A Biblical Theology of Exile

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

1. Methodology

   The Emergence of Diasporic Theology

   Questioning Nationalism in Cultural and Post-Colonialist Studies

   On a Theology of Exile

2. 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 1–7

   Summary: Ezra-Nehemiah, Religious Resistance, and Persian Authorization?

   The Myth of the Empty Land—Doubts 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

3. 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

4. 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 8—The Transitional Prayer?

   The Petitions

   The Exilic Theology of Penitential Prayers

   A Social Function of Shame?

5. The Mission of Jonah, Second Isaiah, and "Universalism"

   Universalism in Jonah

6. "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 Boundaries—Purity 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

7. 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

8. Toward a Diasporic Christian Biblical Theology

   The Post-Colonialist Mandate of the Church in Exile

   Four Elements of a Christian Diasporic Theology

   Notes

   Index