Recommended Books Feature?
Dear Friends,
In anticipation of so many of us moving into parish and academic life beyond the Triangle area in coming months (and some of us are already part of the Duke diaspora), I wonder if we might be able to add a feature to this blog to share news of books/resources that we feel are worthy of sharing for each other's attention. I know that sharing with several of you has been a huge part of my Duke education. I have bought countless books because some of you have suggested them to me and I hope that will continue.
To that end, I want to share the news of a new commentary that I appreciate: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter.
I became a big-time fan of Robert Alter as a result of Ellen Davis' having us use his Five Books of Moses in our 2005-6 OT survey class. He is a great resource for literary analysis of the OT and especially for David.
You can find a review of Alter's latest commentary here.
In anticipation of so many of us moving into parish and academic life beyond the Triangle area in coming months (and some of us are already part of the Duke diaspora), I wonder if we might be able to add a feature to this blog to share news of books/resources that we feel are worthy of sharing for each other's attention. I know that sharing with several of you has been a huge part of my Duke education. I have bought countless books because some of you have suggested them to me and I hope that will continue.
To that end, I want to share the news of a new commentary that I appreciate: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter.
I became a big-time fan of Robert Alter as a result of Ellen Davis' having us use his Five Books of Moses in our 2005-6 OT survey class. He is a great resource for literary analysis of the OT and especially for David.
You can find a review of Alter's latest commentary here.
posted by Unknown at 8:35 AM
4 Comments:
Craig,
If you like Alter, you should definitely read The Art of Biblical Narrative. Excellent book!
Yes, Tom, I read it in doing a paper on David for Ellen in 2006. That's when I put him on my list of authors to follow.
I'm sorry, I just had to laugh at the reviewer in The New Republic (quoted in the Episcopal Cafe review). If "he restores my soul" is supposed to evoke the resurrection--which had never occurred to me--then it evokes a gnostic, bodyless resurrection (which is what most people believe in, anyway). But "my life he brings back"? Now that's real resurrection!
The comment on Psalm 2 is interesting, too ("You are my Son; today I have begotten thee" vs. "You are My son"). Psalm 2 is clearly talking about a davidic king, but that doesn't mean it can't be re-read in the light of the definitive davidic king. Perhaps Alter's translation will help people avoid the mistake of thinking that certain passages in the Psalms are about Christ and the rest aren't; they all aren't, and they all are.
At least, this is what I teach my high school students. I hope I'm right!
I should have warned you, Tom. The Episcopal Cafe is the site of the moderate-to-liberal wing of the Episcopal Church. So you picked up on a common theology in that part of our community pretty well - the belief in a gnostic, bodyless resurrection would mark the author as a bit of a radical, simply because it suggests a belief in the resurrection at all. I imagine the author was chastised by many of his liberal friends for suggesting such a thing.
On that I imagine Phil Anderas and I agree. :-)
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