Inspired Speech was originally published as a Festschrift to honor the work of Professor Herbert B. Huffmon, Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Drew University. Thirty-three of his colleagues and students contributed to the work, which explores various aspects of prophecy in ancient Israel and its neighboring cultures. The result is a volume which provides an excellent overview of the current state and future directions of scholarship on prophecy in the biblical world. Contributors: Suzanne Richard, Frank Moore Cross, George E. Mendenhall, Martti Nissinen, Robert R. Wilson, Mary Chilton Callaway, Peggy L. Day, Daniel E. Fleming, David Noel Freedman, Rebecca Frey, Alberto R. Green, Edward L. Greenstein, Baruch A. Levine, David Marcus, Harry P. Nasuti, J. J. M. Roberts, Jack M. Sasson, Karel van der Toorn, Lyn M. Bechtel, Milton Eng, John Kaltner, John I. Lawlor, David A. Leiter, Jesse C. Long, Jr, Mark Sneed, Jongsoo Park, Eric A. Seibert, Louis Stulman, Alex Varughese, William W. Hallo, Michael S. Moore, Mary-Louise Mussell, Paul A. Riemann

Jeremiah (Dis)Placed collects the best of the papers and responses presented to the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the Writing/Reading Jeremiah Group (SBL) offering an assessment of new interpretative directions in current Jeremiah Studies. The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group was re-launched at the 2007 annual meeting of the SBL. Its purpose is to invite new readings and constructions of meaning with the book of Jeremiah "this side" of historicist paradigms and postmodernism. The group welcomes all strategies of reading Jeremiah that seek to reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional readings of Jeremiah. Their manifesto: not by compositional history alone, nor biographical portrayal alone, nor their accompanying theological superstructures; rather, we seek interpretation from new spaces opened for reading Jeremiah by the postmodern turn.

Troubling Jeremiah presents essays by Jeremiah scholars who are troubled by the biblical book and give the scholarship on Jeremiah trouble in turn. Essays seek to move beyond the Duhm-Mowinckel source criticism of the book to address matters of metaphor, final form, intertextuality, and the relationship of the book to various audiences of readers. Taken together, the 24 essays in this volume press for an end to 'innocent' readings of Jeremiah inasmuch as current models prove inadequate for troubling the very Jeremiah they have already helped to reveal.

Using a thematic approach, David A. deSilva gives a brief introduction and summary of the largely unknown and unappreciated books of the Apocrypha. He also gives an overview to the social and cultural context of the world of the Apocrypha and early Christianity. From there, the book highlights the Apocrypha s relevance and impact on Christian practices, spiritual formation, and on Early Church doctrine and theology."

The Book of Jeremiah is one of the longest, most complex and influential writings in the Hebrew Bible. It comprises poetic oracles, prose sermons, and narratives of the prophet, as well as laments, symbolic actions, and utterances of hope from one of the most turbulent periods in the history of ancient Judah and Israel. Written by some of the most influential contemporary biblical interpreters today, The Oxford Handbook of Jeremiah offers compelling new readings of the text informed by a rich variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. In presenting discussions of the Book of Jeremiah in terms of its historical and cultural contexts of origins, textual and literary history, major internal themes, reception history, and significance for a number of key political issues, The Handbook examines the fascinating literary tradition of the Book of Jeremiah while also surveying recent scholarship. The result is a synthetic anthology that offers a significant contribution to the field as well as an indispensable resource for scholars and non-specialists alike.

Walter Brueggemann is one of the most highly regarded Old Testament scholars of our time; talk-show host Krista Tippett has even called him "a kind of theological rock star." In this new book Brueggemann probes the tasks performed by the ancient prophets of Israel and points out striking correlations between the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 b.c.e. and the catastrophic crisis of 9/11 in a.d. 2001. Brueggemann identifies a characteristic ideology of "exceptionalism" - chosenness, entitlement, privilege - which must be countered by prophetic realism and truth-telling. Denial must give way to honest grief. And, finally, widespread despair must be overcome by a buoyant hope. This sequence of ideology-realism, denial-grief, and despair-hope corresponds to Brueggemann's unpacking of the books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Isaiah. Thoughtful readers will find provocative fare aplenty in Brueggemann's Reality, Grief, Hope.

Life of Meaning Anthology: Introductory Readings in Religion invites students to consider an array of existential queries that also serve as core questions for conversations on world religious traditions. Readers evaluate questions of meaning, faith, and vocation through enduring religious and philosophical texts. Part I encourages readers to consider big questions of life: What is most important? What does it mean to be human? Is there more to life than meets the eye? What obligation do I have to others and to the world? Part II introduces students to the study of religion and presents religion as a source of truth-claims. In additional parts, students explore seminal texts and perspectives within the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The final section of the anthology addresses contemporary issues of religion, including interreligious dialogue, religion and science, the effects of internet on religion, and religion and the environment. Inviting students to consider spirituality and their understanding of the world and their place in it, Life of Meaning Anthology is ideal for introductory courses in religious studies.

In this varied collection of essays, Walter Brueggemann provides a lens into biblical teachings concerning the present age of fake news, lies, and alternate realities. Compiled and edited by Louis Stulman, professor of religion at the University of Findlay, these essays carry a common theme of truth and hope. As Brueggemann writes in the preface, there is no doubt that the prophetic tradition regularly engages in truth-telling in order to expose social reality as a systemic act of falseness that contradicts the purposes of God. The prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, for instance, is preoccupied with truth-telling that exposes falseness. The prophet exposes the deceit of dominant culture. That same prophetic tradition (like many others) turns eventually to the work of hope-telling. Such hope does not doubt that the faithful God can create futures, a way out of no way. The sequence from truth to hope in the book of Jeremiah is characteristic of the prophetic books of the Old Testament. These several prophetic voices (that gave canonical shape to the prophetic books) knew that this sequence is definingly important. There can be no hope until truth is told. Our temptation, of course, is to do the work of hope without the prior work of truth. Readers will find this collection of essays to be theologically rooted in the concept of prophetic tradition as a means of truth-telling. Brueggemann explores that, without God, truth-telling is nothing more than harping, and hope-telling is only wishful thinking.

Jeremiah (Dis)Placed collects the best of the papers and responses presented to the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the Writing/Reading Jeremiah Group (SBL) offering an assessment of new interpretative directions in current Jeremiah Studies. The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group was re-launched at the 2007 annual meeting of the SBL. Its purpose is to invite new readings and constructions of meaning with the book of Jeremiah "this side" of historicist paradigms and postmodernism. The group welcomes all strategies of reading Jeremiah that seek to reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional readings of Jeremiah. Their manifesto: not by compositional history alone, nor biographical portrayal alone, nor their accompanying theological superstructures; rather, we seek interpretation from new spaces opened for reading Jeremiah by the postmodern turn.

This is a key book on the background and future direction of scholarship prophecy in the biblical world. "Inspired Speech" was originally published as a Festschrift to honor the work of Professor Herbert B. Huffmon, Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Drew University. Thirty-three of his colleagues and students contributed to the work, which explores various aspects of prophecy in ancient Israel and its neighboring cultures. The result is a volume which provides an excellent overview of the current state and future directions of scholarship on prophecy in the biblical world.The contributors include: Suzanne Richard, Frank Moore Cross, George E. Mendenhall, Martti Nissinen, Robert R. Wilson, Mary Chilton Callaway, Peggy L. Day, Daniel E. Fleming, David Noel Freedman, Rebecca Frey, Alberto R. Green, Edward L. Greenstein, Baruch A. Levine, David Marcus, Harry P. Nasuti, J. J. M. Roberts, Jack M. Sasson, Karel van der Toorn, Lyn M. Bechtel, Milton Eng, John Kaltner, John I. Lawlor, David A. Leiter, Jesse C. Long, Jr, Mark Sneed, Jongsoo Park, Eric A. Seibert, Louis Stulman, Alex Varughese, William W. Hallo, Michael S. Moore, Mary-Louise Mussell, and Paul A. Riemann.Over the last 30 years, this pioneering series has established an unrivalled reputation for cutting-edge international scholarship in Biblical Studies and has attracted leading authors and editors in the field. The series takes many original and creative approaches to its subjects, including innovative work from historical and theological perspectives, social-scientific and literary theory, and more recent developments in cultural studies and reception history.