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A Biblical Theology of Exile » (New Edition)

Book cover image of A Biblical Theology of Exile by Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

Authors: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
ISBN-13: 9780800632243, ISBN-10: 0800632249
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Date Published: July 2002
Edition: New Edition

Author Biography: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

Book Synopsis

The Christian church continues to seek ethical and spiritual models from the period of Israel's monarchy and has avoided the gravity of the Babylonian exile. Against this tradition, the author argues that the period of focus for the canonical construction of biblical thought is precisely the exile. Here the voices of dissent arose and articulated words of truth in the context of failed power.

Author Biography: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher is Professor of Theological Studies and Director of Peace Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California. He is the author of the commentary on Daniel in The New Interpreter's Bible (1997).

	Editor's Foreword
	Abbreviations
	Preface
1	Biblical Theology: On Matters of Methodology	1
	The Emergence of Diasporic Theology	6
	Questioning Nationalism in Cultural and Postcolonialist Studies	15
	On a Theology of Exile	21
2	Violence and Exegesis: The History of Exile	27
	The Shadows of Empire: The Exegesis of Violence as Theological Context	27
	The Problem of Assessing the Importance of the Exile in Biblical Studies	30
	Persian Authorization of the Pentateuch?	34
	Resistance in the Persian Period	35
	The Culture of Permission and the Royal Correspondence of Ezra 1-7	38
	Summary: Ezra-Nehemiah, Religious Resistance, and Persian Authorization?	45
	The Myth of the Empty Land: Doubts about the Exile	45
	The Shadow of Empire: A Survey of Recent Literature	49
	A Theology of Victims of Exile	54
	The Status and Treatment of the Exiled Community	65
3	Listening to Cries from Babylon: On the Exegesis of Suffering in Ezekiel and Lamentations	75
	Ezekiel, Lamentations, and Refugee Studies	76
	A Survey of Refugee and Disaster Studies in Preparation for Reading Ezekiel and Lamentations	78
	Ezekiel on the Couch?	83
	Trauma Studies and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Ezekiel the Refugee	89
	The Sign-Actions of Ezekiel: Reading Ezekiel with Lamentations	95
	The Language of Lament: Does Literary Stereotype Mean Historical Nonexistence?	96
	Preliminary Conclusions	103
4	Shame and Transformation: On Prayer and History in the Diaspora	105
	A Sociology of Deuteronomistic History?	108
	Penitential Prayer in the Postexilic Period	111
	A Social Function of Shame?	120
5	Israelite Mission and Human Transformation	125
	The Universalism of Late Isaiah Texts	125
	Universalism in Jonah	130
6	"Purity" as Nonconformity: Communal Solidarity as Diaspora Ethics	137
	The Exile and Theologies of "Community"	138
	Who Is "We"? Some Observations on the Biblical Vocabulary of Community	138
	Issues of Community Formation after the Exile	144
	The Priestly Theology of Policing the Boundaries: Purity and Social Solidarity	145
	Purity and Nonconformity: Ezra as an Amish Elder	160
7	The Wisdom Warrior: Reading Wisdom and Daniel as Diasporic Ethics	163
	On Tricksters and Wise Men	164
	Reading Wisdom in Diaspora and Occupied Palestine	166
	Ecclesiastes: Dark Humor in Occupied Palestine?	171
	Rereading Proverbs from Below	173
	The Wisdom Warrior: Diasporic Cleverness over Imperial Brute Strength	175
	The Wisdom Warrior: An Ideal Type in Wisdom Literature	178
	Daniel as the Wise Warrior	182
	"And Daniel Laughed..." - Diasporic Nonviolence: Laughing at the State	187
8	Toward a Diasporic Christian Theology: The Theology of Tobit and Daniel Revisited	189
	The Postcolonialist Mandate of the Church in Exile	195
	Social Elements of a Christian Diasporic Theology	198
	Index of Biblical Passages	205

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A Biblical Theology of Exile » (New Edition)

Author Biography: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher

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