Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Bruegge... more Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Brueggemann's writing is, the chapters are deeply biblical while also concerned with the identities, practices, and obligations of religious communities in contemporary contexts within the United States. Brueggemann consistently attempts to weave the biblical texts--vested as they are with the authority of a storyteller--into the deep contours of his readers' experiences, in order to foster a tenacious solidarity that might overcome both the psychic numbness cultivated by a 24-hour news cycle as well as the anxious possessiveness nurtured by so many privatized spiritualities.
Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."
Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christ... more Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christian New Testament, and Paul in particular. The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence revives the enduring philosophical relevance and political urgency of the book of Job and thus contributes to the recent “turn toward religion” among philosophers such as Slavoj Žžk and Alain Badiou. Job is often understood to be a trite folktale about human limitation in the face of confounding and absolute transcendence; on the contrary, Hankins demonstrates that Job is a drama about the struggle to create a just and viable life in a material world that is ontologically incomplete and consequently open to radical, unpredictable transformation. Job’s abiding legacy for any future materialist theology becomes clear as Hankins analyzes Job’s dramatizations of a transcendence that is not externally opposed to but that emerges from an ontologically incomplete material world.
Endlessly cunning, elusive, and playful—the Bible consistently unsettles even as it assures. Walt... more Endlessly cunning, elusive, and playful—the Bible consistently unsettles even as it assures. Walter Brueggemann reveals exactly how Scripture exposes the inadequacy of the assumptions and habits that shape our lives. He finds inside Israel’s ancient poetry, prophecy, narrative, and legal covenants new words that create new peoples. In so doing this book provokes a theology of transformation—one that compels new social, economic, and political practices. Brueggemann’s reading reveals that we are not fated to live a life of greed, anxiety, and violence, but instead can embrace a shared life of well-being grounded in an investment in the common good. Brueggemann shows the endless ways by which the Bible provokes new life for transformed peoples.
Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East: Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Series Guide to the Bible and Economics, Volume 1 (Matthew J. M. Coomber, ed.), 2023
Job expresses several distinct desires in the poetic portions of the book of Job. Many interprete... more Job expresses several distinct desires in the poetic portions of the book of Job. Many interpreters have analyzed how Job uses legal language to express a desire to contend with God in court, and Job 23 is often cited as exemplary of this wish. However, in ch. 23 and elsewhere, Job rejects this imaginary courtroom scene as an impossibility because he experiences God’s presence as debilitating to his constitution as a subject. Job subsequently expresses a different resolve that is rooted in his actual experiences, which he describes in ways that correspond to certain psychoanalytic accounts of anxiety. In ch. 23, Job resolves to speak his way into the divine darkness that envelopes and effaces him, and this reorientation to Job’s experience and desire permits a fresh understanding of what makes Job’s perspective different from and problematic for traditional wisdom, which the three friends articulate and represent. The friends counsel Job to assume a pious posture of fear, which is u...
Job 28 poses several interpretive difficulties: its reflections about wisdom seem disembodied and... more Job 28 poses several interpretive difficulties: its reflections about wisdom seem disembodied and misplaced within the dialogue; its content, especially the final verse, seems ill-fit for the issues the book raises. Much interpretive discomfort with the poem stems from the misconception that it presents human inaccessibility to wisdom in opposition to God’s accessibility. By reassessing the poem as moving rhetorically from a metonymic (in vv.1-19) to a metaphoric logic (in vv.20-28), this article demonstrates that wisdom is displaced throughout the poem—from humans, God, and creation. Job 28 primarily opposes two different ways of relating to this displaced wisdom: the metonymic search that evokes wisdom as perpetually transcendent, versus the discovery of wisdom in metaphoric effects that appear as displaced from their causes. This reinterpretation enables more nuanced readings of v.28 as an appositive metaphor, and of the poem’s displacement in the book as appropriate to its teach...
The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence, 2014
Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christ... more Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christian New Testament, and Paul in particular. The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence revives the enduring philosophical relevance and political urgency of the book of Job and thus contributes to the recent “turn toward religion” among philosophers such as Slavoj Žžk and Alain Badiou. Job is often understood to be a trite folktale about human limitation in the face of confounding and absolute transcendence; on the contrary, Hankins demonstrates that Job is a drama about the struggle to create a just and viable life in a material world that is ontologically incomplete and consequently open to radical, unpredictable transformation. Job’s abiding legacy for any future materialist theology becomes clear as Hankins analyzes Job’s dramatizations of a transcendence that is not externally opposed to but that emerges from an ontologically incomplete material world.
We are pleased to present this collection of essays to our teacher, Carol A. Newsom, on the occas... more We are pleased to present this collection of essays to our teacher, Carol A. Newsom, on the occasion of her 65th birthday. Over her impressive career, Newsom has consistently produced erudite scholarship that has expanded, deepened, and rearranged the content and boundaries of biblical scholarship. We hope that this collection of essays will serve not only to honor her but also to contribute to her ongoing intellectual program set forth in her 2011 SBL Presidential Address.1 At that time,
The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social ant... more The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social antagonisms that shaped the contexts in which people spoke about God. This article brings recent research on the historical development of different institutional forms in ancient Israelite society into conversation with recent arguments regarding the origins and evolution of the worship of Yahweh in the southern Levant.My aim is not to reduce theology to an epiphenomenal reflection or a direct expression of social realities, but to grasp it as creatively engaged with such realities. Yahweh appears to have originated among mobile bands on the social and geographical margins with respect to the centers of political and economic power in southwest Asia. Israel’s emergent monarchic state adopted this popular family god as its patron deity. The real social antagonisms between extractive state regimes and sustainable systems of allocation shaped—in various, indirect, and surprising ways—Israel’s...
Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Bruegge... more Tenacious Solidarity features essays and new writings from 2014 to 2018. As all of Walter Brueggemann's writing is, the chapters are deeply biblical while also concerned with the identities, practices, and obligations of religious communities in contemporary contexts within the United States. Brueggemann consistently attempts to weave the biblical texts--vested as they are with the authority of a storyteller--into the deep contours of his readers' experiences, in order to foster a tenacious solidarity that might overcome both the psychic numbness cultivated by a 24-hour news cycle as well as the anxious possessiveness nurtured by so many privatized spiritualities.
Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."
Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christ... more Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christian New Testament, and Paul in particular. The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence revives the enduring philosophical relevance and political urgency of the book of Job and thus contributes to the recent “turn toward religion” among philosophers such as Slavoj Žžk and Alain Badiou. Job is often understood to be a trite folktale about human limitation in the face of confounding and absolute transcendence; on the contrary, Hankins demonstrates that Job is a drama about the struggle to create a just and viable life in a material world that is ontologically incomplete and consequently open to radical, unpredictable transformation. Job’s abiding legacy for any future materialist theology becomes clear as Hankins analyzes Job’s dramatizations of a transcendence that is not externally opposed to but that emerges from an ontologically incomplete material world.
Endlessly cunning, elusive, and playful—the Bible consistently unsettles even as it assures. Walt... more Endlessly cunning, elusive, and playful—the Bible consistently unsettles even as it assures. Walter Brueggemann reveals exactly how Scripture exposes the inadequacy of the assumptions and habits that shape our lives. He finds inside Israel’s ancient poetry, prophecy, narrative, and legal covenants new words that create new peoples. In so doing this book provokes a theology of transformation—one that compels new social, economic, and political practices. Brueggemann’s reading reveals that we are not fated to live a life of greed, anxiety, and violence, but instead can embrace a shared life of well-being grounded in an investment in the common good. Brueggemann shows the endless ways by which the Bible provokes new life for transformed peoples.
Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East: Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Series Guide to the Bible and Economics, Volume 1 (Matthew J. M. Coomber, ed.), 2023
Job expresses several distinct desires in the poetic portions of the book of Job. Many interprete... more Job expresses several distinct desires in the poetic portions of the book of Job. Many interpreters have analyzed how Job uses legal language to express a desire to contend with God in court, and Job 23 is often cited as exemplary of this wish. However, in ch. 23 and elsewhere, Job rejects this imaginary courtroom scene as an impossibility because he experiences God’s presence as debilitating to his constitution as a subject. Job subsequently expresses a different resolve that is rooted in his actual experiences, which he describes in ways that correspond to certain psychoanalytic accounts of anxiety. In ch. 23, Job resolves to speak his way into the divine darkness that envelopes and effaces him, and this reorientation to Job’s experience and desire permits a fresh understanding of what makes Job’s perspective different from and problematic for traditional wisdom, which the three friends articulate and represent. The friends counsel Job to assume a pious posture of fear, which is u...
Job 28 poses several interpretive difficulties: its reflections about wisdom seem disembodied and... more Job 28 poses several interpretive difficulties: its reflections about wisdom seem disembodied and misplaced within the dialogue; its content, especially the final verse, seems ill-fit for the issues the book raises. Much interpretive discomfort with the poem stems from the misconception that it presents human inaccessibility to wisdom in opposition to God’s accessibility. By reassessing the poem as moving rhetorically from a metonymic (in vv.1-19) to a metaphoric logic (in vv.20-28), this article demonstrates that wisdom is displaced throughout the poem—from humans, God, and creation. Job 28 primarily opposes two different ways of relating to this displaced wisdom: the metonymic search that evokes wisdom as perpetually transcendent, versus the discovery of wisdom in metaphoric effects that appear as displaced from their causes. This reinterpretation enables more nuanced readings of v.28 as an appositive metaphor, and of the poem’s displacement in the book as appropriate to its teach...
The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence, 2014
Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christ... more Recent philosophical reexaminations of sacred texts have focused almost exclusively on the Christian New Testament, and Paul in particular. The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence revives the enduring philosophical relevance and political urgency of the book of Job and thus contributes to the recent “turn toward religion” among philosophers such as Slavoj Žžk and Alain Badiou. Job is often understood to be a trite folktale about human limitation in the face of confounding and absolute transcendence; on the contrary, Hankins demonstrates that Job is a drama about the struggle to create a just and viable life in a material world that is ontologically incomplete and consequently open to radical, unpredictable transformation. Job’s abiding legacy for any future materialist theology becomes clear as Hankins analyzes Job’s dramatizations of a transcendence that is not externally opposed to but that emerges from an ontologically incomplete material world.
We are pleased to present this collection of essays to our teacher, Carol A. Newsom, on the occas... more We are pleased to present this collection of essays to our teacher, Carol A. Newsom, on the occasion of her 65th birthday. Over her impressive career, Newsom has consistently produced erudite scholarship that has expanded, deepened, and rearranged the content and boundaries of biblical scholarship. We hope that this collection of essays will serve not only to honor her but also to contribute to her ongoing intellectual program set forth in her 2011 SBL Presidential Address.1 At that time,
The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social ant... more The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social antagonisms that shaped the contexts in which people spoke about God. This article brings recent research on the historical development of different institutional forms in ancient Israelite society into conversation with recent arguments regarding the origins and evolution of the worship of Yahweh in the southern Levant.My aim is not to reduce theology to an epiphenomenal reflection or a direct expression of social realities, but to grasp it as creatively engaged with such realities. Yahweh appears to have originated among mobile bands on the social and geographical margins with respect to the centers of political and economic power in southwest Asia. Israel’s emergent monarchic state adopted this popular family god as its patron deity. The real social antagonisms between extractive state regimes and sustainable systems of allocation shaped—in various, indirect, and surprising ways—Israel’s...
The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social ant... more The historical development of Israelite theology must be understood in relation to the social antagonisms that shaped the contexts in which people spoke about God. This article brings recent research on the historical development of different institutional forms in ancient Israelite society into conversation with recent arguments regarding the origins and evolution of the worship of Yahweh in the southern Levant. 2 My aim is not to reduce theology to an epiphenomenal reflection or a direct expression of social realities, but to grasp it as creatively engaged with such realities. Yahweh appears to have originated among mobile bands on the social and geographical margins with respect to the centers of political and economic power in southwest Asia. Israel's emergent monarchic state adopted this popular family god as its patron deity. The real social antagonisms between extractive state regimes and sustainable systems of allocation shaped—in various, indirect, and surprising ways—Israel's speech about God. This article argues that the conflicted historical development of Israel's speech about Yahweh takes its shape in relation to the evolving social regimes and antagonisms that marked Israel's history.
Throughout Second Temple Judaism many understood human subjectivity as nite, but this nitude was ... more Throughout Second Temple Judaism many understood human subjectivity as nite, but this nitude was conceptualized in different ways. For most, humans are nite because they are limited or excluded from an ideal fullness that lies beyond them. In contrast, for Qohelet human subjects are limited because God has hard-wired a non-nite condition within them. Human being is split, barred from any sense of ful llment and kept open to a perpetual process of becoming something different. Moreover, as Qohelet repeatedly notes in his refrain that everything is , this essential alienation is shared throughout the material and social worlds. For Qohelet, this condition is also creative. It enables subjects to experience affects and forge social solidarities that are not determined by their material conditions and social relations. Ecclesiastes conjures moral agents out of this shared alienation by making their affective attachments to the world and to others an ethical concern. Far from trite endorsements of simple pleasures, Qohelet's exhortations to enjoy force subjects to re ect critically on how they respond to and create social and political projects. Ecclesiastes' commendations of enjoyment push readers to immerse themselves passionately in their singularity, even while they summon readers beyond normative sociality to active participation in the constant transformation of their social and individual lives.
Uploads
Books by Davis Hankins
Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."
Papers by Davis Hankins
Brueggemann brings the "transformative potential" of the biblical texts to bear on critical contemporary contexts, including but not limited to economic disparities, racial injustice and white supremacy, climate and care for creation, and the power of memory and mentoring. He delves deeply in the Psalms, which he says, "provides a foundational script for living into the fullest and deepest realities of human existence." And he draws from the Prophets his foundational concept of totalism, which he defines as "automated fragmentation of social life such that we habitually and callously disregard our relations with others."