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An Invitation to Biblical Poetry is an introduction to the aesthetic dimensions of the ancient poetry of the Bible. It argues that, as art, biblical poems engage their readers in embodied encounters that accomplish intellectual work. It examines how this is achieved through the poems' various techniques of voicing and address, lines, formal patterns, figures such as metaphor, personification, and symbol, and the crucial but elusive dimensions of historical and readerly context. Its broad survey of biblical poetry and accessible style will benefit anyone interested in becoming a better reader of poetry.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Voices
- Emotion
- Ascription and Authorship
- Multiplicity and Dialogue
- Prophetic Voicing
- Gender
- Psalm 55: A Reading
- Chapter 2: Lines
- Parallelism
- Enjambment
- Psalm 19: A Reading
- Chapter 3: Forms
- Terms
- Hymns
- Laments
- Love Poems
- Parody
- Acrostic
- Psalm 119: A Reading
- Chapter 4: Figures
- Metaphor and Simile
- Personification and Anthropomorphism
- Metaphors for the Deity
- Symbols
- Psalm 65: A Reading
- Chapter 5: Contexts
- Three Worlds of the Text
- Worlds Behind the Text
- Allusion
- Prophetic Poetry's Refusals
- The Poetry of Exile
- Psalm 137: A Reading
- Conclusion
- Index
About the author
Elaine James is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. She studies the ancient literature of the Bible with particular attention to its aesthetic and ecological dimensions.
Summary
An Invitation to Biblical Poetry is an accessibly written introduction to biblical poetry that emphasizes the aesthetic dimensions of poems and their openness to varieties of context. It demonstrates the irreducible complexity of poetry as a verbal art and considers the intellectual work poems accomplish as they offer aesthetic experiences to people who read or hear them. Chapters walk the reader through some of the diverse ways biblical poems are organized through techniques of voicing, lineation, and form, and describe how the poems' figures are both culturally and historically bound and always dependent on later reception. The discussions consider examples from different texts of the Bible, including poems inset in prose narratives, prophecies, psalms, and wisdom literature. Each chapter ends with a reading of a psalm that offers an acute example of the dimension under discussion. Students and general readers are invited to richer and deeper readings of ancient poems and the subjects, problems, and convictions that occupy their imagination.
Additional text
Elaine James's engaging and beautifully written book is a welcome addition to the Essentials of Biblical Studies series that offers timely and approachable entries into important topics.
