In today's confused and confusing world, it is good to be shown once more that God is never absent. That is the heartening message of 'Ichabod toward Home'. In this volume one of today's most respected biblical scholars explores the nature of God's glory, using the engaging story of the ark of the covenant to illuminate the meaning of God's presence - not only for the ancient Israelites but for the whole world. Offering a unique entry into Old Testament theology, Walter Brueggemann examines 1 Samuel 4-6, the biblical text in which the ark of God is captured by the Philistines, seen to be a dangerous threat, and finally returned to Israel. In looking anew at what this story reveals about God's glory - or kabod, from which the name Ichabod derives - Brueggemann builds a powerful new theology of God's sovereignty. Additionally, Brueggemann demonstrates that this ancient story of the ark has profound relevance today. The three-day story of the ark's capture, detention, and return is transposed, first, into the three-day Christian story of Easter and, second, into the three days of the modern consumer weekend. In a provocative contemporary application of Old Testament theology, Brueggemann shows that the Ark narrative, in its rendering of God's glory, strongly contradicts the dominant narrative of our own culture, with its strident emphasis on self-indulgence, narcissism, and self-sufficiency.

In this book, an Old Testament scholar, a psychologist and a religious educator come together to reflect on the three elements of Micah 6:8. How do the scriptures require us to respond to the problems of the real world? How can we maintain love in our ministrations to others? How can we speak with real authority while still keeping our humility? The book is geared to assist believers to see how Micah 6:8 helps to provide a convergence point for praxis and spirituality.

Why bother with the interpretive categories of biblical faith when in fact our energy and interest are focused on more immediate matters? The answer is simple and obvious. We linger because, in the midst of our immediate preoccupation with our felt jeopardy and our hope for relief, our imagination does indeed range beyond the immediate to larger, deeper wonderments. Our free-ranging imagination is not finally or fully contained in the immediacy of our stress, anxiety, and jeopardy. Beyond these demanding immediacies, we have a deep sense that our life is not fully contained in the cause-and-effect reasoning of the Enlightenment that seeks to explain and control. There is more than that and other than that to our life in God’s world!

This volume presents a collection of essays aimed at further integration of literary analysis in the study of the Hebrew Bible. In three sections, Bodner studies a range of texts in order to illustrate that literary analysis has value for exploring numerous issues in the discipline, including text-critical problems, the Deuteronomistic History, and Chronicles. Beginning with a discussion of how literary analysis is a vital, yet neglected, component of textual criticism, Bodner then offers a sustained engagement with one particular section of the Hebrew Bible, the so-called "ark narrative" of 1 Samuel 4-6. Other areas of the Hebrew Bible are subsequently explored, including a sample of the historiographic material in the Deuteronomistic History and a lengthy text from the book of Proverbs. Part four turns to the often neglected books of 1 & 2 Chronicles, illustrating how the Chronicler's work is a congenial site for literary study. The assembled essays petition for a heightened awareness of the artistic achievement of the Hebrew Bible and illustrate that literary thinking is a necessary component for biblical interpretation.

For many cultures throughout history, honor and shame have been foundational concepts for understanding and evaluating reality. In this study of the first seven chapters of 1 Samuel, Dr. Bin Kang establishes that ancient Israel was such a culture. Utilizing social-scientific criticism and careful linguistic analysis, Kang explores the honor/shame framework as an interpretive lens for reading the Old Testament, specifically the Eli/Samuel and Saul/David episodes, and the rich thematic threads that such a reading brings to light. He demonstrates the narrator’s intentional juxtaposition of honor and shame at the beginning of Samuel’s narrative, and its role in establishing a system of judgement for evaluating Israel’s leaders throughout the rest of 1 and 2 Samuel. Ultimately, it is the choice to render right honor to God – or to claim it for oneself – that determines the rise and fall, election or rejection, of both priests and kings. While making an important contribution to Old Testament scholarship, Kang also includes practical implications for the church in contemporary honor/shame cultures, especially in Asia.

Ancient stories invoking contemporary questions and providing insight for an uncertain future The Road to Kingship is the second volume in the A People and a Land trilogy and presents a chapter-by-chapter interpretation of 1–2 Samuel, based on the author’s translation. Johanna van Wijk-Bos reacquaints readers with familiar stories like David and Goliath while also introducing them to lesser-known biblical personalities like Doeg the Edomite and the wily servant Ziba. She offers guidance along the path taken by the Israelites during the rise of the united monarchy. The books of Samuel unfold before us with multiple voices. One voice endorses a spontaneous charismatic form of leadership, alongside another that argues for hereditary kingship. In listening to the different voices, we will prefer some rather than others; we may turn our backs on texts that sing a melody we are no longer able to join. As readers, we enter into the text with our questions and in our very questioning tentatively find a way forward and draw closer to the presence of the Most Holy.