Drought, famine, plague and pestilence
Subtitle: ancient Israel's understandings of and responses to natural catastrophes
By: by Warren Robertson
Publisher: Gorgias Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Piscataway, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
Description: Robertson integrates textual analysis of the Hebrew Bible and comparable ancient Near Eastern material with social theory and archaeology in order to articulate ancient Israel's assumptions about natural catastrophes, as well as their intellectual and theological challenges and reconstructions thereto.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Chapt. I. Introduction; title: Thesis and purpose of this study; title: Definitions of terms; title: Methodology and presuppositions; title: Why study understandings of and responses to natural catastrophes?; title: A brief survey of related studies; title: Specific studies; title: Outline of this study; title: chapt. II. Natural catastrophes in the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds; title: chapt. III. Social theory: doxa, crisis and cognitive dissonance; title: The Durkheimian tradition; title: Pierre Bourdieu and doxa; title: Leon Festinger and cognitive dissonance; title: chapt. IV. Understandings of and responses to natural catastrophe among peoples of the ancient Near East/ancient Israel; title: Treaty curse tradition; title: The flood tradition; title: Exodus 32:1, 35; title: Numbers 16; title: 1 Samuel 4:1b, 7:1; title: 2 Samuel 24:1, 24; title: Prophets; title: Discussion; title: Summary; title: Chapt. V. Practical and ritualistic responses to natural catastrophes among peoples of the ancient Near East, including ancient Israel; title: Practical responses; title: Ritualistic responses; title: Chapt. VI. Summary and conclusions; title: Appendix a. The late Israelite/Judean monarchy: an era of cumulative trauma; title: Appendix b. Durkheimian social theory in Old Testament study and recent sociology; title: Appendix c. Curses from ancient Near Eastern texts.