War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible

Shows how biblical authors, like more recent architects of national identities, constructed identity in direct relation to memories of war.

List of contents

Part 1. Refugee Memories: Negotiating Relations and Borders to Neighboring States; 1. Passages to Peace; 2. Edom as Israel's Other; Part 2. Kinship and Commandment: The Transjordanian Tribes and the Conquest of Canaan; 3. Mapping the Promised Land; 4. The Nation's Transjordanian Vanguard; 5. A Nation Beyond Its Borders; 6. Kinship, Law, and Narrative; Part 3. Rahab: An Archetypal Outsider; 7. Between Faith and Works; 8. The Composition of the Rahab Story; 9. Rahab's Courage and the Gibeonites' Cowardice; Part 4. Deborah: Mother of a Voluntary Nation; 10. A Prophet and Her General; 11. A Poetic War Monument; 12. A National Anthem for the North; 13. Women and War Commemoration; 14. Jael's Identities.

About the author

Jacob L. Wright is a professor at Emory University in the Candler School of Theology. He writes on a wide array of topics, ranging from material culture to commensality and urbicide. His first book, Rebuilding Identity (De Gruyter, 2003), won the Templeton Prize, and his most recent book, David, King of Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2014), won the ASOR Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award. His free online course (The Bible's Prehistory, Purpose, and Political Future) consistently ranks among the top online courses in the humanities.

Summary

Drawing on the intriguing interdisciplinary research on war commemoration, the book shows that war pervades the pages of the Bible because its authors were engaged in an effort to forge a corporate identity for Israel, one that can both transcend deep divisions within the population and withstand military conquest by imperial armies.

Product details

• Authors: Wright Jacob L. Wright, Jacob L Wright, Jacob L. Wright, Jacob L. (Emory University Wright, Wright Jacob L.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2020
• EAN: 9781108480895
• ISBN: 978-1-108-48089-5
• No. of pages: 350
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Theology, Political science & theory, Jewish Studies, Judaism, Political science and theory, Relating to Jewish people and groups, RELIGION / Biblical Studies / Old Testament / General, Biblical Studies & Exegesis, Social groups: religious groups and communities, Judaism: theology