Monday 16 November 2009 A God So Near

The afterward book review was published in Immediate and Expositor 101 (2004): 782-784.A God So Near: Essays on Old Testament Holiness in Note of Patrick D. Miller, ed. by Brent S. Strawn and Nancy R. Bowen. Winona Combine, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003. xviii + 439 pp. 47.50. ISBN 1-57506-067-1.This competence contains a lion's share of twenty-four essays zealous to Patrick D. Miller, Charles T. Haley Instructor of Old Testament Holiness at Princeton Theological Seminary. Instructor Miller has ended derogatory offerings to the study of the Psalms and the book of Deuteronomy. The essays in print in Miller's honor wary the benefit of the honoree. The articles compassion with the books of Psalms and Deuteronomy and other topics that are totally unplanned to the be the forerunner aim of the festschrift. The theological substance of many of the articles reflects Miller's apprehension to bring together the work of academia and the work of the church.The book is pronged participating in two sections. Detached I, entitled "end Whenever We Call': God's Nearness in Israel's Cry Out (The Psalms and Ancient)," contains the afterward essays:"Side by side the Requiem Psalms Backwards" by H. G. M. Williamson (pp. 3-15); "lacking Our Aid He Did Us Make': Words the Communication of the Psalms" by W. Sibley Towner (pp. 17-34); "The Assumed Elohist Psalter: A New Resolution for an Old Concern" by Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger (pp. 35-51); "A Goblin Story Wedding: A Feminist Intertextual Side by side of Psalm 45" by Nancy R. Bowen (pp. 53-71); "Notes on Psalm 93: A Hew of a Liturgical Poem Affirming Yahweh's Kingship" by Square Moore Teed off (pp. 73-77); "Donate the Blessing: An Trade fair of Psalm 133" by James Luther Mays (pp. 79-90); "Predictability, Ambiguity, and Trust: Brainstorm of God in Psalm 139" by Carolyn Pressler (pp. 91-99); "Quoth the Raven: Psalm 147 and the Stage set" by James Limburg (pp. 101-111); "Request and/a Self-Address: The Categorize of Hanna" by J. Gerald Janzen (pp. 113-27); "Naomi's Cry: Rumination on Ruth 1:20-21" by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld (pp. 129-43); "Jonah 2: A Request Out of the Loaded" by Gerhard Sauter (pp. 145-52); "Songs in a New Key: The Psalmic Piece of music of the Chronicler's Chant (1 Chr 16:8-36)" by Indication A. Throntveit (pp. 153-70); and "Frenzied, Intense Creativity: The Observation in the Whirlwind (Job 38-41)" by Kathleen M. O'Connor (pp. 171-179).Detached II, entitled "'As Moderately good as This Wonderful Law': God's Nearness in the Torah (Deuteronomy and Ancient)," contains the afterward essays:"Law in the Wear out of Life: A Working Relationship of Law in Deuteronomy" by Terence E. Fretheim (pp. 183-200); "How Does Deuteronomy Do Theology? Scholastic Juxtaposition and Paradox in the New Moab Treaty in Deuteronomy 29-32" by Dennis T. Olson (pp. 201-213); "Keep/Observe/Do-Carefully-Today! The Rhetoric of Photocopying in Deuteronomy" by Brent A. Strawn (pp. 215-40); "Wonderful Combatant Holiness in Deuteronomy" by Richard D. Nelson (pp. 241-59); "Side by side Deuteronomy 5 as Chart" by Norbert Lohfink (pp. 261-81); "The Travail of Pardon: Reflections on slH" by Walter Brueggemann (pp. 283-97); "Circumcision of the Heart: The Cranium of a Biblical Parable" by Werner E. Lemke (pp. 299-319); "Huldah, the Prophet: Side by side a (Deuteronomistic) Woman's Form" by Renita J. Weems (pp. 321-39); "Prophets and Kings: A New Cause at the Stately Nuisance of Prophets opposed Its Close by Eastern Framework" by J. J. M. Roberts (pp. 341-54); "From Nap to Mountain: The Reach a decision of God in Daniel 2" C. L. Seow (pp. 355-74); and "Sola Scriptura? The Directive of the Bible in Pluralistic Environments" by Michael Welker (pp. 375-391).The book concludes with a bibliography of the works of Patrick Miller in print by Brent A. Strawn covering the existence 1964-2001 (pp. 393-416). The 372 entries in the bibliography put on view the stretch and achieve of Miller's work and the influence he has exerted in Old Testament studies. The book moreover includes an sign on of authors and an sign on of Scriptures cited.Since of boundaries clearly a few articles are discussed stylish. Williamson's record begins the lion's share by existing an eccentric interpretation to the recurring view that the psalms of a elegy be required to be read from the diagonal of the actual time of the painful of the psalmist. He proposes the view that many of the psalms of elegy be required to be held from the pillar open at the end of these psalms. As a result, according to Williamson, the psalms of elegy be required to be held from the context of ornament and celebration that arises as release has been experienced and at the time the community of the vows the psalmist had promised is ended.Fretheim's trait deals with a aggressive understanding of the laws of the Pentateuch and how core laws can be workable to Christian conviction and practice. Fretheim sees the laws of the Pentateuch as a affable gift of God to Israel. These laws were given to Israel "for the sake of life, health, and well-being of population in community" (p. 184). So life changes with time, the laws of the Pentateuch cannot be held as unyielding. The book of Deuteronomy offers many changes to the laws in the Believe of the Treaty. These changes wary the way God deals with his population. So Christians moreover compassion with the laws of the Pentateuch, Christians essential study each and every law of the Pentateuch in order to advise whether these laws stream to the health and well-being of the community.Walter Brueggemann discusses the question of Israel's disobedience and divine absolve. Although Yahweh is proverbial as a God who pardons the impiety of his population, his absolve is not readily fixed. Brueggemann declares that the commission of absolve is not a substance substance in Deuteronomy, for Israel was untreated to honor the strain of the Law. The charge of disobedience would be conclusion and throw out and Deuteronomy emphasizes that Yahweh was "unconscious to absolve" (Deut. 29:20) those who unmanageable Yahweh to monitor other gods This dawdling to absolve was reaffirmed to Israel to the same degree of this sins of Manasseh. Brueggemann studies the biblical be significant to advise whether the plan of absolve was a question in the theology of throw out. At the end of his study, Brueggemann discovers that the biblical be significant in relation to divine absolve goes from "real forswearing... to a bid for compunction... prepared an firmness on the cruciality of traditional values lacking absolve... to a full, unilateral absolve lacking repeat to compunction" (p. 293).These and the other essays contributed to this festschrift merit deliberate study for the scholarship they make to Old Testament give. The essays are a ready to go acclaim of the life and work of Patrick Miller and of the deportment he has ended on the life of his students and on those who admire his works.Claude MariottiniInstructor of Old TestamentNorthern Baptist SeminaryTags: Deuteronomy, Patrick Miller, Pentateuch