Books by Jeremiah Cataldo
Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2019
In A Social-Political History of Monotheism, Cataldo shows how political concerns were fundamenta... more In A Social-Political History of Monotheism, Cataldo shows how political concerns were fundamental to the development of Judeo-Christian monotheism. Beginning with the disruptive and devastating historical events that shook early Israelite culture and ending with the seemingly victorious emergence of Christianity under the Byzantine Empire, this work highlights critical junctures marking the path from political frustration to imperial ideology. Monotheism, Cataldo argues, was not an enlightened form of religion; rather, it was a cultic response to effluent anxieties pouring out from under the crushing weight of successive empires. This provocative work is a valuable tool for anyone with an interest in the development of early Christianity alongside empires and cultures.
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Articles and Chapters by Jeremiah Cataldo
(See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09018328.2024.2320933 for the final version publ... more (See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09018328.2024.2320933 for the final version published in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament.) Hosea presents an exaggerated, agenda-driven image of Israel and Judah, adopting metaphors that convey an intelligentsia’s imagined ideal. But Hosea’s use of metaphors is neither essential nor linear. It is fluid, blurring boundaries in gender and role, while also affirming the potential of an idealized community. Transbodied metaphors blur the lines between gender, role, and identity. They describe a process of transformation, or transfiguration, frequently in pornographic manner. Such blurring is an intentional disruption. It is also what destabilizes conventional expectations enough to allow for a re-imagined, or even transfigured, identity. This reflected the literati’s hope for a re-instituted Israel. This study argues for a new understanding of how metaphors are used in Hosea.
Religions, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible (Bloomsbury/T&T Cark), 2019
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 2020
This article experiments with the applicability of modern trauma studies in applied interpretatio... more This article experiments with the applicability of modern trauma studies in applied interpretations of Lamentations. Using theories from Kai Erickson, Cathy Caruth, Ruth Leys, and more, this work will propose that Lamentations as a literary creation in response to trauma assumes the existence of its community beyond the trauma in which it was born.
Sedaqah and Torah in Postexilic Discourse, 2017
Worlds that Could Not Be (editors S. Schweitzer and F. Uhlenbruch; T&T Clark), 2016
A century and a half or, more precisely, the 139 years from deportation of the eighteen-year-old ... more A century and a half or, more precisely, the 139 years from deportation of the eighteen-year-old Jehoiachin to the arrival of Ezra in Judah (458) was time enough for the Jewish community in and around Nippur to have settled down and developed its own modus vivendi, institutions, traditions, and no doubt parties and factions. 1
Methods, Theories, and Imagination: Social Scientific Approaches in Biblical Studies
Imagining & Remembering the Other and Constructing Israelite Identities in the Early Second Temple Period
Bible and Critical Theory, 2012
Reading the biblical narrative of Esther -a narrative giving way to the ritualized Feast of Purim... more Reading the biblical narrative of Esther -a narrative giving way to the ritualized Feast of Purimagainst more recent testimonies and accounts of anti-Semitism demonstrates common patterns in social, political, and religious responses to conflict. When studied carefully, these patterns support a common model capable of cross-cultural application. This model supports the fundamental thesis that anti-Semitism is not simply a belief but a conflict over identity that produces beliefs and behavioral patterns consistent with deep-rooted prejudices. Moreover, this conflict is typically an "absolute conflict" disguised as an "institutional conflict", terms that will be defined, and is usually triggered by perceived interruptions to institutionalized power. Studies of anti-Semitism must always include detailed understandings of both the identity of the perpetrator and the identity of the victim.
The Bible and Critical Theory, 2008
The main objective of this investigation is an articulated definition of the term and concept gol... more The main objective of this investigation is an articulated definition of the term and concept golah that is tenable within social-scientific method. Through a cross-cultural comparison of the nature and organisation of the ummah under Muhammad in Yathrib/Medina with the nature and organisation the golah community in Yehud, this investigation will argue that the golah community (as portrayed in Ezra-Nehemiah) compares in many ways with the ummah, a 'religious tribe.' As a result, the ummah can be used as a cross-cultural model against which to refine a definition of golah, comparing the idealised portrait of the community in Ezra-Nehemiah with the 'portrait' arrived at through cross-cultural analysis. By analysing key structural components of the ummah and comparing those components with those of the golah community, this study will highlight some of the structural and characteristic traits of the golah community. It should be noted that my discussion of the term ummah focuses on its structure and purpose in Yathrib rather than on the more evolved and evolving theological usage of the term in the Quran.
Journal for The Study of The Old Testament, 2003
J. Weinberg's political and social theory, Bürger-Tempel-Gemeinde ('citizen-temple community'), h... more J. Weinberg's political and social theory, Bürger-Tempel-Gemeinde ('citizen-temple community'), has been widely accepted as the social model for the community (or communities) of Yehud during the Persian period. Proceeding from this proposed social model many scholars have offered sociological theories for a political structure of Yehud. But it is possible that Weinberg's theory is inadequate for the context, due in part to the general omission of the role of the Persian Empire and its political concerns, factors which most certainly demand attention. By means of a critical review of the model in reference to the book of Nehemiah, this paper explores and discusses Weinberg's proposal of two economies which would later merge to become a theocratic state, and argues that such a proposal misappropriates the evidence. Such misappropriation is due in part to Weinberg's heavy reliance upon the cult and its leaders for the political structure. This reliance must be addressed by setting the cultic leaders within their proper context: unof cial spin-doctors of sorts. With reference to the political structure, then, of cial governors, appointed by Persian authority, headed the political structure of the society and must be incorporated into any model seeking to be adequate for the context. Throughout, this study addresses Weinberg's assertion of two coexistent economies; tyb twb) (which roughly refers to a social mechanism for identity and solidarity) as infrastructure; and the substantiation of the role of governor separate from the cult; as well as various other elements to the Bürger-Tempel-Gemeinde theory itself.
Scandinavian Journal of The Old Testament, 2010
To provide collective meaning to displacement and subsequent immigration, the authors of the Pers... more To provide collective meaning to displacement and subsequent immigration, the authors of the Persian-period Hebrew texts such as Ezra-Nehemiah construct a schema of theocratic utopia. To be clear, however, the expressed theocratic aspirations of the golah community can only be described in utopian terms because a theocracy had never existed previously in
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Books by Jeremiah Cataldo
Articles and Chapters by Jeremiah Cataldo