"Marko Marttila's study is a new contribution to the old question, how the 'I' of the Psalms should be understood. It seems that people who were responsible for editing the Hebrew Psalter more than two thousand years ago identified the suffering anonymous 'I' with the suffering people of Israel. Thus the editors in their own time attempted to make earlier texts more actual."--BOOK JACKET.

This book considers ethical thinking in ancient Israel in the period from the 8th to the 2nd century BC.

This work suggests that it is possible to maintain that Paul had a lively interest in the salvation of the individual, without having to revert to traditional Lutheran interpretations of the text. It focuses on three important texts in Romans.

This book explores a variety of biblical texts in order to clarify and better understand the relationship between the individual and the community in ancient Israel. Although much of the argument is focused upon Deuteronomy and the deuteronomistic history, other pentateuchal and prophetic texts are also probed. In particular, certain instances of divine retribution that are corporate in nature are explored, and it is argued that such punishments are quite common and completely understandable of the basic theological ideas that are operative in such cases. The examination turns to other biblical texts that appear to reject the notion of corporate divine retribution (e.g., Ezekiel 18). Here the focus is on whether these texts do in fact reject all forms of corporate divine retribution and how large a shift these texts signal in the biblical understanding of the relationship between the individual and the community. Finally, Kaminsky asserts that certain theological features explored in this study can be used by those scholars who argue that the enlightenment idea of individualism needs to be balanced by a renewed philosophical and theological emphasis on the individual's responsibility to the larger society.

In this remarkable book, theologian and teacher Rev. John McKenna examines our use of sign and symbol as it pertains to the study of the Eucharist, "the source and summit" of the Church. In clear and accessible language he clarifies the use of sign and symbol from anthropological, phenomenological, Old and New Testament perspectives. He expertly analyzes historical backgrounds as well as current eucharistic theologies.

Encapsulating as it does research that has been undertaken on the sociological, anthropological and political aspects of the history of ancient Israel, this important book is designed to follow in the tradition of works in the series sponsored by The Society for Old Testament Study which began with the publication of The People and the Book in 1925. The World of Ancient Israel is especially concerned to explore in greater depth than comparable studies the areas and degrees of overlap between approaches to the subject of Old Testament research adopted by scholars and students of theology and the social sciences. Increasing numbers of scholars have recognised the valuable insights that can be gained from a cross-disciplinary approach, and it is becoming clear that the early biblical traditions about the formation of the Israelite state must be examined in the light of comparative anthropology if useful historical conclusions are to be drawn from them.