced researcher will be enriched by the depth and clarity of perspective that Gerstenberger brings. One of the essays (chapter 4) appears here for the first time in any language. Contents 1...