The prophets of the Old Testament use a wide variety of metaphors to describe God and to portray people in relation to God. Some of these metaphors are familiar and soothing; others are unfamiliar and confusing. Still others portray God in ways that are difficult and uncomfortable--God as abusive husband, for instance, or as neglectful father. Julia O'Brien searches the prophetic books for these metaphors, looking for ways in which the different images intersect and build off each other. When confronted with disturbing metaphors, she deals with them unflinchingly, providing a sharp critique and evaluation of the interpretations of these metaphors for God. Giving particular attention to the possible uses of these metaphors in the church today--for good or ill--O'Brien listens to the fullness of the prophetic messages and points us toward new ways to read these theological metaphors for a just faith today.

Challenging Prophetic Metaphor: Theology and Ideology in the Prophets

Literature & Fiction

O'Brien, Julia M.

History & Criticism

Westminster/John Knox Press

Prophets beyond Activisminsightfully challenges the common progressive narrative that the prophets of ancient Israel were primarily concerned with social justice. Instead it daringly offers more life-giving ways of engaging the prophetic books for the causes of justice. The assumption that the prophets of ancient Israel were primarily concerned with social justice so permeates the thinking and the discourse of progressive Christianity that it might be considered an interpretive orthodoxy. For example, progressives characterize prophets as those who speak truth to power and "prophetic preaching" as social critique. Yet, they often do so without explanation or consideration of alternative views. In this volume, Julia O'Brien challenges the notion that the prophets were solely concerned with the same issues as contemporary social justice movements. Reading prophetic texts with an eye to their historical dimensions--when they were written, how they were edited--complicates any definitive statement about the role of prophets in the past. Reading alongside readers from diverse racial, gender, and other social locations in the present raises hard questions about whosejustice these books actually promote. Despite its self-presentation as a scholarly and scientific viewpoint, the "prophets as social activists" orthodoxy was constructed in a particular time and place and in its usage today perpetuates many of the problematic ideologies of its origins. In response to these concerns, O'Brien offers alternative readings of the prophets for the sake of justice. Chapters explore the value of Amos and Micah for contemporary economic ethics; the dynamics of inclusivity and exclusivity in Isaiah; opportunities for reading Jeremiah as the voice of a community rather than a solitary figure; and the limits of Second Isaiah's creation theology for addressing the climate crisis. This is a wide-ranging volume, interweaving careful readings of biblical texts within their literary and historical contexts, the history of prophetic interpretation, and attentiveness to feminist, womanist, and postcolonial voices, including engagement with contemporary thought such as trauma theory and intersectional analysis of the climate crisis. Prophets beyond Activismcalls readers to a more honest and humbler activism, speaking in their own voices about the demands and possibilities of justice.

Prophets beyond Activism: Rethinking the Prophetic Roots of Social Justice

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

The six books found at the close of the Minor Prophets (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) present distinctive understandings of God, humanity, and the future. This commentary engages those understandings, considers what the books may have meant in the past, and describes how they resonate with contemporary readers. With attention to issues of gender, violence, and inclusivity, O'Brien explores the ethical challenges of the books and asks how faithful readers can both acknowledge the problems these biblical books raise and appreciate their value for contemporary theological reflection.

Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (Hebrew Edition)

ABINGDON PRESS *

The Yahweh/Baal Confrontation and Other Studies in Biblical Literature and Archaeology (Studies in the Bible & Early Christianity)

Politics & Social Sciences

Archaeology

Edwin Mellen Pr

This volume brings gender studies to bear on Micah’s powerful rhetoric, interpreting the book within its ancient and modern contexts. Julia M. O’Brien traces resonances of Micah’s language within the Persian Period community in which the book was composed, evaluating recent study of the period and the dynamics of power reflected in ancient sources. Also sampling the book’s reception by diverse readers in various time periods, she considers the real-life implications of Micah’s gender constructs. By bringing the ancient and modern contexts of Micah into view, the volume encourages readers to reflect on the significance of Micah’s construction of the world. Micah’s perspective on sin, salvation, the human condition, and the nature of YHWH affects the way people live—in part by shaping their own thought and in part by shaping the power structures in which they live. O’Brien’s engagement with Micah invites readers to discern in community their own hopes and dreams: What is justice? What should the future look like? What should we hope for? From the Wisdom Commentary series Feminist biblical interpretation has reached a level of maturity that now makes possible a commentary series on every book of the Bible. It is our hope that Wisdom Commentary, by making the best of current feminist biblical scholarship available in an accessible format to ministers, preachers, teachers, scholars, and students, will aid all readers in their advancement toward God’s vision of dignity, equality, and justice for all. The aim of this commentary is to provide feminist interpretation of Scripture in serious, scholarly engagement with the whole text, not only those texts that explicitly mention women. A central concern is the world in front of the text, that is, how the text is heard and appropriated by women. At the same time, this commentary aims to be faithful to the ancient text, to explicate the world behind the text, where appropriate, and not impose contemporary questions onto the ancient texts. The commentary addresses not only issues of gender (which are primary in this project) but also those of power, authority, ethnicity, racism, and classism, which all intersect. Each volume incorporates diverse voices and differing interpretations from different parts of the world, showing the importance of social location in the process of interpretation and that there is no single definitive feminist interpretation of a text.

Micah (Volume 37) (Wisdom Commentary Series)

Liturgical Press

Priest and Levite in Malachi (Society of Biblical Literature)

Judaism

Scholars Pr

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