Prayers and the Construction of Israelite Identity
About this ebook
This collection of essays from an international group of scholars focuses on how biblical prayers of the Persian and early Hellenistic periods shaped identity, evoked a sense of belonging to specific groups, and added emotional significance to this affiliation. Contributors draw examples from different biblical texts, including Genesis, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Psalms, Jonah, and Daniel.
Features
- Thorough study of prayers that play a key role for a biblical book’s (re)construction of the people’s history and identity
- An examination of ways biblical figures are remodeled by their prayers by introducing other, sometimes even contradictory, discourses on identity
- An exploration of different ways in which psalms from postexilic times shaped, reflected, and modified identity discourses
About the author
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher is Professor of Biblical/ Old Testament Studies at the University of Linz, Austria. She is coeditor of the journal Bible in the Arts.
Maria Häusl is Professor for Biblical Studies at the Technical University of Dresden and Research Associate at the Department of Old Testament Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
