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