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.
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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. Author Biography: Daniel L. Smith-Christopher is Professor of Theological Studies and Director of Peace Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California. He is the author of the commentary on Daniel in The New Interpreter's Bible (1997).
Editor's ForewordAbbreviationsPreface1Biblical Theology: On Matters of Methodology1The Emergence of Diasporic Theology6Questioning Nationalism in Cultural and Postcolonialist Studies15On a Theology of Exile212Violence and Exegesis: The History of Exile27The Shadows of Empire: The Exegesis of Violence as Theological Context27The Problem of Assessing the Importance of the Exile in Biblical Studies30Persian Authorization of the Pentateuch?34Resistance in the Persian Period35The Culture of Permission and the Royal Correspondence of Ezra 1-738Summary: Ezra-Nehemiah, Religious Resistance, and Persian Authorization?45The Myth of the Empty Land: Doubts about the Exile45The Shadow of Empire: A Survey of Recent Literature49A Theology of Victims of Exile54The Status and Treatment of the Exiled Community653Listening to Cries from Babylon: On the Exegesis of Suffering in Ezekiel and Lamentations75Ezekiel, Lamentations, and Refugee Studies76A Survey of Refugee and Disaster Studies in Preparation for Reading Ezekiel and Lamentations78Ezekiel on the Couch?83Trauma Studies and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Ezekiel the Refugee89The Sign-Actions of Ezekiel: Reading Ezekiel with Lamentations95The Language of Lament: Does Literary Stereotype Mean Historical Nonexistence?96Preliminary Conclusions1034Shame and Transformation: On Prayer and History in the Diaspora105A Sociology of Deuteronomistic History?108Penitential Prayer in the Postexilic Period111A Social Function of Shame?1205Israelite Mission and Human Transformation125The Universalism of Late Isaiah Texts125Universalism in Jonah1306"Purity" as Nonconformity: Communal Solidarity as Diaspora Ethics137The Exile and Theologies of "Community"138Who Is "We"? Some Observations on the Biblical Vocabulary of Community138Issues of Community Formation after the Exile144The Priestly Theology of Policing the Boundaries: Purity and Social Solidarity145Purity and Nonconformity: Ezra as an Amish Elder1607The Wisdom Warrior: Reading Wisdom and Daniel as Diasporic Ethics163On Tricksters and Wise Men164Reading Wisdom in Diaspora and Occupied Palestine166Ecclesiastes: Dark Humor in Occupied Palestine?171Rereading Proverbs from Below173The Wisdom Warrior: Diasporic Cleverness over Imperial Brute Strength175The Wisdom Warrior: An Ideal Type in Wisdom Literature178Daniel as the Wise Warrior182"And Daniel Laughed..." - Diasporic Nonviolence: Laughing at the State1878Toward a Diasporic Christian Theology: The Theology of Tobit and Daniel Revisited189The Postcolonialist Mandate of the Church in Exile195Social Elements of a Christian Diasporic Theology198Index of Biblical Passages205
