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

Contents

Methodology
The Emergence of Diasporic Theology
Questioning Nationalism in Cultural and Post-Colonialist Studies
On a Theology of Exile
Violence and Exegesis: The History of Exile
The Shadows of Empire: The Exegesis of Violence as Theological Context
The Problem of Assessing the Importance of the Exile in Biblical Studies Persian Authorization of the Pentateuch?
Resistance in the Persian Period
The Culture of Permission and the Royal Correspondence of Ezra 17
Summary: Ezra-Nehemiah, Religious Resistance, and Persian Authorization?
The Myth of the Empty LandDoubts about the Exile
The Shadow of Empire: A Survey of Recent Literature
A Theology of Victims of Exile
The Status and Treatment of the Exile Community
The Murasu Archive and the Elephantine Community as Evidence for Exilic Conditions
The Lexicography of Trauma
Text and Trauma: Ezekiel and Lamentations
Ezekiel, Lamentations, and Refugee Studies
Ezekiel on the Couch?
Halperin's Analysis of Ezekiel: Some Sample Arguments
Trauma Studies, and "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder": Ezekiel the Refugee
The "Sign-Actions" of Ezekiel: Reading Ezekiel with Lamentations
The Language of Lament: Does Literary Stereotype Mean Historical Non-existence?
Preliminary Conclusions
The Politics of Penitence: 1 Kings 8, Neh. 9, and Baruch
A Sociology of Deuteronomy History?
Penitential Prayer in the Post-Exilic Period
1 Kings 8The Transitional Prayer?
The Petitions
The Exilic Theology of Penitential Prayers
A Social Function of Shame?
The Mission of Jonah, Second Isaiah, and "Universalism"
Universalism in Jonah
"Purity" as "Nonconformity": Communal Solidarity as Diaspora Ethic
The Exile and Theologies of "Community"
Who is "We"? Some Observations on the Biblical Vocabulary of Community
Issues of Community Formation after the Exile
The Priestly Theology of Policing the BoundariesPurity and Social Solidarity
Daniel's Resolution to be "Undefiled" by the Emperor's Food
The Mixed Marriage Crisis in Ezra-Nehemiah
The Sociology of Mixed Marriage
Hypergamy Theory
Group Boundary Maintenance
On Romance in the Bible
The Ezra and Nehemiah Accounts of Mixed Marriage: Different Issues?
Purity and Nonconformity: Ezra as an Amish Elder
The Wisdom Warrior: Reading Wisdom and Daniel as Diaspora Ethics
On Tricksters and Wise Men
Wisdom as Diaspora Ethics
Analogies to Wisdom and Quietism in Egyptian Wisdom Literature
Ecclesiastes: Dark Humor in Occupied Palestine?
Re-Reading Proverbs from Below
The Wisdom Warrior: Diasporic Cleverness over Imperial Brute Strength
The Wisdom Warrior: An Ideal Type in Wisdom Literature
Wisdom against Weapons
Wisdom of Solomon
Daniel as the Wise Warrior
Diasporic Nonviolence: Laughing at the State
Toward a Diasporic Christian Biblical Theology
The Post-Colonialist Mandate of the Church in Exile
Four Elements of a Christian Diasporic Theology
Notes
Index

A Biblical Theology of Exile and The Religion of the Landless

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