Bloomsbury Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies): 677

The purpose of this volume is twofold: to introduce readers to the study of cultural memory and identity in relation to the Hebrew Bible, and to set up strategies for connecting studies of the historical contexts and literature of the Bible to parallel issues in the present day. The volume questions how we can better understand the divide between insider and outsider and the powerful impact of prejudice as a basis for preserving differences between 'us' and 'them'? In turn the contributors question how such frameworks shape a community's self-perception, its economics and politics. Guided by the general framework of Anderson's theory of nationalism and the outsider, such issues are explored in related ways throughout each of the contributions. Each contribution focuses on social, economic, or political issues that have significantly shaped or influenced dominant elements of cultural memory and the construction of identity in the biblical texts. Together the contributions present a larger proposal: the broad contours of memory and identity in the Bible are the products of a collective desire to reshape the social-political world. Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Introduction - Jeremiah W. Cataldo, Grand Valley State University, USA Part I: Models and Memories: Theories on the Formation and Impact of Cultural Memories 2. Social Sciences Models and Mnemonic/Imagined Worlds: Exploring Their Interrelations in Ancient Israel - Ehud ben Zvi, University of Alberta, Canada Part II: Imagined Worlds with Real Impacts: Strategies for Interpreting Economic, Political, and Social Impacts of Imagined Communities 3. The Assassination of Amon and the Crisis of Assyrian Imperialism - Brad Crowell, Drake University, USA 4. Nehemiah's Socio-economic Reform: Principles and Accomplishments - Kyong-Jin Lee, Fuller Theological Seminary, USA 5. Veiled Resistance: The Cognitive Dissonance of Vision in Genesis 38 - Carolyn Alsen, University of Divinity; Australian Catholic University, Australia 6. Those At Ease Have Contempt For Misfortune Biblical Approaches To Challenging Anti Poor Sentiment - Matthew Coomber, St. Ambrose University, USA 7. A Taste for Wisdom: Aesthetics, Moral Discernment, and Social Class in Proverbs - Mark Sneed, Lubbock Christian University, USA Part III: Benedict Anderson's 'Nationalism' and the Outsider: Building Communities by Rejecting Differences; and the Limits of the Bible's Imagined World/Community 8. Biblical Strategies for Reinterpreting Crises with 'Outsiders' - Jeremiah Cataldo, Grand Valley State University, USA 9. Multinationality and the Utopian Project: The Case of Actually Existing Israel = Roland Boer, The University of Newcastle, Australia Bibliography Index