Continuum Alterity Pain and Suffering: v. 479 (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)

This book explores alterity, pain, and suffering though readings of selected passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. It uses reading methods drawn from modern literary theory, cultural geography, social psychology, and moral philosophy to read these ancient texts from the viewpoint of twenty-first century interests. Mills aims is to focus on the absolute reality of pain, suffering, and difference in human experience and to find the values contained in these experiences; thus it intends to produce a Narrative Ethics approach to the Old Testament. Mills argues that these selected biblical texts provide evidence of human interrogation of the meaning and value of pain and loss in human experience. The ways in which these texts interweave the subjective voice of the prophet with the life experience of the wider society offer the modern reader a resource for exploring contemporary concerns such as embodiment, landscape, and horror. Series editors, Claudia Camp and Andrew Mein, were formerly of "Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement", a book series that featured original and creative approaches to the interpretation of Old Testament literature. "The Bible in the 21st Century" series, a part of JSOTS, seeks to examine contemporary authoritative and cultural meanings of bibles by focusing on the processes of transmission, readership and actualization of biblical texts up to and including the twenty-first century. The series explores issues related to contemporary culture and the place of the bible and religion within it. Copenhagen International Seminar is also part of JSOTS.