Worlds that could not be
Subtitle: Utopia in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah
By: edited by Steven J. Schweitzer and Frauke Uhlenbruch
Series: Library of Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Studies -- 620; T & T Clark library of biblical studies; Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies -- 620.; T & T Clark library of biblical studies
Publisher: Bloomsbury T & T Clark
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
ISBN-13: 9780567664051; 9780567664044
Subjects: Bible; Utopie; Utopias; Criticism, interpretation; Bibel; Biblical teaching
Description: The idea of Utopia was first made current and popular by Sir Thomas More with the publication of his book by the same name in 1516. The 'no-place' that was created has had a fantastic reception history, which makes its application to the biblical books of Nehemiah, Ezra and Chronicles as vibrant as the current scholarship which is ongoing into the Renaissance term and its implications. The essays in this collection take different approaches to the question: are there proto-utopian elements in the three books from the Hebrew Bible? Methodological considerations are to be found, but each essay also moves beyond the methodological constraint to raise the hypothetical question of 'what if?' in different ways. The essays evaluate the potential, and pitfalls, of reading Biblical books as (proto-)utopian. Topics include how utopia construct intricate counter-realities, and how to tell whether a proposal diagnosed as 'utopian' from a modern point of view is meant to motivate its audience to political action. Case studies which read aspects of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah as potential utopian traits include the restoration project of Ezra-Nehemiah and the rejection of foreign wives, utopian concerns in Chronicles, as well as the empire's role in writing a putative utopia, and King Solomon as a utopian fantasy-king
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. Testing utopia as a contemporary method in biblical studies. Worlds that could not be: realism and irrealism in Thomas More's Utopia / Terje Stordalen; title: "Utopia where it is to be hoped that the coffee is a little less sour"?: Dr Who's "Utopia" and Chronicles / Gerrie Snyman; title: World-building and temple-building: a game of utopian pastiche in 2 Chronicles 1-9 / Frauke Uhlenbruch; title: Part II. After exile, under empire: utopian identity negotiations in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles; title: Exile, empire, and prophecy: reframing utopian concerns in Chronicles / Steven J. Schweitzer; title: Re-negotiating a putative utopia and the stories of the rejection of foreign wives in Ezra-Nehemiah / Ehud Ben Zvi; title: Writing and the Chronicler: authorship, ambivalence, and utopia / Donald Polaski; title: Utopia in agony: the role of prejudice in Ezra-Nehemiah's ideal for restoration / Jeremiah Cataldo; title: Part III. Searching for the place: theologies of Utopia. Taking the reader into utopia / Matthias Jendrek; title: Die Suche nach dem ort in der Chronik: eine u-topie? / Thomas Willi; title: Response / Vincent Geoghegan.